Orange you glad I made dinner?

So my Smalls had a rough day today so I thought I would try and make a modified version of her favorite Thai meal, papaya salad. We did not have the right ingredients so some pretty big modifications had to take place.

What we had:
Fresh Ginger
Oranges (fresh orange juice and zest)
Garlic
Boneless Ribs
Honey
Chili Sauce
Soy Sauce
Olive Oil
Honey Mustard
Spinach
Peas
Red Pepper
Carrots
Goat Cheese

I have no real understanding or methodology towards cooking. (Besides my love of watching Alton Brown.) I just see ingredients and add a little of that, a pinch of this, why not a splash of that, and hope that everything comes together in the end.

Looking at what we had I knew I didn't have the time to cook ribs as I would normally want to, so I cut them into very fine slices and set them aside in a little olive oil, salt and pepper until they came to room temperature. I then cooked them over high heat to get a good sear on each side.

I then squeezed two oranges and took the zest from half of one orange. To that I added the honey, honey mustard, minced garlic and ginger, soy sauce, and chili sauce. I added this mixture to the pan and brought it to a simmer with the seared beef. While the glaze was thickening I julienned the red pepper and carrots and placed them over a bed of spinach, along with the fresh peas. Once the orange juice and ginger mixture reduced to a sticky glaze I poured it over the lettuce.

Katie took this dish to the next level with the idea of adding crumbled goat cheese on top. The rich texture of the cheese rounded out the orange/ginger glaze.

The meal turned out fabulous and it put a smile on my Smalls' face--it was a nice end to the day to have a tasty dinner together. We both felt this was my best dinner creation ever. Not bad from pulling a bunch of random ingredients together in a half-hour.