RECIPE / RALPH SCHELLING

Beef salad with lime and chilli

This week our Swiss chef shares a sizzling summer salad inspired by his travels in Thailand. This simple dish includes creating a zingy paste, which can be made in advance and used as the base of a curry or a salad dressing. All the ingredients below are pretty simple to source but some may struggle with the kaffir lime leaves – they’re optional but worth seeking out if you can find them. Enjoy.

• Ingredients: Serves 4
• 1 lime
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 40g coriander, with stalks
• 1 garlic clove
• ½ spicy red chilli
• 1tsp cane sugar
• 250g beef (fillet works well)
• Coarse salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsps coconut oil
• 1 shallot
• 1 bunch of spring onion
• ½ cucumber
• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
• ½ tsp roasted chilli flakes
• 40g mint (or peppermint)

• Method:
• 1. Preheat the oven to 130C. Separate coriander leaves and stalks, setting the leaves aside. To a mortar, add the coriander stalks, finely chopped lime leaves, garlic clove, chilli, sugar and the juice and zest of the lime. Crush with a pestle to form a thick paste.
• 2. Season the meat with salt and pepper and fry with some oil in a hot pan on both sides to brown, about five minutes each side. Then, set the pan aside and place the beef into the oven for 15 minutes.
• 3. For the salad, finely chop the shallot, spring onion, cucumber and lettuce and mix in a bowl ready to serve.
• 4. Mix the paste with the remaining oil in the pan, add the fish sauce (or soy) and the chilli flakes, and stir together.
• 5. Remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for a few minutes before slicing thinly and combining with the salad and the sauce. Scatter with mint leaves and coriander then serve.