Thai Beef Salad and Lime & Raspberry Tart

Main:  Thai Beef Salad
Marie Claire – Cooking Pg. 98

Dessert:  Lime & Raspberry Tart
Marie Claire – Cooking Pg. 148

“At Marie Claire we believe good food is a combination of fresh ingredients and uncomplicated layers of flavour.  When you start with quality produce, a few simple flavours will complement and contrast with your base ingredients to create the perfect taste experience.  Think of food with passion, not anxiety, and feel free to substitute and add ingredients as you please.  This is often how personalised culinary masterpieces are created.”

 

I absolutely love this quote from the front of the Marie Claire book simply called Cooking.  It is so very true that people get so overwhelmed with the whole deciding, shopping, cooking thing that they forget to allow themselves to be in the moment.  I say that without being some amazing and fabulous cook, I just like doing it. (most of the time)

Anyway, this menu is great for anytime of the year, even though we automatically think that salads should only be served in the summer.    I have made various Thai Beef salads over the years but this one just hit the spot.  I did, as suggested and added and subtracted.  I added blanched asparagus, mango, avocado and beautiful little tomatoes.  I only used one chilli instead of two.  The kick was more than enough for me.  The added fresh flavours gave the salad are more substantial feel.  So, I didn’t need to have any other sides and everyone certainly had enough to eat.  In fact, this got 10/10.  It is easy too because you can marinate the meat in advance and throw the rest together whilst it is cooking.

I just like to take the meat out of the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking to take that fridge cold away from it.  Depending on the thickness (this was quite thick) I got the BBQ very hot then turned it down and immediately put the steaks on.  Cooking them for 5 minutes each side and rest for 5 minutes.  That gave me meat that was nice and pink inside when sliced.  Rest the meat in a baking dish so you get all the beautiful juices off the meat and can pour that over the meat and salad as well as the dressing.  You know what else I was thinking – you could also make this a Thai chicken salad.  Maybe I will try that and let you know.

The dessert was interesting because it was a bit like a custard tart only with a tangy lime flavour.  Now, it did take quite a bit longer to cook than was indicated but I think that was because I didn’t have a pie dish that was 23cm – only 21cm so the cooking time was affected because the filling was dense.  When serving, the raspberries are just placed on top of the pie and I served it with a dollop of cream.  Very easy indeed, I would definitely make it again and it got a 8/10

Bye for this week.

From my table to yours with love.