Soy-Ginger Beef and Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

My parents are in the process of moving right now. We've lived in this house since I was about 2 years old so, as you might imagine, there are quite a few memories and a whole lotta stuff in this house! To be honest, I didn't really know that I'd be here for the madness or I may have reconsidered the lengthy drive to, and stay in, Houston. I probably would've flown in for about a week and been pretty happy. As it is, I've had some ups and downs cleaning out all of the stuff that I've accumulated over the course of my life. I'm a pack rat, so I've saved everything. Sure there are soccer trophies and swim team ribbons and medals but there are also notes that I passed in high school and letters that people sent me while I was at college. I spent a few hours over the weekend laughing until I had tears running down my face at some of the ridiculous things that I wrote. I've gotten rid of a lot more than I thought that I would. I was having a hard time letting go of the stuff and then I came across Ellen Rooney Doland's article "10 Ways to Let Go of Your Stuff," in the March 2009 Real Simple. It's a great article and if you're faced with imminent and unavoidable decluttering, I highly recommend it.

Another way that we've had to declutter around here is the freezer and the pantry. My mom wants to use up as much as possible before the big move date so that's put a little bit of salt in my usual kitchen game. So, as much as possible, I've been trying to deplete the food store around here. Now, my mom is the antithesis of a food hoarder so it's not that hard to do. Let's just put it this way, I did not inherit the pack rat gene from my mother. There was some flank steak in the freezer and I knew that I wanted to go an Asian route with it. This recipe from Bon Appetit is one that I've been ogling on Epicurious for awhile now and it was a huge hit.


Soy-Ginger Beef and Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

Dressing

• 1 1/4 cups boiling water
• 3 tea bags of Chinese black tea
• 2/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup chopped watercress
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

Beef

• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-pound top sirloin steak, cut crosswise into 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices; slices then cut into 3-inch strips

Salad

• 3/4 pound linguine
• 1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil
• 2 12-ounce cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded
• 8 large green onions, halved lengthwise, cut on diagonal into 1-inch lengths
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 1 bunch watercress
• 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• Lime wedges

For dressing:
Combine 1 1/4 cups boiling water and tea bags and steep 5 minutes. Place peanut butter in medium bowl. Add 3/4 cup tea, soy sauce, lime juice, and cayenne. Whisk dressing to blend well. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before continuing.) Mix in watercress and mint.

For beef:
Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, honey, crushed red pepper, and cumin in large bowl; whisk to blend. Add beef and toss to coat. Marinate at room temperature at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

For salad:
Cook linguine in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain again. Transfer linguine to large bowl. Mix in sesame oil. Using vegetable peeler, cut cucumber halves lengthwise into long thin ribbons; arrange on paper towels to drain.

Drain marinade from beef into medium saucepan; boil 2 minutes over high heat. Cool. Heat grill pan or large ridged cast-iron skillet over high heat 4 minutes. Working in batches, grill beef until just brown outside but rare inside, about 1 minute per side. Transfer beef to bowl.

Add cucumbers, green onions, and cooled marinade to linguine. Add dressing and toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. Arrange mint and watercress around edge of large platter. Mound noodle salad in center; top with beef. Garnish with peanuts and lime wedges.

My Notes:

The reviews on Epicurious were fairly positive for taste but many comments complained that the salad dirties way too many dishes and the end result doesn't justify all of the work. I don't think that it's too bad as long as you make the salad in steps. I mixed the marinade in the same pan that I used to marinate the beef and that cut down on one dirty dish. Even though around here I get plenty of help with dishes I knew that I wanted to be able to make this in Washington and not spend most of my time cleaning up. So, I just tried to think ahead and make sure that I multitasked with my prep steps and it seemed to work. It's common sense so I'm not going to detail the other ways that I cut down on dirty dishes.

I didn't get much bang for my buck with the watercress that I purchased so I rounded out my salad with some romaine lettuce and I thought that worked really well. I love the flavor of mint so I had no issue using it but I think that if you wanted to leave it out entirely it would be fine, or you could sub cilantro or maybe parsley.

Overall, I loved this salad, as did the rest of my family, and I know that I'll definitely make it again. I totally forgot to add the chopped peanuts and I think that they would have made it even better so I'll have to remember them next time. I didn't think that I'd like the beef but I really did and the dressing for the salad is so good. All in all, it's a really refreshing, and delicious, summer salad.