Vietnamese tomato sauce beef salad

Thao Uyen

This one is a family favorite, and a tradition too. Not only that it’s quick to prepare and to cook, it also has all the flavors (sweet, sour, creamy tomato sauce) and, above all, much needed greens. At my family table, there are always greens, especially herbs that are always in high demand. The reason for it is no coincidence though, as my paternal grandmother used to have a stand to sell herbs and veggies at the market. As a result, my dad has been eating veggies and herbs since he was little. And as tradition would have it, he passes that craving on to his children. Herbs and veggies must have an addictive effect, how else to explain that feeling of satisfaction when we can eat a whole bowl of salad? Meat alone just can’t cut it.

Greens are essential for this dish but you’ll also find beef or veal. If you’re trying to lose weight without losing hard earned muscles, you should give this one a try. It’s also a great way to incorporate any kind of greens that are in season. This time I use frisée salad and radish (it’s April after all), but you can choose watercress (yum!), water spinach, kale, escarole, also lettuce, iceberg and batavia salad. Really, there’s no rule for the greens.

For the tomato sauce, you’ll only need tomato, beef, onion, oyster sauce and soy sauce. If the thought of oyster sauce gives you weird feeling (I know some people who find sauce made from oyster a taboo), just add more soy sauce instead. You can use tender beef part or ground beef and based on your choice, adjust the cooking time to not dry out the beef which is so important for the success of the dish.
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There’s one thing that you need to pay attention to: The sauce must be made from fresh tomato, so use the ripe ones that have a creamy texture when cooked. The ripe tomatoes will provide a beautiful color for the sauce and reduce the cooking time too. The contrast between creamy tomato and crunchy salad is the x factor of the dish. That's it for the technical part ;), let’s not waste any more time and get to our recipe!

INGREDIENTS (for 2 servings):
- 150-200 gr tender beef or veal (filet/tenderloin), thinly sliced
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- ½ a medium onion, cut into thin wedges of 0.5 cm
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 pinch of salt and grounded black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 big bowl of greens or in my case 150 gr of frisée salad and 5 red radishes, green leaves included.

READY IN: 20 minutes
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PREPARATION:
In a skillet, stir fry ½ tbsp of olive oil and minced garlic on high heat. After 20 seconds or when the garlic gives off its fragrance, add the sliced beef (or grounded beef) with 1 tbsp of oyster sauce and continue to stir fry. After 3 minutes, take the skillet off the heat. Put the beef along with any possible beef juice into a bowl and add ½ tbsp of soy sauce. Give the stir fried beef a mix to distribute the soy sauce evenly.

Put the skillet back on the stove, on medium-high heat add the last ½ tbsp of olive oil, sliced shallot, diced tomato, sliced onion and a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. After 2 minutes, when the tomato starts to break down and turns mushy, add 50 ml of water, the last of the soy sauce (1 ½ tbsp) and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes or until all the tomato meat turns into thick sauce. In this process, if the water dries out too quickly, add in the beef juice by straining the stir fried beef earlier. If not, go straight to the next step.

Add the stir fried beef (and any beef juice left) back into the skillet, give it a good mix in the tomato sauce then turn off the heat. This step only takes 30 seconds.

To assemble the dish, sprinkle grounded black pepper on the beef tomato sauce. While waiting for the sauce to cool down a bit, proceed to slice the red radish, cut short the frisée salad and radish leaves and put them all on the plates. Lastly gently pour the beef and tomato sauce on the salad and dive in.
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Enjoy the creamy sauce and greens!
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