Happy with my first Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals challenge, I decided to give it another go and try a different recipe to see if I could do better this time around.
There are so many mouthwatering recipes in Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals
Challenge #2 Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing
All of the recipes in this book start with the instruction “ingredients out” and this recipe also suggested boiling the kettle and setting a frypan on high heat.
Ingredients: cashews, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, rice noodles, romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radishes, coriander, spring onions, cress, alfalfa sprouts, steak, Chinese five spice, pickled ginger, limes, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, red chilli
So I set about weighing ingredients and getting various tools ready to go. This took 10 minutes and 44 seconds. Slightly longer than the first challenge but not by much.
Start cooking
First is toasting the nuts and seeds until golden then setting aside. Next pouring boiling water over the noodles to heat them through; then rubbing the steak with Chinese five spice, salt and pepper, and cooking in the pan until done to your liking (medium-rare for me). All very straightforward.
Next was the ginger dressing, really just mixing the pickled ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped chilli together. Not difficult.
Now on to assembling the salad—separating lettuce leaves, grating carrot, chopping radishes, cucumber and spring onion (by hand, not with the food processor like most of these recipes call for), grabbing the coriander leaves, cress and alfalfa, then arranging them on a platter or board—there’s nothing complicated here. All the while flipping your steak and, when cooked, resting it.
Finally, draining the rice noodles and scattering them over the salad, slicing the beef and placing the slices on top, then scattering the platter with the nuts and seeds.
It all sounds like the simplest thing in the world, and it is, but it still took me 22 minutes and 20 seconds to complete it. Although I have to admit, I wasn’t trying too hard because after last time I’d decided I preferred my own cooking pace.
That brings the total cooking time up to 33 minutes and 4 seconds. OK, so not 15 minutes but I still think that’s really quick to produce a delicious healthy dinner.
My thoughts
Positive: This dish had fantastic Asian elements—sweetness, saltiness, heat, fabulous crisp vegetables, amazing crunch from the toasted nuts and seeds, soft noodles, and tender juicy meat. I loved the combination. There were lots of beautiful textures and every mouthful was just a little bit different, depending on what ingredients had ended up on the fork.
Negative: Who am I kidding—brilliant dish! Just took a little longer to prepare than I expected.
Next time?
I will certainly make Jamie’s Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing again but will start by cooking the steak, and allowing it plenty of time to rest. The nuts and seeds can easily be toasted in another pan—extra washing up but not a big deal.