Thai beef salad

Serves: 4-6 people
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2x 280g good quality beef steak - sirloin, at room temperature
1/2 tablespoon oil (vegetable, peanut or canola oil)
Salt and pepper

Dressing - Spicy sauce
2 teaspoon raw glutinous rice – check in method how to toast
2 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
6 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon chilli flakes
1 small red shallot, sliced into fine wedges
4 tsp finely chopped coriander

Salad
1 -2 packets of rice vermicelli noodles (cook as per directions on packet)
2 cups, finely sliced wombok
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
½ red onion, very finely sliced
1/2 cucumber, cut horizontally, scoop out the seeds, then cut into slices
1/2 cup coriander leaves, lightly packed
1/4 cup mint leaves, lightly packed

Garnish
1 tablespoon peanuts, roughly chopped
coriander and mint leaves

Method:
Place the chilli, garlic, coriander stems and a small pinch of salt into a mortar and pestle. Grind until a smooth paste has formed. Add the sugar, lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Set aside.

Preheat a skillet over high heat until screaming hot and smoking.
Drizzle the beef with 1/2 tablespoon of oil on both sides, then sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef to your liking. Remove the beef from the skillet onto a plate. Loosely cover with foil and set aside for 10 minutes to rest.

For the spicy dipping sauce, toast the rice in a dry frying pan over high heat until golden brown and fragrant (it should smell like popcorn). Use a mortar and pestle, grind to a fine powder. In a bowl, combine the tamarind, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chilli flakes and toasted rice powder. Mix until well combined. Then stir through the shallots and coriander. Transfer to a small serving bowl and set aside until ready to serve.

On a large platter add the noodles, place the wombok on top and drizzle some of the dressing.

Slice the beef thinly against the grain and place in a bowl with the remaining Salad ingredients. Dress with most of the remaining dressing and toss gently. Pile dressed beef salad over the noodles and wombok.

Sprinkle with peanuts and garnish with extra coriander and mint leaves, drizzle with remaining Dressing. Serve immediately!

Shop all the ingredients from Coles, Aldi, Woolworths, North Lakes Quality Meats, Santoshi Spice Market and Hanaromart Asian Grocery.