Monday, September 15, 2008

Vietnamese Beef Salad

vietnam-sallad

I'll admit it: I've never been to Vietnam, or even to a Vietnamese restaurant, so frankly I don't know how authentic this is. Possibly not very. But the recipe comes from a Vietnamese cookbook, that came out earlier this year in Sweden: "Kök i Hanoi". Very nice cookbook, with a lot of information about the country. And this salad? Very, very nice. I changed a few tiny things, but nothing major. I couldn't find purple thai basil in my grocery store, so I used the normal kind - but if you can get something more exciting, by all means, do.

This is a really tasty salad - easy to make, and easy to eat. Don't worry if you're scared of celeriac and daikon - the dressing really helps to make them flavorful and juicy. And I don't know about you, but if you had a weekend full of excesses (like me), it's nice to know that this salad is almost fat-free!

hanoi

Vietnamese Beef Salad
Serves 2

200 g beef
2 small yellow onions, fresh - or just one, regular. Thinly sliced.
200 ml shredded daikon
200 ml shredded celeriac
2 carrots, thinly sliced
3 tbsp fresh basil
3 tbsp fresh coriander
4 tbsp toasted and unsalted peanuts, crushed

For the dressing:
4 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar

Boiling liquid:
300 ml strong beef stock
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf

Start with the dressing, and pour it over the daikon, onion, celeriac and carrots. Leave it to infuse for about an hour, and then divide the vegetables onto plates.

Slice the meat thinly. Mix everything for the boiling liquid, bring to boil and let it simmer for a few minutes. Gently add the meat and let it simmer for just a few seconds - it should be warm, but not completely cooked through. Place the meat on top of the vegetables.

Finish with a liberal scattering of basil, coriander and crushed peanuts.

Recipe in Swedish:
Vietnamesisk biffsallad

6 comments:

Jeanne said...

This looks beautiful! I'm intrigued that the beef is boiled rather than fried - who would have thought...

glamah16 said...

Its looking authentic to me. I love Vietaese flavors. Great salad.

John Newman said...

You always bring us the most interesting dishes, Anne. Because I love what you're doing here, I wanted to share this award with you. You can claim it from my site.

http://mormonfoodie.blogspot.com/2008/09/you-love-me-you-really-love-me.html

Honeybee said...

Mmmh, that looks so good! I had beef salad in a thai restaurant once, it was delicious but a little too hot for me. I'll go with your recipe!

Anonymous said...

Very cool presentation (where'd you get that plate??). And I'm not scared of celeriac and daikon so I'll definitely enjoy this.

Anne said...

Glad to hear that this looks at least somewhat authentic! :) John, thank you, how sweet! Honeybee, this isn't hot at all, but now that you mention it, I bet you could add *some* heat to it...

Jude, it's from Villeroy Boch, called "New Line" :)