Thai Beef Salad with Herbs

📝 Ingredients

• 300 g beef rump steak (1 steak 2.5 cm thick)
• 120 g jasmine rice (dry weight)
• 1 cucumber (about 300 g)
• 150 g cherry tomatoes
• ½ red onion (about 60 g)
• 15 g fresh mint + 15 g fresh coriander
• 2 limes
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp soft brown sugar
• 1 fresh red chilli + 1 garlic clove
• 30 g unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 tsp sunflower oil
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Heavy-based frying pan
• Saucepan with lid
• Mixing bowl
• Chopping board
• Very sharp knife
• Citrus juicer

📖 Steps

1. Take the rump steak out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. Rinse the jasmine rice until the water runs clear, bring it to the boil in 1.5 times its volume of water, then cover and cook for 12 minutes over a low heat. Leave to stand for 5 minutes off the heat.
2. Make the dressing: juice the limes and mix the juice with the fish sauce and soft brown sugar until dissolved. Add the chopped garlic and very finely sliced chilli. Taste: the dressing should be sour, salty, slightly sweet and spicy.
3. Halve the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and cut into thin half-moons. Halve the cherry tomatoes, very thinly slice the red onion, then pick the mint and coriander leaves.
4. Dry-toast the peanuts in the frying pan over a medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, to bring out their flavour. Leave to cool slightly, then roughly crush with a knife or in a bag with a rolling pin.
5. Pat the rump steak dry with kitchen paper, brush with oil and season with salt and pepper. Sear in the very hot pan over a high heat for 2 min 30 to 3 minutes per side without moving it, so that a golden crust forms and the inside stays pink.
6. Transfer the meat to a board, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5 minutes: the juices redistribute and won't run out when you cut it. Then slice thinly against the grain.
7. In a salad bowl, combine the cucumber, tomatoes, onion and herbs with the beef slices and their juices. Pour over the dressing and toss gently just before serving so the herbs don't wilt.
8. Divide the jasmine rice between two shallow bowls, place the beef salad alongside and sprinkle with the crushed peanuts. Serve straight away, pouring the dressing left in the bottom of the salad bowl over the rice.