Summer Steak Salad with Lime & Fish Sauce Dressing
A couple of years removed from living in California, I'm learning to take pleasure in the changing of seasons— from existing in a perpetual cycle of dread and anticipation revolving around the onset and then departure of short days and bone-chilling commutes, toward an appreciation for the shifting weather as an encouraging nudge to take part in transitions, both in how I spend my time and how I feel. If the only constant in life is change, then the four seasons are the structural base to keep me moving forward without getting lost.
Happily, there are actually more than four seasons, and we’re currently in one of those sweet in betweens. As we reach the end of August, the dog days of summer are behind us. Those days when the air is thicker, pants are a distant memory, and relaxation comes easily. Where the car smells like sunscreen and there’s sand in every crevice of it. Where your tan lines are entrenched and you've had your fill of soft serve. Where you've spent more time outside than and where bringing a jacket need never cross your mind.
And then a breeze comes through, perhaps a dramatic thunderstorm, the humidity breaks, and summer begins its rollicking denouement into fall. We are here. There's some relief in this—as a Type A do-er, there's only so much pleasure I can take in languishing in lazy days. But there's also some grief, because even the antsy among us crave a life of slow-motion leisure, especially when we feel it slipping away.
Just in time for the anticipatory nostalgia to set in—tomatoes. First, a few forgivably mealy ones arrive, but they're quickly ushered out to make way for Sungolds, Green Zebras, San Marzanos. They're bursting, sometimes literally, with seedy liquid that tastes like the feeling of the greatest beach day of your life. They're our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, containing a flavor so sweet and strong it's as though they've soaked up all the goodness of summer and arrived to stave off the existential dread of change, instead letting us live in juicy succulence for a while longer.
Some of us go feral at the sight, shoveling them into our tote bags, crazed with a senseless need to make a galette or to simply raw-dog a whole pint in minutes. Soon enough, like everything, we'll be over it, somehow mustering the naivety to feel excitement about the first butternut squash of the season (I love a butternut squash, but it's the canary in the coal mine that signals winter’s approach). But not yet, not yet, not yet. For now, we're obsessed with the ephemeral tomato, and we will suspend our disbelief for a few weeks more.
This salad is for peak tomato season. Which also happens to be peak cucumber season. And peak herb season. And thus, peak salad-for-dinner season. We're wanting a lot of flavor, in not a lot of time, and we certainly want nothing to do with slow-cooked anything, for fear it might steal our precious last drops of sun exposure. The foundation is a sweet and sour nuoc cham–adjacent dressing that's complex yet straightforward. Along with thin-sliced shallot and hunks of cucumber, juicy tomatoes marinate in there, giving some of their flavor to the dressing while a hanger steak gets a quick sear. Assembly is as simple as folding in fresh herbs, scattering fried shallots on top, and fanning out steak slices. Perfect on its own, even better over a bed of glass noodles or a pile of humble rice. Keep a spoon handy for drenching bites of steak in the dressing. Summer—you live to see another day.
Ingredients
1 lb hanger steak
1 cup neutral, high-heat oil (avocado, canola, or peanut)
2 shallots, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 limes, juiced
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 serrano pepper, seeds removed & thinly sliced
1 cup tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces (sungolds if in season, or any mix)
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
Fresh basil, cilantro, and mint (a small handful of each)
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
Optional: glass noodles or white rice, for serving
Instructions (serves 2)
1. Fry the shallots & garlic
Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium-high until very hot but not smoking.
Add half the shallots, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.
Pour off most of the oil (save it for another use), leaving about ⅓ cup in the pan.
Add garlic and cook, stirring, until golden (about 2 minutes). Pour the garlic and oil into a large heatproof (non-plastic) bowl.
2. Make the dressing & salad base
To the garlic-oil bowl, whisk in lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and sliced serrano. Adjust to taste.
Add remaining raw shallots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Toss to coat. Set aside.
3. Sear the steak
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high with a small splash of the reserved shallot oil.
Pat steak dry and season with salt and pepper.
Sear 3 minutes per side, then 1 extra minute, until a brown crust forms but steak is still springy to the touch.
Remove from heat and let rest 5–7 minutes.
4. Assemble the salad
Toss the salad again to redistribute the dressing.
Gently fold in chopped herbs.
Transfer to a platter with a lip (to catch dressing) and top with fried shallots.
Slice steak thinly against the grain and lay over the salad.
5. Serve
Serve immediately with extra lime wedges.
Optional sides: glass noodles or steamed white rice.