Thai Beef Salad

Ingredients

• 2 thick sirloin steaks
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• juice of 3 limes
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 bird's eye chillies, finely sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced paper-thin
• 1 cucumber, seeded and sliced
• 200 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• a handful of mint
• a handful of coriander
• 50 g roasted peanuts, crushed

Method

1. Cook the steak rare

   Season the steaks and sear them in the oil in a very hot pan, about 2 minutes a side for medium-rare. This salad wants beef pink in the middle — well-done steak goes tough once it is cold and sliced thin.

   4 min

2. Rest properly

   Rest for at least 8 minutes on a board. Sliced straight off the heat, the juice runs out and dilutes the dressing.

   8 min

3. Balance the dressing

   Whisk the fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and chillies until the sugar dissolves. Taste it on its own: sour first, then salty, then sweet, then hot. Adjust now, because you cannot fix it once it is on the leaves.

4. Toss

   Slice the beef thinly against the grain and toss with the shallots, cucumber, tomatoes and herbs, adding any resting juices from the board.

5. Dress and serve

   Pour over the dressing, toss once, and scatter with peanuts. Serve immediately — the salt in the dressing starts drawing water out of the cucumber straight away.