Recipe > Mains
Beef, Lime and Noodle Broth
This is a quick, healthy dish, full of deep, fragrant flavours and easy to adapt as either a starter or main dish

Serves 4

Ingredients
For the broth:
3 cloves garlic
3cm / 1thumb ginger or galangal
1 lime, juice and zest of
1 lemongrass stalk
2 spring onions
2 Tblsp nam plaa or fish sauce
4 Tblsp light soy sauce
2 chillis
2 Tblsp brown sugar
1.2 ltrs / 2.5 pints beef or brown stock

Other ingredients:
1 Tblsp oil
675g / 1.5lbs beef steaks
2 spring onions
110g / 4oz mushrooms
200g / 7oz dry noodles

To garnish (optional)
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 red chillis

Mise-en-Place:
Weigh, measure and roughly chop all of the 'broth' ingredients
Season the beef steaks with salt and pepper
Slice the spring onions and mushrooms
(If you choose to use the garnish, slice the lime leaves and chillis into needle like shreds also known as 'to julienne')

Method:
In a saucepan or wok over a medium to high heat:
Bring the stock and 'broth ingredients' to the boil
Simmer for 3-4 minutes
Drain and sieve the broth. Keep the liquid, discard the flavouring ingredients
Return the broth to the saucepan, bring back to the boil, then reduce to a simmer
(At this point you need to cook the noodles. If you wish you can cook them separately in boiling water or you can cook them in the broth. Your choice.)
Cook the noodles
Add the mushrooms and spring onions to the broth, cook for 2-3 minutes until 'al dente' (soft yet still chewy)

Cook the steaks:
In a wok or frying pan over a medium to high heat:
Heat the oil in a frying pan until smoking hot
Pan-fry the steaks to required preference
(To cook a steak 2cm/ .75inch thick
Blue: approx 1 to 1.5 minutes each side
Rare: approx 1.5 to 2 minutes each side
Medium: approx 2 to 2.5 minutes each side
Well: What are you crazy, you want to eat leather? Don't be a chump.)
When steaks are done, remove from pan then cut into slices

Check the seasoning of the broth
Serve the broth with the sliced beef scattered on top

Adjust: The broth should have deep beef flavours lightened by the more fragrant lime, lemongrass and coriander notes
Too bland: Add more nam plaa, lime juice and coriander
Too shallow: Add more stock
Too spicy: Remove half the volume of the broth, replace with stock
Too sharp/ acidic: Add more sugar

Presentation:
Place the noodles in a bowl, pour over the broth and vegetables
Scatter the beef over the centre of the bowl
Garnish with the chilli and kaffir lime leaf

Chef Tip: Love the idea of using chilli for a garnish but can't handle the extra heat?
'Julienne' or thinly slice the chilli then soak in water for 15 minutes to reduce the intensity of the chilli's heat

Chef Insight: Kaffir lime leaves are a native of south east asia and traditionally used within the golden triangle. Kaffir lime leaves come from the 'Citrus hystrix' tree, the actual flavour comes from the citronellal compound; a variant of the citronella compound which is responsible for a variety lemon flavours
The easiest way to prepare kaffir lime leaves is to fold the leaf in half, use the fingers of one hand to hold the actual leaf and the other to tear out the leaf's stem (which is tough and inedible). Roll the prepared leaf into a cylinder, then slice this cylinder to form needle shreds also known as 'to julienne'