Tataki beef salad with ponzu

Salads, they're a staple of summer.  Hot days, light foods.  And BBQ, another summer staple.  So when the two get together we're talking serious summer chemistry.  Chicken caesar salad is definitely a popular go-to in the warm meat salad category.  But personally I prefer a warm beef salad.

Tataki is a type of cooking where the meat/fish is more or less just seared, then sliced up.  So essentially it's close to a sashimi salad - the meat is not cooked through (you can cook your meat more, if you prefer, but if you like rare meat, this will be right up your alley!).  

As a dish, it was sort of like eating deconstructed sushi, which I loved!  I'm not normally a fan of brown rice, but with some ponzu dressing (or just good ol' soy sauce), it was awesome.  

1 cup brown rice

1 tsp oil (I used sesame)

2 cups water

300 g beef rump steak

2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar 

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp sweet chili sauce

1/2 tsp oil (I used sesame) 

10 cm cucumber, halved and sliced

1/2 capsicum, finely sliced

2 radishes, finely sliced

50 g mesclun lettuce (or chopped up cos)

ponzu dressing, to drizzle *

Serves 2-3

1. Boil water in kettle.  Put rice and oil in saucepan (one with a lid) and stir to coat.  Once water boils add to rice and stir.  Keep stirring until water level has reduced almost to the level of the rice.  Turn element to low, cover saucepan with a paper towel and firmly put lid on.  Leave simmering for 20 minutes then turn off.  Keep covered until you're ready to eat (this will stay hot for another good 20 minutes.  
2. Place beef into bowl with mariniade ingredients (I like to do this earlier in the day, so the flavours have plenty of time to meld - if you do this, cover and pop into the fridge).  
3. Prepare salad.  
4. Heat pan for beef (or BBQ plate).  Sear and cook for about 2 minutes on each side.  Remove and rest for 5 minutes.  Slice against the grain and serve alongside rice and atop salad.  Drizzle the whole with ponzu * (you can make this yourself, or you could just use a little soy mixed with a dash of lemon/lime and brown sugar).