- [Chef] Today in the Test Kitchen,
we have a recipe that's quick, easy, and nutrient dense.
(uplifting music)
So the thing about this recipe,
it's packed full of protein, fresh ingredients
and it makes for a great noodle salad.
For other flavorful recipes, and techniques, make sure to click below to subscribe.
So let's take a look at the ingredients for this recipe.
I've got some shredded carrots,
nice thing is that I bought these
at the grocery store in a bag pre-shredded, big time saver.
You can find lots of other uses for 'em,
stir-fries all kinds of stuff.
Some fresh avocado.
I've got some fresh diced cucumber, some edamame.
So the edamame you usually find frozen,
if you find it fresh, great.
I'm using frozen, so I'm gonna blanch it.
If you find it fresh, it may be pre-cooked.
I've got sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce,
a little bit of honey for sweetness, ginger.
I've got soba noodles,
which is a Japanese buckwheat noodle.
They're nice, they got a lot flavor to 'em.
They got a good chew.
I really like 'em in this dish.
And then we have the star of the show, our beef.
So this is sirloin tip.
The great thing about this cut is it's very economical.
It has a good amount of marbling,
and you'll find it fairly easily at the grocery store.
Typically, it's cut about a 1/2 inch thick,
which makes it nice for this, 'cause the idea
behind this recipe, is just a quick sear on either side,
to develop a crust, give it a little bit of flavor,
and then you let it rest to that medium rare,
and then dicing it, to mix into
this essentially, noodle salad.
So for the first step of this recipe,
I've got three quarts of water
that I just brought to a boil.
I'm gonna to season it with about a teaspoon of salt,
and then because I have a metal strainer,
I'm gonna put the strainer right on in.
If you don't have metal, you can just pull
the edamame out with a slotted spoon.
But I'll put the strainer right in there
and put the edamame into the strainer,
that way I can just lift this right out
and take it directly to the sink.
This will blanch for about 3 to 4 minutes,
or until the edamame turns bright green.
Then we'll take it to the sink and chill it down.
So now we'll take these to the sink.
So now I'll just rinse these with cold water
to kinda stop them from cooking.
Now that we got the edamame cooked
and partially cooled down,
we'll go right into the noodles.
I got two bundles of soba noodles.
When you buy them they're usually
in bundles like this.
So I'll cook both of those
and I'm just using that same water,
which is why I cooked the edamame
and then pulled it out,
rather than draining and having to reheat water.
We'll let these noodles cook for about 4 to 5 minutes,
and you wanna pull them slightly el dante,
and then we'll take them and cool them down as well.
So these noodles have been boiling
and they're fully cooked now.
So I'll grab a strainer and take 'em to the sink.
So we'll go ahead and strain the noodles,
and then we're going to rinse with cold water.
This will help stop the noodles from cooking further,
and these noodles contain a lot of starch.
All right, now let's get back
to the star of the show, the beef.
First thing I'm gonna do
is coat it with just a touch of oil.
This way I don't have to oil my pan.
If you are grilling this steak,
you wouldn't need to use this,
but since we're searing it in a cast iron,
I'm just going to put a little bit across the steaks
and any excess can just come right off.
But this is to give the steaks a slight coating of oil.
That helps them develop a better crust
when you get them into the pan,
and by putting the oil on the steaks
instead of in the pan,
it will help create a lot less smoke.
So I'm gonna season 'em with salt and pepper,
give 'em a quick flip and do the same to the other side.
Now again, I'm just using a minimal amount of oil
if possible, because you just want enough
to get a little bit on the steaks.
All right, the pan should be nice and preheated.
So we'll go in.
So now that we got these in the pan,
we'll let 'em sear for about three minutes on each side,
or until they reach an internal temperature of 125 degrees.
Once we pull them out, the steaks will continue
to cook a little bit more.
So that's why I pulled them at 125,
so that the carry over cooking by pulling
them out of the pan and allowing them to rest,
will let them go up to that medium rare temperature.
So I've let these cook for about three minutes,
I'm just looking for a nice crust on that side.
So you can see that's really developing a nice sear,
and that's really where you're going to get
all that beef flavor.
So those have all developed a nice crust.
They hit 125, so I'm gonna pull 'em out of the pan
and let 'em rest, while I make
the dressing for the salad.
So I'm using some soy sauce, rice vinegar,
some ginger, freshly minced,
honey, and I prefer honey to brown sugar in this recipe
because it doesn't have to dissolve
like granules of sugar do.
It's already kind of in a semi-liquid state,
so it just makes it easier to mix in.
So I'll give that a quick mix before
adding the sesame oil.
The honey also helps to thicken
this mixture a little bit,
so when you put in the sesame oil,
it almost emulsifies a little bit nicer.
So now that I've got that nice and whisked up,
I'll just kinda slightly whisk in my sesame oil.
I'm not trying to make a full emulsion
like a perfect vinegarette here,
but the more that you whisk it in like this,
the more incorporated it'll be
and it won't just float right on top.
So that's it for the sauce.
Now I'll just gather the rest of my ingredients
and we'll toss 'em all in this sauce
and then assemble a bowl.
First I'll grab the drained noodles,
and I'll get those right into that sauce,
start to give them a toss,
add in my carrots.
The reason I like combing these two ingredients primarily,
is because they have a similar shape
and they'll mix really well.
If you add in the edamame and maybe the cucumber,
they might all fall right to the bottom.
So I like to top the bowls with those ingredients.
I'm dicing the beef into about half inch cubes,
and again, that's inspired by a powke bowl.
It just makes it a nice size for eating in a dish like this.
Let's finish this up with the rest
of the toppings to this bowl.
So I got my diced cucumber, to add a little
crisp and fresh flavor,
the edamame that we briefly blanched earlier,
and then just a few slices of avocado.
And there you have it.
A sesame beef protein bowl
that's quick, easy, and full of flavor.
Thanks for watching and join us next time
here in the Test Kitchen.
(uplifting music)