Viet Summer Salad

Before I decided to attend Ballymaloe and pursue a career making food I spent time teaching English in Hanoi, Vietnam. This dish is totally inauthentic, but combines some of the flavours and ingredients I associate with that time in my life - lime, coriander, fish sauce, mango, oh and steak + Chinese 5 spice = a match made in heaven. One of my favourite things about Vietnamese cuisine is its sparing use of meat. It’s almost used as more of a condiment, adding richness to dishes, rather than a main component.

This is one of my favourite dinners on hot summer evenings. I often swap out the steak for chicken, tofu or prawns ( but in that case leave out the marinade).

Ingredients

For the steak:

1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon mirin

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

400g rump steak

For the dressing :

2 limes, juiced

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

For the salad:

50g vermicelli rice noodles

1 medium carrot, peeled and julienned

2 small Persian cucumbers, finely sliced

1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into small bite-sized pieces

1/2 head baby gem lettuce, leaves roughly torn

15g fresh coriander

15g fresh mint

30g toasted peanuts, roughly chopped