Mango Beef Stir Fry

First beef dish!  I'm trying to ease into this whole cooking meat thing by using a quick cooking meat that I couldn't screw up!  I got inspired by the grocery store sales, 10 for 10 on oranges and champagne mangos as well as discounted stir fry meat.  Done and done.  So, I mixed up a sweet and spicy stir fry perfect to put on top of soba noodles or lettuce as a salad.  And look, it's so colorful and exciting!

I've been very into the combination of agave, sriracha, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil.  Last week I used it in a quick salad dressing as well as combined with tamarind concentrate to marinate the chicken pieces.  I made enough stir fry sauce to enjoy for the rest of the week, which is why only a 1/2 cup is incorporated into the stir fry.

Word to the wise - this is the kind of dish to prepare everything before you start cooking.  I cut up all of my vegetables, prepared my sauce, and seasoned the beef before even turning the pan on.  I used coconut oil, which can be used 1 for 1 for olive oil, because it is great for high heat cooking and frying like stir fry.  It can be found at asian markets and in the baking aisle at Whole Foods.

Green Papaya Salad

City living has introduced me to so many new cuisines.  One of my new favorite comfort foods is Thai food, with it's impossibly delicious balance of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy.  There is a hole in the wall place near my old apartment that I fell in love with.  Green curry with jasmine rice, crispy soft shelled crab, tom kha gai soup, and my favorite side dish green papaya salad.  Green papaya is just unripened papaya, the perfect vehicle for the spicy dressing of the salad.  I haven't been able to find the unripened fruit anywhere in DC, so I was ecstatic to bring some home from Baltimore.

The papaya should be peeled, seed, and shredded before using.  I prepared the papaya, carrots, and cucumber with the shredding blade of my food processor, but the large holes of a cheese grater would work fine in a pinch.  The shredded vegetables are combined with blanched green beans and sweet cherry tomatoes then dressed with a spicy tart balanced sauce.  It's best to let the salad soak in the dressing for a few hours before serving to allow the flavors to really pack a punch.