ignore the recipe book asiany beefy salad - this is very nice

The recipe wanted me to make the dressing with plum sauce and balsamic vinegar. I obliged, tasted it, hated it, and consequently made up my own dressing --> success.

The trick to this dish is to have really nice beef, cooked rare. Very fresh crisp vegies, and a good sauce.

You could also add grated carrot, beansprouts... any crispy vegetable.

Serves two

1 nice piece of steak - I used a big porterhouse

Iceberg lettuce, shredded

Cucumber, cut into pieces

Generous handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

Roasted, unsalted cashew nuts, roughly chopped

Chopped red chilli - as much/little as you desire

Wide flat rice noodles - cooked as per packet and left to cool slightly

Dressing

3 tbsp plum sauce

2 tsp sichuan pepper seasoning powder (i think it is szechuan pepper, paprika, salt, chilli)

White part of 4 spring onions, finely chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

Juice of one lime

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soya sauce

Cook the steak on a very hot griddle until nicely charred on the outside, and still nice and rare in the middle. Leave to rest for at least five minutes, then slice into pieces.

Assemble the bowls by layering the lettuce, cucumber and noodles. Spoon some dressing over the noodles to moisten. Top with the Steak, nuts, mint and chilli and then more dressing.

If you want to get fancy you can have extra bowls on the table with more dressing, nuts, chilli and mint so people can season to taste. It would also be nice with a squeeze of lime at serving time.

Delicious

This would also make a really nice filling for fresh rice paper rolls.