Thai Beef Salad

Years ago, when we were in the grass-fed beef biz, we participated in an event pairing local beef with chefs in Santa Fe, NM.  We worked with the chef at Harry's Roadhouse.  For the life of me, I can't remember his name, but he was an incredible young man with mad skills!  He served our beef up in lettuce wraps, in a Thai Beef Salad style.  Oh my goodness, one of my top five beef meals ever!
Here's my version... It's always changing to whatever I have around.  I use up whatever leftover grilled steak we have, and when I grill I usually just season with salt and pepper, sometimes garlic or garlic salt.

Per person:
4 oz cold grilled beef (can use hanger, flank, sirloin, whatever you want). We like it med rare.  Slice thin.
Approx 1 cup salad mix.
I use mixed greens, baby kale, carrots, celery, cucumber, green onion or red onion, peppers, whatever you have on hand, this is a great place for crunchy and dense textures.

Dressing (this dresses about 4-5 servings, increase or decrease as needed.
1/4 cup lime juice
2 TBSP fish sauce
1 TBSP was grated ginger and garlic
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, basil and mint
Sometimes I use a tbspn of toasted sesame oil, but not always.

Let sit and serve up.
This is one of this dishes I make in huge quantities as it tends to get better after sitting in the fridge.  It is perfect on busy, hot summer days when we need healthy meals to keep us going from sunup until well after the sun goes down.
On a side note, my friend and her family send home the most beautiful canned beets and I love serving those along side this meal.

Enjoy!

Holiday Game Recipe

Been saving that deer tenderloin? Depending on how many you feed, (I think a fairly good starting place is about a third to a half pound of meat per person, we like lots of meat) keep those tenderloins whole and serve them up for your Holiday Feast! Elk, Venison, Grass-fed Beef, you name it!
Sides, it will often get the whole family involved in the cooking process. And, there is nothing funner than firing up the grill in the snow!

Marinade
a can of pinapple chunks
Juice of 1-2 limes (or a few squirts from the little green plastic lime!)
salt and pepper
a dash of rosemary, garlic salt (or the real stuff, fresh garlic is great, just dice a clove up), paprika, seasoned salt

1-3 tenderloins

You may need to double the marinade if you are doing more than this.

Mix your marinade in a plastic tub large enough for the tenderloins to fit into. Let meat set for at least 30 minutes, maybe an hour or two. To grill, I take off the chunks, they will just fall in anyway.
Get your grill good and hot and set a few small dampened chunks of wood (ok, a word of caution here, fruit wood is great, oak is pretty strong flavored stuff, mesquite is available at most stores) into the coals for a good smokey flavor. Set your tenderloins on and keep on eye on them. Last time I did this, the deer cooked about 14 minutes, I rotated it around about 3 times to get it grilled on the outside and moved to the back of the grill off of the heat so it smoked, and I got a good medium temperature on it (pink and moist in the center). My good friend, Bill, at the Timbers at Chama, says the most important thing is to not let it dry out... (if you want great NM hunting, check them out http://www.thetimbersatchama.com/)
Let set a few minutes befor you carve and then set that plate in the center of the table and slice off thin slices of heaven for everyone!
I love my meat medium rare, that said, I rarely get it cooked there. I am impatient, etc. and so just know that trying recipes a few times is the best way to master it.