Cambodian steak with salads and condiments

This is a fantastic way to eat steak, with so many textures and flavours.

Cambodian steak with salads and condiments. Credit: Project Fire

• serves

  4

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 680 g (1½ lb) teres major (also called bistro steaks, petite tender or petite tenderloin)

Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2.5 cm (1 inch) fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• White part of 2 spring onions (scallions), minced (reserve the greens for the dipping sauce)
• 1 hot chilli (such as a red Thai or bird chilli), seeded and finely chopped
• 1 cm (½ inch) fresh turmeric, peeled and finely grated, or ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 45 ml (2 tbsp + 1 tsp) fish sauce or soy sauce
• 45 ml (2 tbsp + 1 tsp) fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp finely chopped roasted peanuts

Salad platter

• 1 head butter lettuce, broken into whole leaves, washed, and spun dry
• 1 bunch watercress, torn into sprigs
• 2 cups thinly sliced wombok (napa cabbage)
• 1 cup Thai basil or regular basil leaves
• 225 g (8 oz) long beans or green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3 carrots, preferably rainbow, peeled and cut sharply on the diagonal into 3 mm (1/8-inch) slices
• 1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small tomato, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced

Dipping sauce

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup fish sauce
• ½ cup fresh lime juice, plus 4 lime halves for squeezing
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 stalks lemongrass, trimmed, pale parts sliced paper-thin crosswise
• 3 small hot red chillies, such as Thai chillies, thinly sliced crosswise, in a shallow bowl with a spoon
• 3 spring onions (scallions), green part only (reserved from the marinade), thinly sliced on the diagonal
• ½ cup dry-roasted peanuts, finely chopped (do so in a food processor, running the machine in short bursts), placed in a shallow bowl with a small spoon

Marinading time: 4 hours.

Instructions

1. Place the steak in a large, nonreactive mixing bowl. Add the ingredients for the marinade – the garlic, ginger, scallion white, chili, turmeric, fish sauce or soy sauce, lemon juice and peanuts – and stir to coat the beef well. Marinate the steak, covered, in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
2. Shortly before serving, arrange the ingredients for the salad platter – the lettuce, watercress, cabbage, basil, beans, carrots, cucumber, tomato and spring onion greens – by kind and in an attractive pattern.
3. Shortly before serving, prepare the dipping sauce: Place the sugar and warm water in a mixing bowl and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Whisk in the fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, lemongrass, chillies and spring onion. Ladle the sauce into 4 small bowls for dipping. Have the ground peanuts in a bowl on the side.
4. Set up your grill for direct grilling and preheat to high (230°C / 450°F). Brush and oil the grill grate.
5. Grill the steaks until cooked to taste, 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium. Transfer to a cutting board Let rest for 2 minutes, then thinly slice crosswise with a chef’s knife or a cleaver. Transfer the beef to a platter.
6. To eat: Stir the ground peanuts into your dipping sauce. Using your chopsticks, dip a couple slices of steak in the sauce, swirling it to coat well, then place it on a lettuce leaf. Finally, place some watercress, cabbage, basil, beans, carrots, cucumber, spring onion, chilli and tomato on top of the meat. Add a squirt of lime juice if you’d like. Roll the whole shebang up, dip again if you like and eat it like a taco. This may be about the most complex set of steak flavours you ever put in your mouth.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.