Vietnamese Style Seared Beef with Chilli & Nam Pla
I have never really considered myself as having a signature dish. But if I decided to have one, then this recipe for Vietnamese style Seared Beef could be one of a few, that I might choose.
Vietnamese Style Seared Beef
I find this dish very moreish. The beef is draped in a sauce made from chilli, Nam Pla (Fish sauce), lemon juice and sugar. It is a striking addition that initially takes you to the lofty heights of chilli heat and sour lemon, then the salty Nam Pla and sugar, gently brings you back down again.
There are various cuts of beef that you could use. The luxury version would be using fillet steak, however, anything that had a long “eye” of meat without any sinew works fine, just remember to adjust your cooking times accordingly. For this recipe I used Silverside and the quantity would easily serve 4 people. Tenderloin of pork works extremly well with this too.
Ingredients
• Approx 350g Beef Silverside trimmed
• 250g Medium Egg Noddle
• 2 heads Broccoli (approx 850g)
• ½ tbsp Hot Chilli Sauce
• 2 tbsp Nam Pla (Fish Sauce)
• Juice from ½ a Lemon (approx 2 tbsp)
• 4 tsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Vegetable / Sunflower / Canola Oil
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC and place a large pan on you hob over a high heat. Pour the oil on to your beef and massage it all over. When the pan starts to smoke, place the oiled beef into the pan and sear for up to 5 minutes each side, until you get a nice caramelised crust.
Place the beef into the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and place it on a warm plate, cover with foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes. While your beef is resting, cook your noodles and broccoli.
For the sauce, simply mix the chilli, fish sauce, lemon juice and sugar together. You want this sauce to be balanced, so taste it before serving, and tweak the amounts to get this right.
Thinly slice and place the beef on top of the noodles and generously spoon the chilli and nam pla sauce over the beef. Serve immediately with the broccoli.
