← Nouns Cooking · Vietnamese

Ingredients

• 700 g sirloin or rib-eye steak, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
• 1½ tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 3 tbsp oil, divided
• 1 Red onion, cut into wedges
• 1 Bell pepper, cut into 2.5 cm squares (optional)
• 2 Spring onion, cut into 5 cm lengths
• 1 tbsp Butter (optional)
• 100 g watercress or crisp lettuce
• 2 Tomato, sliced
• ½ Cucumber, sliced
• 2 tbsp Rice vinegar
• 2 tsp sugar, for the salad
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Method

1. Toss the beef with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, half the garlic, the pepper and 1 tbsp oil. Leave for 30 min at room temperature.
2. Stir the rice vinegar and sugar together and toss with the watercress, tomato and cucumber on a platter. Mix the lime juice, salt and pepper in little dishes for dipping.
3. Heat a wok or heavy frying pan over the highest heat until it smokes. Add 1 tbsp oil and half the beef in a single layer. Leave it untouched for 1–2 minutes to form a crust, then shake the pan to turn the cubes and sear for 1–2 minutes more for medium-rare. Tip out and repeat with the rest.
4. Add the last 1 tbsp oil, the remaining garlic, onion and pepper and stir-fry for 1 minute. Return the beef with the spring onion and butter and shake everything together for 30 seconds.
5. Pile the beef and its juices over the salad and serve with rice, dipping each cube in the lime-pepper salt.

Tips

• Cook in two batches: a crowded pan stews the beef instead of searing it.
• For gluten-free, use tamari and a gluten-free oyster sauce. Leave out the butter to keep it dairy-free.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Hungry Huy Vicky Pham Wok and Kin