Meat Salad Recipe- Victoria Radugina, gastronomist, food reviewer, cigars

Meat Salad • recipe

Spicy and sour meat salad – recipe of a cold meat dish

I like to make this salad from time to time. It is a good and simple recipe, and it’s right on time when I have to use a piece of a cold, already cooked (roast, boild, stewed) meat that I have in the fridge. Or when I fancy something spicy as a starter. Or when I need to put on the table a little spicy bite to go with a glass of white wine or sparkling wine. Also the recipe is pretty economical for such a nice and not boring dish. Another “reason” for making it is when you feel like a protein dish on the table, but the quality of meat you could find in the shop today is not appealing for cooking entrecote, steak or even stroganoff. Then any piece of a nice boneless meat boiled to chewable condition will do.

The two main ingredients you need for this recipe (amount given for 2 people)

Meat: beef or pork, up to your taste, or whatever cooked meat you have in the fridge. It can be roast or boiled. Apprx 250-300 gram

Onions: red (more tender, less bitter) or regular white: 1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped on half-circles. Or even 2 if you enjoy plenty of onions. I do.

Method

Make the marinade from the following ingredients:

• Apple vinegar (or cyder vinegar, or table vinegar) – 2 teaspoons + half teaspoon of cold water on the top of it.

• Salt (on the tip of knife).

• Soya sauce – teaspoon if light sauce, less if dark.

• Fish sauce – 1/3 teaspoon

• Black pepper – some

• Ground paprika – half teaspoon or more, for a nice colour

• A few slices of red hot chilli pepper

• Squeezed lemon – about half teaspoon

• Dried Asian herbs – The choice is pretty optional, as long as they are aromatic and spicy, but the best mix would be the one which has curcuma (but in a small quantity), dried coriander seeds. If you happen to have Caucasian herbs called khmeli suneli – that would be perfect. Add a teaspoon.

Only by an individual taste: a teaspoon of mayonnaise – if you wish to give it a more creamy colour and taste. I don’t add it at all. But if you do, it should be only natural mayonnaise*.

*For every recipe where I recommend mayonnaise: make sure you use only natural one. Or better even home made. The mayonnaises in British shops don’t taste correctly, except from maybe one organic kind. In German shops “bio” mayonnaise made with egg and sunflower oil is fine. You need the taste of the proper one, not that glue-like tasteless substance.

Put the finely sliced onion into the marinade and carefully mix up the slices in it. Let it soak there for some 15-30 minutes.
Take the meat (it should be cooled) out of the fridge. Slice it on fine long slices. Add them to the onion(s) and let it all stay in the sauce-marinade for about minimum 15-30 minutes, but best would be a couple of hours. It can actually stay in the fridge soaking and absorbing the flavours of the marinade the whole day. If you need the salad in the evening, and you are making it in the morning or in the daytime, it will be perfect when you serve it.

What is a best drink to go with this dish

Enjoy this meat salad with a glass of white wine. Its accidity may be low or high, up to your like. A perfect combination would make a dry Champagne. Too sweet wine would kill the pleasantly sour aftertaste. But what you need is to prolong the harmony.

Also I can recommend strong clear spirit drinks such as vodka, tequila. Vodka or tequila will not destroy the pleasant and sharp sourness of the dish. These drinks don’t have any sweetness in them whatsoever, so any of them would make a great drink to go with this meat salad or after it.

What cigar would go best with this dish

The best kind of a cigars to smoke after this pretty acidic dish would be a full-bodied cigar, reasonably oily but not too sweet.

Pairing drink for the spicy and sour Meat salat, recipe

Spicy and Sour Meat Salad