Oriental Steak Salad

You can add as many other ingredients to the salad as you want, beansprouts, or snow peas all work great in this. I used fillet steak here, but as this can be quite expensive, other cuts will work just as nicely, try sirloin or a good quality shoulder steak. This recipe can also be made ahead of time, marinade the meat in the fridge, prepare the veg beforehand and only toss with the dressing when you are ready to eat. Serves 4 4 x 120g fillet steak 1 cucumber, thinly sliced 2 carrots, thinly sliced 6 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal 1 red pepper, thinly sliced Small handful of chopped coriander to serve For the marinade and dressing: 1 chilli, deseeded and minced 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely minced 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced Juice of 1 lime 1 teaspoon of sesame oil 1 teaspoon of thai fish sauce 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil Place the steaks on a plate. Mix all the ingredients for dressing/marinade together and pour 1/4 of the mixture over the steaks. Toss all the veg together in salad bowl and set aside. Heat a large griddle pan and fry the steaks for 3-5 minutes on either side depending on their size. Remove the steaks and allow to rest on a chopping board for a few minutes. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to combine. Slice the steak thinly, sprinkle with a little chopped coriander and serve with the zingy salad.

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Mini Steak and Mushroom Pie

These look great served in individual little pie dishes, but if you don’t have any to hand, simply use one large pie dish. You can cook the pie mix ahead of time, freeze and defrost when you want to use it. Makes 6 mini pies 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil 1 lb of stew steak or diced beef 250g of mushrooms 500ml of beef stock 250g of puff pastry 2 red onions, finely chopped 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper 2 egg yolks Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, and brown the meat on all sides. You may need to fry the meat in batches in order to get a nice colour. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the garlic and onions until soft. Add the beef stock, meat pieces, salt and pepper and combine. Lower the heat, cover and cook over gentle heat for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Make sure to give the mix a stir every now and then to prevent it sticking at the bottom. The aim is to get the meat as tender as possible, so you may need to add a longer cooking time depending on the meat you buy. 10 minutes before the mix is finished add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir through to combine. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 220˚C/ 430˚F/ Gas 7. Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about a centimetre in thickness. Empty the steak and mushroom filling into your chosen pie dish or dishes and drape over the pastry. Leave about 1cm of pastry over the side of the dish and then push the pastry in to the dish so you end up with a nice crust the whole way round. Using a pastry brush, coat the pastry with the egg yolk, this will produce a delicious golden coloured crust. Place in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry puffs up and turns a nice golden brown. Serve straight away with a tasty salad and enjoy!

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