Hot Thai Beef Salad

A nice, quick recipe for a warm day.  Mind you, I found it quite spicy with the use of one chilli; I could only get my hands on the bird's eye ones so that might explain it!

*Taken from Margaret Fulton's 'Margaret Fulton's Kitchen' pg 158, published 2007*

Ingredients

500g rump or sirloin steak

freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup torn mint leaves

1 large red onion or 2 large spring onions, thinly sliced

2 red chillies, sliced (I used 1)

juice of 1 large lime or 1/2 lemon

2 tbs fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

a handful of mixed salad greens

1 cup cherry tomatoes

a handful of rice vermicelli

vegetable oil, for frying

2 tbs roughly chopped roasted peanuts (omitted)

1 red chilli, halved (omitted)

lime wedges for serving

Method

Season the steak with the pepper and cook on a hot ribbed griller or under a preheated grill for 5 minutes on each side or until done to taste.  Remove and leave to stand for 10 minutes.  Cut steak into very thin slices and place in a bowl with any meat juices.

Meanwhile, combine the mint leaves with the onions, chillies, lime or lemon juice, fish sauce and suger.  Stir well and add to the beef slices, tossing.  Combine with the mixed salad greens and cherry tomatoes and set aside.

Heat some vegetable oil in a wok, testing the heat with a few strands of vermicelli.  It should swell immediately of the oil is hot enough.  Fry the vermicelli, scooping out with a wire strainer as soon as they puff and turn pale golden.  Drain well on paper towels and cool, then arrange in a bowl.  

Pile the beef salad on top of the crispy noodles.  Scatter with peanuts and chilli and serve with lime wedges.

Serves 4-6

Margaret Fulton's Pavlova

Another wet day here at home, so what better thing to do but bake? With plenty of eggs sitting in the fridge and some cream nearing it's expiry date, what's better than to decide to bake a pav! I used 4 egg white and 1 1/2 cups caster sugar in this recipe, which Margaret recommends for a smaller, family-sized pavola, but leaving everything else the same. I also always dust my baking sheet with cornflour when baking pavs to ensure it doesn't stick!! Enjoy.

*Taken from 'Margaret Fulton's Kitchen'*

Ingredients

6 egg whites, at room temperature

a pinch of salt

2 cups caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/4 cups cream

fresh fruit to decorate

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Place a piece of baking paper onto a baking tray and mark a 23cm circle on it to use as a guide (the pavlova will spread a little).

In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt at full speed until they stand in stiff peaks. Sift the sugar and gradually sprinkle into the egg white mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating at high speed until all the sugar has been added. Lastly fold in the vinegar and vanilla. Spoon large dollops inside the circle on the baking sheet and smooth over the top lightly. Place in the oven (reducing the heat to 150C) for 1 hour. Turn off the heat and leave pavlova in the oven until cold. (If using a gas oven, bake at 150C for 1 hour, reduce heat to 120C for a further 30 minutes and then turn heat off and leave the pavola in the oven until completely cooled.)

When the pavlova is cooled, slide onto a large, flat cake plate, removing the baking paper. Don't worry if it collapses slightly, you should also expect cracks on the surface. Whip the cream until stiff but still shiny and spoon over the top of the pavlova. Decorate with fresh fruit and serve.

Serves 8-10