Vietnamese Beef & Crunchy Noodle Salad

Preheat the oven to 170C/340F. In a small mixing bowl, add the fried noodles, sweet chilli and kecap manis. Mix thoroughly, then spread the noodles out loosely on a baking tray lined with baking (parchment) paper. Bake glazed noodles for 10 minutes, giving them a mix halfway through. (They will appear not crispy at first but once cooled they crisp up again.) Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, place glass noodles in a medium sized bowl and cover with room temperature water for 15 minutes or until noodles are transparent.

While the noodles are soaking, bring your beef steaks to room temperature and generously coat with salt on both sides.

Place a large frying pan over a high heat until very hot, then add the oil. To cook medium rare, place steaks into oil and cook on high heat for 1 minute on the one side, then flip and cook for another 1 minute on each side. Once you’ve got some nice colour on each side, you can then move them around and keep flipping them for another couple of minutes on each side until cooked to your liking. Remove from heat and place onto a plate to rest.

Once glass noodles have finished soaking, drain off the excess water and cook them in boiling water for 1 minute or until just softened. Transfer to a bowl of cold water (or rinse under a tap to cool). Use scissors to cut into more manageable lengths. Leave the noodles soaking in cool water until ready to serve.

Time to assemble! Arrange watercress, shallot, noodles, snowpeas, cucumber, fresh herbs and sliced beef on a serving platter. Drizzle over dressing and sprinkle with glazed crunchy noodles and toasted coconut.

– You can find crunchy fried noodles in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets.

– Glass noodles are also known as cellophane, mung bean or bean thread vermicelli noodles. Find them at an Asian grocer or in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets.

– If you can’t buy Marion’s Vietnamese Tangy Dressing in your area, try making the dressing from my Vietnamese-style Chicken Salad or this Vietnamese Salmon Noodle Salad