Veal Salad with Onions
The reason I posted the last two recipes is this salad. I wanted to slowly introduce you to the incredible flavors of Vietnamese cuisine. The salad is very sophisticated in its flavor combination, and you can serve it without hesitation even to demanding guests.
The recipe is adapted from here, lately I've been following almost all Vietnamese-themed blogs.
Ingredients
400g veal tenderloin
1 cup pineapple juice
3 lemons
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 small red onion
1/2 small yellow onion
4 green onion stalks
1/2 small bunch parsley (or fresh cilantro)
2 tablespoons onion croutons
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts (or roasted cashews)
2-3 tablespoons Vietnamese sauce
1 red hot pepper (optional)
salt
Servings: 4 (served with rice)
How to prepare veal salad with onions
- Slice the veal tenderloin into extremely thin slices, perpendicular to the grain.
- Bring the pineapple juice to a boil. When boiling, start dipping the meat slices in batches into the juice, count to 10, and remove them. Repeat until you've blanched all the meat. The meat will still be pink (rare), but it's okay, it will fully cook in the next step.
- Mix the juice of 3 lemons with the sugar until completely dissolved. Place the blanched veal in this juice, stir, and let it sit for about 15 minutes, until the meat is no longer pink at all. Squeeze the meat slices well of juice and place them in a bowl.
- Add to the meat the red and yellow onion sliced into very very thin strips/scales, the green onion sliced into rounds, and the finely chopped parsley. Add the Vietnamese sauce, a little salt, and mix gently. Let it sit until serving time.
- Only at serving time add the onion croutons, crushed peanuts, and if you want the salad extra spicy, another red hot pepper sliced into slightly diagonal rounds.
- Serve alongside cooked basmati rice.
Meat blanched in pineapple juice
Meat after sitting in lemon juice
Meat with onions
