Sunday, March 12, 2006

Spiced Beef with couscous and a salad of cucumber, tomato and onion

This is a lovely meal that can be put together very quickly. It is recommended for when either you don’t have loads of time or are too hungry to wait for too long till dinner/lunch is ready. The meat has a lovely taste of cumin and coriander and it goes really well with the couscous. The three minutes are recommended if you like rare beef. For medium I suggest 4 minutes, and 5 if well done. The lovely salad adds a bit of colour to the dish as well as goodness. You can add some chopped chilli to the salad if you would like to give it a bit of a kick.

750g rum steak, trimmed

1 teaspoon each ground cumin and coriander

Oil for greasing

For the sambal:

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 cucumber, finely chopped

½ red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil extra-virgen

2 teaspoons lime juice

Sal and pepper

For the couscous:

2 cups of vegetable stock

2 cups couscous

20g butter

3 green onions, finely chopped

Prepare the salad: combine the tomato, cucumber, onion, oil and lime juice. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare the couscous: prepare the stock mixing it with boiling water. Place couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot stock over the couscous. Cover the dish with a clean tea towel and leave it to rest for 5 minutes. Stir with a fork to separate the grains, and then stir in butter and green onions. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Sprinkle steak with combined cumin and coriander. Cook in a deep frying pan over high heat for 3 minutes on each side.

Arrange the steak, couscous and salad on a plate and serve.

5 comments:

Fran said...

Your posts all look so wonderful. Would enjoy sitting at your table to eat! Thank you for stopping by.

Valentina said...

What a lovely surprise to see you here. The door is always open so come on in.. ; o )

Anonymous said...

Valentina, this looks lovely indeed! I don't eat beef very often but your gorgeous picture/recipe has made me want some right now :)

Valentina said...

Hi Keiko, Thank you for your kind words. I also eat little beef but every so often I have my cravings. ; o )

Anonymous said...

Hi Valentina,

That looks amazing!

I have been really enjoying looking at your great photos and yummy recipes. Hope you don't mind me linking to your site?