Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Thai Beef Salad

This has become one of our favourite meals, especially since we got the Thai basil and mint well established in the garden.


so for us step one is go outside,  enjoy the sky, and pick mint, coriander, thai basil, limes and chilli.

Then come in, fill a glass and do this:

Make the salad base:
2/3 cup Thai basil
2/3 cup mint
1/3 cup chopped Thai coriander
1 bag salad leaves
1 punnet cherry tomatoes (halved) I am looking forward to picking our own again soon

mix these together using your hands in a large bowl or on a platter

Top with
1 lebanese cucumber cut into ribbons using a vegetable peeler
3 spring onions chopped on the diagonal
1 large red chilli de seeded and sliced


Then slice your beef into thin strips. I buy skirt steak especially for this kind of recipe as it is beautifully tender when cut right. I used 400g skirt steak

put all the meat in a bowl and top with the marinade ingredients:
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon oil (I used rice bran oil)
Mix through.  I use chopsticks to mix, as it helps build strength and dexterity when using them. All the marinade stays on the meat too, I find if you use a spoon the marinade sticks to the spoon rather than the meat.


For the dressing shake these ingredients together in a jar.
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons palm sugar (chopped finely)
A shake of sesame oil

Cook the meat in batches in a fry pan or on the barbecue
this is Taff's hand, not mine
Assemble at the last minute

pile on the meat then pour on dressing then sprinkle 1/2 cup fried shallots (from an Asian supermarket) over the salad

Enjoy. This is another 6 propoint meal, if you use a Chef's toolbox pan and only brush a teaspoon of oil over it for cooking. And it's OK to go back for seconds...

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Lamb, pomegranate and roasted vegetables




Take 2 small sweet potatoes, a red onion and half a cauliflower.
Cut them into small pieces and place on silicon sheets to bake in the oven
Drizzle each tray with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and a little chopped garlic

Bake 25-30 minutes until browning nicely, take out, combine gently and dump on a bed of baby spinach
While that is cooking roll some lamb backstraps in oregano rub
And grill or barbecue them till they are done. Slice and place on top of the salad. Squeeze the juice of one lemon and two pomegranates over the top. If you bang the pomegranate with a wooden spoon the seeds will come out and look really pretty

Enjoy! This is definitely WW friendly - only 6 ProPoints per serve based on a 400g backstrap for 4 serves


Oregano rub

Take the following:

3 tablespoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons sea salt
3 tablespoons white peppercorns
1 tablespoon sichuan pepper

Turbo 3-4 times until ground to your preferred consistency

That's it!

Makes a great rub for lamb or chicken

Put a tablespoon in a plastic bag and shake quartered baby potatoes in it then roast them

Tasty fat free goodness!