Vietnamese Seared beef salad

To go along with the fried noodles with spicy peanut sate that we had on Saturday we wanted a fresh salad to complement the noodles, and we found the recipe in the same book.

I was also delicious and did have a wonderful fresh crunch. Again the recipe called for vegetable oil, but as always I substituted olive oil.

1lb of flank steak (or any steak really)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 small romaine lettuce
1 bunch each of mint basil and cilantro stalks removed
1 lime cut up to serve

Dressing
Grated rind and juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of raw cane (or brown) sugar
2 garlic cloves grated
2 lemon grass stalks finely sliced
2 red chillies seeded and finely sliced.

Combine all the dressing ingredients together.

Pan fry or barbecue the steak until it is wonderfully golden on the outside, but very rare inside. rest for 10 minutes, and then slice thinly

Fried Noodles with spicy peanut sate and prawns

I dropped my son off at Vancouver Airport to catch a flight to Bangkok this morning.  I was very excited for him and I could tell he was a little apprehensive, as well as excited.  When I was around the same age I took a similar flight on my own from London to Singapore, also to spend some time alone with my Father. I remember what an eye opening experience that was and I am glad that he is getting a similar opportunity.  So later that day when looking for inspiration for dinner Connie suggested that we cook Thai food. After checking through some books we came up with a mostly Vietnamese menu, but they are fairly close aren't they?

This recipe is adapted from a book that I own called  Vietnamese Food Cooking by Ghillie-Basan which has some wonderful authentic recipes with great step by step photographs. I used olive oil, because that is what I use for everything, but the recipe called for vegetable or peanut oil.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 lbs of large raw shrimp/prawns
8oz dried rice stick soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
1 cup of bean sprouts (we forgot to put these in)
2 tsp on nuc mam (fish sauce)
1 small bunch each of fresh basil and mint leaves

For the sate
1 serrano chili chopped
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons of good curry powder
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts.