Thai steak salad

Finland celebrated her Independence Day last weekend. And we celebrated the 97-year-old lady with some fine Finnish organic meat. Don't get too carried away with patriotism though: our petit tender, a tenderloin-like cut of the chuck, was joyously bathed in Thai marinade after which it hit the pan for a couple of minutes for a beautifully browned colour and got served on a bed of crisp salad. See, our Finland is an international one!

And man, it was good. As in, really, really good. Multiculturality in a form even Nigel Farage would have appreciated it. The Boy Next Door claimed it was better than the wagyu we had at a top restaurant just a couple of days before that. Ahh. Love and extreme hunger - both wonderful things that so beautifully cloud one's judgement.

Our salad got a nice crunch from crisp, deep-fried mung bean vermicelli, but you could just as well use dry roasted (salted) peanuts or toasted coconut flakes. 

And hey - you could also make this using leftover roast. Just slice the meat finely, marinate for a couple of hours and hey presto!

Serves 2-3

500 gr petit tender/ beef tenderloin/ beef sirloin/ flank steak

Marinade:

1,5 dl soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
0,75 dl honey (or brown sugar)
4 cm piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 - 1 red chilli, finely chopped
the zest and juice of 2 limes

Pat the beef dry. Combine the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the meat. Let marinate, covered, for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight. Take into room temperature a good couple of hours before grilling. Drain the marinade and turn into a glaze for serving if you want.

Pour the marinade into a pot, bring to boil and then simmer until it's reduced (depending on the pot and so many other things 15-20 minutes) to a thickened sauce. Be careful with the temperature as you don't want the sugar to burn. Keep an eye on it to stop it form boiling over. Check the taste, add more sugar as needed (the marinade itself is salty and sour) and serve.

Wipe off the excess marinade (to stop it from burning). Grill the meat on a hot BBQ or a good (griddle)pan - 4 minutes/ side. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. 

Salad:

1 Bok Choy

100 g bean sprouts

1/4 cucumber

2 carrots

1 small (red) pepper

5 radishes

1/2 red onion

bunch of coriander

to serve: 1 spring onion (chopped), red chilli (chopped) a handful (when uncooked) of mung bean vermicelli or peanuts

Remove the bok choy leaves and trim the white, hard bits. Place on the serving dish. Finely slice the veggies and spread over the bok choy leaves. Finely slice the meat and rest on the salad.

If using the vermicelli, cut them into 5-cm pieces. Heat oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the vermicelli in batches. Dump each batch into the pan and it puffs up immediately. Lift out of the oil (these only take a second or two) and serve.

These also make a nice (and hey, gluten-free!) snack on their own too - try sprinkled with some nori salt!

PS. Coconut mayo would work with the salad too...!

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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?