Crispy beef salad

Chinese-style crispy beef by River Cottage: Love Your Leftovers

This take-away classic is super-easy to make at home with a few handfuls of leftover roast beef.

Serves 4:
250–400g roast beef, the rarer the better
Vegetable or groundnut oil, for frying
3 tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder (optional)
A little very finely grated orange zest
Pinch of flaky sea salt

For the sauce:
3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 garlic clove, grated
1/4 teaspoon finely grated ginger
Juice of ½ orange

Related: 10 ways with quinoa

For the salad:
Few crisp lettuce leaves, such as romaine (or even the much-maligned iceberg), finely shredded
1 carrot, julienned or grated
1/2 small cucumber, seeds scooped out, then cut into thin batons
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced, slightly on the bias
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Related: What it's really like to go paleo

To finish:
Handful of sesame seeds, lightly toasted if preferred
Sprigs of coriander (optional)

1. First make the sauce. Put all the ingredients into a small pan, simmer for a couple of minutes until thickened, then set aside.
2. Cut the beef into strips, 3–4mm thick. Heat a 2–3cm depth of oil in a wok or a deep saucepan.
3. Heat the oil to 180°C, or until a cube of dry white bread dropped in turns golden in just under a minute.
4. Sift the cornflour and five-spice powder, if using, onto a plate. Toss the beef strips in the cornflour until well coated on all sides.
5. Fry the beef in a couple of batches to avoid crowding the pan. Lower into the hot oil and fry until golden and crisp, which should only take a couple of minutes.
6. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain. Let the oil come back up to temperature before adding the second batch of meat to the pan.
7. Mix the orange zest with the flaky sea salt and sprinkle over the beef.

For the salad, toss the vegetables together with the rice wine vinegar. Pile the salad and crispy beef onto individual plates. Trickle on the sauce and add a scattering of sesame seeds and garnish with coriander.

Related: Meat-free meal plan

Tips and swaps:
Add a handful of finely sliced red or yellow peppers.
Serve the salad over noodles with the sauce trickled over and finished with the sesame seeds and coriander.

Recipes & images taken from River Cottage: Love Your Leftovers by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, published by Bloomsbury on 1st November, $45.00