Spicy Mint Beef

Guys, this recipe was a rare one for me. Actual meat! I usually avoid cooking it, keeping my meat-eating to a minimum and mostly just at restaurants. But I had just bought some fish sauce for the first time (surprising, given the amount of thai food I eat) and I was flipping through the Food Network mag and this recipe sounded really good - especially with the mint and basil, yum. So I give you Giada de Laurentiis' Spicy Mint Beef. Made with real beef.

Of course, this special meat-buying occasion meant I wanted something good - so I went with Rowe Farms, all organic etc. Might as well splurge on the fancy stuff. First into a large pan was 4 minced garlic cloves and 2-3 minced thai chiles. Now, I wasn't sure what 'thai chiles' were, the shop had tiny red ones and jalapeno-length red ones. I went with the larger ones, they weren't that spicy, so I assume the smaller ones are hotter. Cook those about 1 minute. I cut about one pound of steak intro strips and fried those for two minutes to mostly cook them. This recipe comes together very quickly - but there's a lot of chopping to do first.

Next I threw in 1 chopped green pepper and 3 sliced shallots, and cooked 1 minute. I mixed the sauce in a small bowl: 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey (the soy sauce and honey replaced her original ingredients - 2 Tbsp each sweet soy sauce and black soy sauce. It was printed in the magazine so I went with it), and 2 Tbsp Chinese chili-garlic sauce (what I had, though she calls for chili paste in oil). Add sauce to pan, bring to a boil and cook about 2-3 minutes so everything is nice and cooked and saucy. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup basil leaves and 1 cup mint leaves.

I served it on brown rice. And you know what? It was fabulous! Amazing! Super salty but in a delicious way. I needed ice cream afterwards. It tasted like a restaurant dish. The fish sauce, man, it makes all the difference. I even made it again the next night with tofu and ... still awesome. The mix of salty, spicy, sweet, the umami of the fish sauce (which smells terrible in the bottle, but obviously works!), the mint and basil, it all combined into loveliness. We gobbled it up. Maybe a little less soy sauce/fish sauce next time, though. Not a low-sodium dinner, but the perfect way to show off my thai skillz.