Thai Beef Salad

Ingredients :
450g Fillet steak
6 tablespoons of light soy sauce.
4 cloves of garlic put through garlic press
2 limes, juice off, you could save the zest for a bit of extra zing in the dressing.
2 cm piece of ginger, grated, use the peelings as well.
2 bird's eye chillies chopped.
4 Kaffir lime leaves (I grow fresh leaves if you cannot get them). Cut into strips.
300g assorted lettuce leaves
2/3 cup mint leaves
2/3 cup basil leaves (Thai basil if possible).
2/3 cup coriander leaves.
1 Lebanese cucumber sliced in strips (take the seeds out with a spoon).

Dressing
2 Red chillies diced
6 tablespoons of light soy sauce
6 tablespoons of lime juice, about 2-3 limes
4 teaspoons of palm sugar (get at Thai grocer, or from me)
4 Kaffir lime leaves shredded into fine strips - julienne.

Method :
1. Mix the marinade together. Add the beef and allow it to marinade for an hour or two to cure it. Turn it every half hour or so. It is even better if you marinade it for 4-6 hours.
2. Prepare the dressing and set aside.
3. Cook the beef to rare or medium rare, basically to your liking. I normally chuck it in the oven for 12 minutes. It depends on the thickness of the meat for the cooking time. Set the beef aside for at least 15 minutes to rest.
4. Mix and arrange the lettuce leaves, basil, coriander, mint and cucumber on a platter.
5. Slice the beef quite thinly, (I think rump steak would need to be very thin).
6. Place beef strips on top of the salad.
7. Stir the dressing, and pour over your salad.
8. Bring the salad to the table to great applause!

This is a modern dish, the Thais even put fish sauce in, so I think you can do whatever you want as you will find the right balance in the flavours.

For wines, I have tried Pinot Grigio and Semillion / Sauvignon Blanc. (Voyager estate, Evans Tate are good). Even a light Grenache would work well