Lisa's Weekly Recipe -- Thai Beef Salad

This is a recipe that my mom got from my Vietnamese aunt years and years ago. The first time I had it was when my aunt came to my high school graduation and was making some of my favorite foods from when I was a kid. This was something new she snuck in on me and I absolutely loved it...I've been making it ever since!

Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup fish sauce
2 pieces of garlic, minced
2 tsp. sugar
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp. salt
2 hot peppers

Sauce Directions:

In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the fish sauce, minced garlic, sugar, and lime juice. Since the fish sauce is already salty you may want to only add 1/4 tsp of salt at a time depending on taste. Now, the recipe is called Thai Beef Salad because my aunt used Thai chillis. However I cannot find them in my local market so I use habaneros instead. I do not use two whole habaneros because I think most people I feed this to cannot handle it. Instead I buy a bottle of habanero sauce and add it in 1 tsp at a time, again, depending on taste. If you don't like really hot foods, you may want to use the peppers sparingly.

After you have combined all the ingredients together for the sauce, mix well and let the sauce sit on the side (so the flavors can marry) while you are preparing the salad.

Salad ingredients:

1 head of Lettuce
1 to 2 tomatoes
1 to 2 cucumbers
1 bunch of cilantro
Green onion
1 sirloin steak

Salad Directions:

Chop up the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro and green onion and place in a large salad bowl. Add more or less of the ingredients depending on taste.

Lightly season the steak on both sides with salt & pepper (I prefer to use garlic salt instead of regular salt) and cook in a skillet (medium high) until the steak is medium (if you prefer your meat more well done then cook longer). Allow time for the steak to rest then cut into thin strips, about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.

Place steak on top of the salad. Then add the Thai beef sauce over the entire dish, or if you prefer, serve on the side (in case there are people that don't like it).

Enjoy!!