Sauté of Beef with Limes, Salt, and Pepper (Vietnamese)

Cookbook

Sauté of Beef
with Limes, Salt, and Pepper

sauté of Beef Sticky Rice (see the book) makes the perfect accompaniment to this dish.

Ingredients
2 large onions
A little sunflower oil for frying
700g/1-lb 6oz sirloin steak, fat-free and cut into strips
90ml/6 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
2 limes
4 tablespoons each: salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Peel and cut the onions into strips. Heat some oil in a large heavy-based frying pan and fry the onions (do not allow them to color), about 2 minutes. Set aside.

2. Heat some more oil in the saucepan and, when hot, fry the steak strips quickly until almost sealed, about 2 minutes. Mix in the onion strips. Add the soy sauce and mix together quickly, allowing the sauce to coat the meat and onions and thicken.

3. To serve, cut the limes in half and arrange on plates with the steak mixture. Put some salt and pepper together at the top of each plate. To really enjoy this dish, each person should squeeze their lime half onto the salt and pepper and mix it into a paste. The beef-onion mixture is dipped into the paste.

Sweet Soy Sauce

Dark, syrupy, and highly aromatic, this caramelized soy sauce is usually marketed under its Indonesian name, kecap (or kejap) manis. In Indonesia it is a popular dipping sauce for satay, while Mark uses it here to add a lovely smoky flavor to dishes such as Crispy Quail with Watercress. Unlike ordinary soy, it is also a good coating sauce. Broiled Chicken Brochettes (see book), for example, are bathed in sweet soy sauce before broiling to produce a lovely, rich brown glaze.

Buy the Book!

Lemongrass and Lime
New Vietnamese Cooking
By Mark Read
Ten Speed Press, 2001
Hardcover, $29.95
ISBN: 1-58008-321-8
Recipe reprinted by permission.