Whenever I have a cold I seem to want spicy. Almost immediately after eating chicken soup at lunch, I knew that we had to have something with SPICE for dinner. We both love Thai, Lenny more so, so I knew when I mentioned that I wanted a Thai inspired dinner there would not be any objections.
On our cold scooter ride home we decided to swing by Bi-Rite to pick up the necessities for dinner, while braving the cold, I knew this meal would hit the spot! I have seen a few different recipes for Thai Beef Salad, a few of them over at Donna Hay’s place as well as over at the Steamy Kitchen. Just happens while wandering the store I completely forget what I needed, so I decide to wing it. Needless to say once getting home I realized I had forgotten basil, mint and cucumbers, so tonight’s salad would be Chez Us inspired Thai Beef Salad. The good news is once we got home I remembered that Brother John gave us some of his homegrown Thai peppers so I did not have to use the ones we picked up!
I made a dressing of equal parts raw sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and fresh squeezed lime juice, then I microplaned some lemon grass, lime zest and chili pepper into it, giving it a shake shake shake and letting rest for about 45 minutes. Then I prepared a bed of baby red romaine, cilantro, red peppers, red onions and tomatoes; I don’t think there are usually tomatoes but I kind of lost my mind back at the grocery store. I wanted the grassfed beef to be simple so that the dressing and veggies would be a nice compliment. I used the stove top grill and cooked the beef with some sesame oil and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.
After laying thinly sliced pieces of beef across the greens, I drizzled the dressing and garnished with more lime zest and diced Thai peppers. The salad was refreshing, spicy and exactly what the doctor ordered!
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