Thai Beef Noodle Salad, Buffet-Style- Yum Nuea (ยำเนื้อ)

Everyone loves a Thai beef salad (Yum Nuea ยำเนื้อ), but in this instance, I've prepped and served it buffet style. This makes it a really good hosting dish because everything is prepped and ready before your guests arrive. Then once you’re ready to eat, you just need to cook the steak and serve everything at the table for everyone to build their own salad to their liking.  Whilst adding in vermicelli noodles isn't traditional, I've added it to the salad as it makes it more substantial to serve for a large group. 

Serves- 4-6 people

Ingredients- 13

Cooking Time- 1 hour

Skill Level- Easy

Ingredients

2 (550g) porterhouse or sirloin steaks

½ cup jasmine or glutinous rice

¾ cup peanuts

1 packet (400g) vermicelli. Allow 100g per person.

2 Lebanese cucumbers, seeds removed, halved lengthwise and finely chopped

1 punnet (250g) cherry tomatoes, halved

1 head of butter or oakleaf lettuce, washed and roughly chopped

1 bunch of coriander

1 bunch of mint leaves

Dressing

75g (5 discs) of palm sugar. You can substitute it with brown sugar.

⅓ cup of fish sauce

Juice of 2.5 limes

1-2 red chillies, finely sliced

Method

1. Remove the steak from the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking to come to room temperature.

2. Toast the rice and peanuts in separate pans on medium and stirring both constantly. Toasting both at the same time, reduces your prep time, but you need to remain vigilant and constantly stir so they don’t burn. Once golden, remove from the heat and let it cool. Once cool, roughly chop the peanuts and place onto a plate/bowl. Grind the rice in a mortar and pestle (or use a blender) until you get a nice mixture of powdery and seeds sized bits. Place onto a plate/bowl.

3. Halve the cherry tomatoes and place into a bowl.

4. Cut the cucumbers in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. The removal is optional, but it helps to not make the salad too soggy.

5. Wash coriander, mint and lettuce and dry. Place herbs onto a platter with cucumber and roughly cut lettuce and place into a bowl. 

6. Cook the vermicelli (approx 4 minutes) in boiling water. Drain into a colander and rinse with hot water to remove excess starch. Once all the water has drained, place into a bowl.

7. For the dressing, place the palm sugar with a tablespoon of water into a bowl and melt in a microwave in 30 seconds intervals. It should take approx 2 minutes/4 intervals to melt. Use a spoon to mix to dissolve any residual solid sugar. Mix in the fish sauce and lime juice and season to your liking. It should be a nice balance of sweet, salty and sour.

8. Finely slice chillies and place onto a plate. I’d normally add the chilli to the dressing, but since this is serving for a large group, I’m keeping it to the side so people can add it to their liking.

9. Everything should be prepped and ready before your guests come. Then once you’re about 15 minutes from wanting to eat, heat your barbeque or grill to the hottest setting and cook the steak medium rare. I like to cook the fat side first so that it renders out and then cook the meat on each surface for about 2 minutes. It should take about 8 minutes or so, but to be absolutely certain it’s ready you can insert a meat thermometer into the centre of the steak. If you hit 50 degrees, it's ready to be removed and rested. Allow to rest for a few minutes before finely slicing and arranging onto a platter and topping with some flaky salt.

10. Place every component of the salad onto the table for everyone assemble their own salad and serve themselves.

Watch the Process