Recipe: Lime-Cured Beef Salad (Goi Bo)

`INGREDIENTS:`
1/3 cup lime juice	1/4 cup fish sauce	2 tablespoons sugar
1 large garlic clove, peeled, crushed, and minced	2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves and tough green tops removed, root ends trimmed, and stalks sliced paper thin	1 to 2 bird's eye or Thai chilies, seeded, and sliced on the diagonal
1 pound beef filet mignon or top round, 1 inch thick	3/4 cup mung bean sprouts, root ends trimmed	20 large holy basil leaves, julienned
20 large mint leaves, julienned	fried shallots

`1`	Whisk together the lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar in a bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the garlic, lemongrass, and chili and let marinade stand for 20 minutes.
`2`	Meanwhile, cut the filet mignon into blocks 2 inches wide by any length. Heat a well-oiled nonstick pan over high heat and sear each block of meat 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and, when cool enough to handle, cut into thin slices.
`3`	Add the beef to the marinade and allow to stand for 30 minutes. Next, drain the meat as much as you can but do not pick out the garlic, lemongrass, and chili.
`4`	Toss the meat with mung bean sprouts and tow-thirds of the holy basil and mint. Arrange the meat in a mound in the center of a serving plate, then scatter the remaining holy basil, mint, and fried shallots on top.