Marinated pork with Papaya salad

she says:

So tonight I was left to fend for myself food wise as Andy had a work function...We still had some papaya left so I quickly made up the papaya salad which is so easy and so tasty (grated papaya, normal mint, vietnamese mint and coriander).  There are many variations of this salad - I don't think adding coriander is authentic but I love the stuff so I add it when I can. I also chopped up some chilli and garlic to add to the already prepared Nuoc Mam (fish dipping sauce).  We usually refer to the Nuoc Mam recipe from 'Little Vietnam' by Nhut Huynh - which by the way is an awesome book full of easy and very tasty Vietnamese recipes (including Papaya salad).

I marinated the meat earlier in the day using a recipe that Andy found on the internet.
1kg beef or pork, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp garlic (5/6 garlic cloves) minced, 1 heaped tbsp minced lemongrass, 1tbsp sesame oil, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1/4 tsp baking soda.  I usually put the garlic, lemongrass, salt, chilli and black pepper in the motor and pestle and bash to a paste like consistency.  Then I add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Slice the beef or pork thinly (Andy always suggests putting the meat in the freezer first for 30 mins or so, so it is a bit harder and therefore easier to cut).  Put marinade on meat and put in fridge.

Then I use a griddle pan to cook the meat on high heat with a bit of vegi oil.  The marinated meat dish is also a big favourite of my daughters and she will devour this with rice any day of the week.

Even though there is a bit of sugar in the dressing and marinade I still think it is a fairly light and healthy meal.  This has been one of my staples for the last 2 years.

he says:

The Thit Nuong recipe is from one of the first Vietnamese food blogs I discovered, Miss Adventure @ Home. In my early days of searching out Vietnamese home style recipes I came across this great blog and slowly worked my way through many of the recipes Miss Adventure kindly posted. I really think that recipes from blogs are often much better that those from websites. The Thit Nuong is a wonderful easy to make marinade, although I usually use the beef version (with pork neck) which is almost identical to the pork but for the addition of  sesame oil which I reckon makes it even better. I also don't add any sesame seeds, not sure why?