Small Man is a committed carnivore.
He will routinely consume half of whatever meat we put on the table. I suspect it’s a product of being in his mid-teens – Big Boy did exactly the same thing at that age. Small Man seems to be laying on muscle before our very eyes and for him, that entails a hefty protein intake.
Last week I defrosted a large slab of sublime Cape Grim scotch fillet. We cut it into seven steaks – one each for Pete, Big Boy and I, and two for Small Man. We hid the remaining two before he could ask for a third.
Pete has a deft touch with steaks, providing you’re happy to eat them rare. And with this incredibly tender grass-fed meat, grown in the cleanest air in the world, it would be a great shame to cook them any longer than absolutely necessary. The two extra steaks were seared and then stashed in the fridge overnight…
The following evening, we assembled a modified version of the Rare Thai Beef Salad recipe from Jill Dupleix’s Totally Simple Food…
The steaks were allowed to come to room temperature, then sliced and topped with a dressing of:
- half a Spanish onion, finely sliced and rinsed in boiling water (to mellow out the sharpness)
- a few chopped spring onions
- herbs from our garden – mint, coriander, parsley and the last of the basil
- one of our homegrown bishops’ crown chillies, deseeded and sliced
- the juice of half a lime
- 2 teaspoons light soy
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
We whisked together the lime juice, soy, fish sauce, sesame oil and sugar (quantities adjusted to taste), then stirred in the remaining ingredients.
The salad was delicious served with steamed rice. Definitely a dish we’ll make again, and a great way to use up leftover steak!
PS. It wasn’t nearly enough to fill Small Man, who ate two oven roasted duck marylands as well!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Small Man would have intense competition from me, I LOVE very rare meat and this salad is perfection in my book!
I eat less meat now than I used to, but prepared the way you made it, I suspect I could leave Small Man in a smoke ;-)
Sally, I don’t know, I reckon he could give you a run for your money. Having said that, the greatest quantity of meat I’ve ever eaten was at a Brazilian restaurant.. ;-)
I’m with Small Man. I couldn’t survive without my lumps of meat a few times a week. :D
He’s such a caveman, Misky. He’ll eat cereal for breakfast, fruit for morning tea, a light lunch, and then half a cow for dinner.. ;-)
LOL! Too funny!
What a fantastic salad that is. Pete could cook steak for me anytime. :)
Thanks Maureen, I’ll let him know! Somewhat ironically, he actually prefers his a little less rare than the rest of us, the product of spending lots of time in the country as a kid.. ;-)
I’ve just been for lunch with a friend and guess what? I had Thai Beef Salad, it’s one of my favourites. I remember when our son used to eat us out of house and home…..recently he said I had an uncanny knack of cooking light meals on the days he had rugby practice and would come home starving to face a stir-fry! :)
Sue, that’s so funny, I’ve done that too! And I had a friend who once told me that she had to take her teenage sons out for a kebab on the way home from lunch at the sushi train.. ;-)
That sounds really good, our beets are about three weeks away but i will be back for this salad recipe! my sons always ate heaps, it amazes me how little food Johns kids eat though…they tend to snack on cereal all day.. different cultures maybe.. c
Celi, that is interesting about John’s kids! I thought country kids ate heaps!
My mouth is watering right now. This is similar to what my mum used to make :)
Thanks Tes! I wish I’d put a bit more chilli in this one, I will next time! :)
What a fabulous salad Celia and steak should not be cooked any other way other than rare or medium rare. I love the idea of serving this with rice – delicious.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, it made for a lovely light dinner, although as I said, not nearly enough to fill Small Man up! :)
The flavours and dressing you use are perfect for such great quality beef, a perfect way to enjoy.
Claire, it really is the most gorgeous beef. Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella put me onto it, and we’ve never looked back! :)
mmm….love thai beef salad!
Thank you – we do too, especially now we’ve made it at home! :)
That beef looks great, really nicely cooked, Celia! Great stuff :)
Thanks Nick! Like I said, Pete cooks a great steak, providing it’s rare.. :)
Why would it need to be anything else? :D
I love a beautifully cooked steak too, Celia, reminds me, we haven’t had a steak for a while. Thai beef salad is a favourite of mine. Home made is so much better than anything you can get in a restaurant!
Lizzy, I love Jill Dupleix recipes, they’re always simple and intuitive. This one is originally written for beef fillet, but it was easy to adapt it to leftover steak!
Great dressing: multipurpose and from common fridge, garden & pantry ingredients. Love leftovers recipes & ideas.
Thank you! It was nice to get two dinners for basically the work of one! :)
I know about teenage boys and all they consume. They are not cheap! Your Pete has cooked these great looking steaks beautifully. I love how pink they are. I have Jill’s ‘Old Food’ cookbook and she has a Thai beef salad in it and it’s the best one I’ve ever had. Such a great recipe. You’ve inspired me to cook this salad again, but yes, I’ll have to cook more than just two steaks or there will be tears xx
Oooh Charlie, I have that book too – I’ll dig it out and have a look. Thanks!
