Thai Beef Salad

Pregnancy and the swelling of extremities has been a challenge, but for once it was a good weekend for my ankles.   I could see my ankle bones!   This hasn't happened in awhile so I took full advantage and got a few things done including cleaning up my front porch and making it guest ready for wine and appetizers at any given moment.  Who's coming over???

I also had the ambition to try a new recipe.  I got my new Cook's Illustrated in the mail and read it on Sunday morning and had to try this recipe ASAP.   I whipped this up in about 30 minutes and it was delish. 
Even the hubby who is not always the biggest fan of ethnic flavors enjoyed this.  It was a little bit on the spicy side so you may want to lessen the cayenne pepper at first and add more later.  I am a spice lover so I left it as is.

THAI BEEF SALAD

Juice of two limes

2 tbls fish sauce

2 tbls water

1 tsp sugar

Salt

1 tbls of Cayenne
1 tbls of Sweet Paprika
Heat up Cayenne and Paprika in a dry skillet to extract flavors add to dressing

(Mix first 6 ingredients for the dressing and set aside)

1 tbls white rice, toasted in a dry skillet then ground up in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle

Steak – Grilled to your liking  (I used a sirloin steak that was on sale, but any steak would work) Skirt steak would be awesome.

Lettuce (romaine) chopped

Shallots, one sliced thin

Green Onion, green parts chopped

Mint

Cilantro

Start the grill and get it hot.  Sear your steak to your liking and let it rest under some foil for at least 15 minutes.  Room temperature steak is fine for this recipe. 

For the dressing....start by toasting your spices and adding it to a bowl.  Add the rest of the dressing ingredients, whisk and set aside.  (I added a little more sugar) so be sure to taste it. 

Chop up your romaine lettuce, shallots, green onions, mint and cilantro and toss together.  Save some green onions and cilantro to top the salad with later. 

To combine....toss the salad with a little bit of dressing and put on the plates.  Slice the beef thinly against the grain and toss in the dressing for a few seconds to get it really coated and top the salad with the beef.  Sprinkle some of the toasted rice on top for some crunch (You may not use it all)  top with cilantro and green onions.  Serve room temperature or slightly warm.  

Cook's Illustrated said to serve over some rice instead of salad which would be good too, but I thought the lettuce was even better and a little lighter for a lunch.

Hot Kitchen Months

Salmon Cakes with spicy remoulade

This is an old picture but it still looks good.  Salmon cakes with a spicy remoulade.   I don't even remember the recipe right off hand but will be sure to do a little digging at home.

So proud of my tomatoes

This is probably not the best time to start a blog.  The time I spend on creating new dishes and experimenting with cuisines is way below my average due to the fact that I don't have air conditioning in my kitchen and I'm 7-1/2 months pregnant with my first baby.  Dinners have been more revolved around how long my ankles will hold me up and how fast I can make something before I lose all ambition.   The upside to hot weather cooking is my tiny garden I planted outside and frankly there can't be a garden that gets more attention and love than mine.  I have been patiently waiting for my tomatoes to ripen and have a long list of recipes I want to experiment with.  Hurry up Tomatoes (and baby) !

Grilling corn at my Cinco De Mayo Party

GRILLED MEXICAN CORN
This is an easy way to spice up some summer corn. 
Ingredients:
Corn on the Cob
Mayonaisse
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Chili Powder
Lime Juice
White Mexcian Cheese
Boil the corn for a few minutes like you normally would cook corn on the cob.  In a bowl, mix together some mayonaisse and some sour cream.  Add a bunch of chopped cilantro, chili powder and lime juice (to taste).  Grill the corn until you have some charred spots and toss in the mayo mix or brush it on the corn and sprinkle with a white mexican cheese and sprinkle with more cilantro.