Valentine’s Day Recipe: Beef Poke Salad Bowl For Two

There’s only one day a year that’s devoted to impressing your loved one, and Valentine’s Day for many can be a daunting experience. To help ease the culinary burden, I’ve created this easy to prepare and delicious beef recipe to help impress any date this Valentine’s Day.

My beef poke salad bowl is a great recipe to share with someone special this Valentine’s day. Healthy, delicious and a lighter way to enjoy beef, the flavours all combine beautifully with the sirloin cut.

To make the most of your date, my number one tip is to do everything as far in advance as you can. Preparation is key. This means the more you get done before your date arrives, the more you can keep your cool and enjoy their company.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can replace the sirloin with beef brisket or scotch fillet! See my top tips for both of these different cuts for those willing to try something different at home.

Brisket

If you have the time, replace the sirloin with beef brisket. My top tips for cooking with this cut include:

• The day before Valentine’s rub the soy and sesame oil across the brisket cut, and place in a cooking tray with chicken or beef stock. Slow cook it for 3-4 hours at 140-150 degrees Celsius or until the brisket pulls away easily.
• Allow to cool for 30 minutes and pull or dice the brisket. Re-heat in the pan with extra sesame oil to crisp it up.
• If you really want to wow your guest, add cinnamon, star anise and little bit of garlic and ginger to the stock when cooking the brisket

Feeling this today! My Beef Brisket & Buckwheat bowl Pickled veg, mushrooms, fried egg & sesame sriracha sauce #realfood #nourishing #realfood #healthyfood #delicious #simple #foodpics #healthy #beef

A post shared by cheftomwalton (@cheftomwalton) on Feb 6, 2017 at 3:20pm PST

Sirloin

Instead of sirloin, try another beef steak cut like scotch fillet.

• Season the scotch fillet with soy and sesame oil, and bring it to room temperature before cooking it for 30 minutes. This creates a really delicious crusty outside on the steak
• One of my favourite food hacks when cooking with steak is to with it with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), hoisin sauce and sesame oil to create a caramel sweet flavoured steak.
• Always rest your steak after your cook it for at least 5 minutes! This lets the juices re-settle to create deliciously tender beef.

Beef Poke Salad Bowl

(rice noodles, bean sprouts, miso sriracha mayo, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber & pickled ginger)

Serves: Two

Ingredients:

• 1 x 250g sirloin steak
• 1 tsp each soy sauce & sesame oil
• salt, pepper
• 80g dried rice stick noodles
• ¼ red cabbage
• 1 handful mizuna leaves or baby spinach leaf
• 1 avocado
• 2 shallots (spring onions), finely sliced into rounds
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds

Poke dressing:

• 3tbsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp sesame oil
• 1tbsp rice vinegar

Miso sriracha mayo:

• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp white miso
• 1 tbsp sriracha chili
• juice ½ lime

Method:

1. Season the sirloin with the soy sauce & sesame oil an da little salt and pepper. Leave this for about 30 minutes to absorb the flavours.
2. Grill the steak on a preheated BBQ or griddle pan until medium rare, approx. 2-3 minutes each side, then rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for the dish.
3. Make the poke dressing and set aside.
4. Pour boiling water over the noodles and leave for 10 minutes before draining well. Cut the noodles if they are very long. Toss 1 tbsp of the sesame seeds and ½ the shallots and a little of the poke dressing over the noodles.
5. Finely shaved the red cabbage with a knife or mandolin. Mix a good handful for the cabbage with the noodles as well as the leaves. Place this in the base of the bowl
6. Cut the cucumber into quarters lengthways and then cut into small cubes and the cherry tomatoes in half. Remove the flesh from the avocado and smash with a fork. Set aside.
7. Cut the sirloin into cuts and toss with more of the poke dressing, remaining sesame seeds and shallots.

Miso Sriracha Mayo:

1. For the miso mayo, mix all the ingredients together and set aside.
2. Lightly toasted over a flame or clean grill for 3 seconds then crumble and set aside.
3. Build the poke bowl by placing all the ingredients in piles over the noodles, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, pickled ginger, bean sprout and finish with the beef, miso mayo and crumbled nori

Tom Walton is head chef of The Bucket List & Deus Bar and Kitchen. For more delicious recipes or cooking tips please visit beefandlamb.com.au.