Delicious! We make a similar salad all the time, so very very good indeed.
Teenage girls eat a lot as well, but thankfully not as much as Small Man! My littlej grew 3 cms last week, I’m officially the shortest in the family now :/
I’m the shortest one too, Becca, by a full head now.. ;-)
what a great idea to cook extra steaks and make a yummy salad with them the next day celia..
Thanks Jane! I’d defrosted quite a big piece of meat, so it was really good to be able to stretch it out to two meals!
Ah, boys and flesh. My son is having a gap year and has been lucky enough to get a cadet-ship with a meat producer. Something about this proximity to meat has triggered an appetite he hasn’t had before & red meat is always on his radar now. He is mortally afraid of veggies though, so I doubt I could sell this delicious looking salad to him. Sigh.
Amanda, Small Man diligently pushed the salad off the top and ate the bits of steak underneath… ;-)
Looks great, Celia! I love left over steak on top of a salad!
Making the steak the main ingredient and serving on top of rice is brilliant.
I’l be making this soon , as well!
Hope you enjoy it, Heidi! xx
Great salad. Like the idea of rinsing the thinly sliced onion in boiling water to mellow out the sharpness. Will do that next time I am adding raw onion to a dish, thanks for the tip.
Norma, for some reason the Spanish onions lately have all been really hot! I find the hot water just takes the edge off them without cooking them too much.
Wow. Talk about growing boys…hahaha. Simple, and looks amazing! :D
So…computer malfunction; sorry for the spammage – but ps, so sad I missed seeing you guys the other night, but hope you guys had fun!
Hello darling, we missed you! xx
That seems like a perfect salad for my carnivores. The Boy likes all things meat and onions. I have a photo of him teething on a green onion. :-)
Meat and onions! Sounds like my sort of kid! :)
Celia it’s so pretty too!
I like the onion idea too. I often find it way too overpowering.
Claire, I don’t mind raw onions, but lately the Spanish ones have been too hot to eat! :)
Such a contrast from feeding two teenage girls (one who is vegetarian)! I would eat the whole thing too :)
Aaah teenage girls. I don’t remember eating nearly as much as my sons when I was growing up, but I certainly wasn’t as lean as they both are!
Beautiful! Whenever we have leftover steak (which, admitted is rarely… get it, rare??) my hubby likes to have steak and eggs for brekkie. Might have to get him to try this recipe instead next time.
SK, that’s a big breakfast! :)
Oh boy, that’s a nice one!
Thanks Greg! We really liked it…
I love Thai beef salad and your dish sounds terrific. I like to prepare an extra steak when cooking just for such dishes.
Thanks Karen! I think I would have liked a bit more chilli – the Bishops’ crown I used wasn’t quite spicy enough. Next time.. :)
Hi Celia, I love Cape Grim Beef and this is such a deliciously simple recipe, I’ll be sure to try it out.
Christine, isn’t it just the best beef ever? I’ve never had a bad cut…
Ha! Well never having had brothers, I am always astounded when I read about what teenage boys can eat. But you must be right, they’re growing boys and they need to put on weight and muscle!
Thanks again for putting me onto the Cape Grim, love. It’s become a house staple, and we absolutely love it!
Having taught teenager boys for twenty five years I understand the committed carnivore thing, they do grow out of it in time but they sure rumble the meat world in the process. Thanks for the Cape Grim link. (I love that recipe of Jill’s with tiny amounts of meat.)
PS I arrived home to my clay pane pans. :)
How exciting! I hope you have fun with the pans.. :)
You’re so right about teenage males – Big Boy now eats about half of what he did when he was 15, but I can remember him being an eating machine back then.. :)
What a great salad! Love the combination of flavours! I think the rare steak would convince B that salads can be a complete meal! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Those steaks looks wonderful. Scotch fillet is my favourite cut of steak, having grown up in a family of beef cattle agents and growers I’ve eaten my fair share of steaks! I’m now trying to reduce the amount of meat we eat so that I can afford to buy really good quality stuff – like you have here – and this salad looks like the perfect way to stretch a couple of streaks to feed the family.
Having read about Small Man though, I think I’m glad I have girls! And currently one of those girls – the three year old – eats virtually nothing except dried fruit and bread. The one year old has a mighty appetite however.
I think teenage girls can get hungry too, although I doubt they’ll eat as much as my wolves do. My favourite story is from my friend Mike, whose son Johnny (18 and 6’4″) used to take a chair and sit in front of an open fridge and just eat straight out of it. :)
We now buy all our beef in bulk, which lets us be very pedantic about quality – we only buy grass fed and hormone free. I blagged on a bit about it here.. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/08/29/grass-fed-beef/