Papaya Marinated steak w/ papaya salad

This may sound like a papaya overload, but it's not. There's other flavours going on, and if you didn't know the marinade had papaya in it, you wouldn't realise.

Little Summer loved the papaya raw, couldn't get enough. Izzy is my fussy, nose screwer upper and wouldn't have a bar of it. She did eat the marinated steak though.

I actually like eating the raw red papaya as my morning fruit. They are packed with vitamins and minerals. So good for you. 

I use the peels on my face. The flesh is actually really great at getting rid of dead skin and healing, I love how it improves my complexion. 

Papaya contains an enzyme called Papain that breaks down protein. So it works well as a marinade on tougher cuts of meat. I used rump steak in this instance, but I've also used the marinade with pork fillet and it was awesome. 

You'll need half a red papaya, which will cost you from $2.50 to $3. I was surprised it was so cheap, considering it is a tropical fruit. 

This recipe also uses kaffir lime leaves. If you aren't lucky enough to know someone with a tree, you can buy them in the herb section of the supermarket. It freezes really well so I doesn't go to waste. I just pull out the leaves I need, when I need.

Papaya marinade
1 kaffir lime leaf, sliced thinly
1/4 red papaya, mashed with a fork
1/2 teaspoon chinese 5 spice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon chilli oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Mix together. Pour and massage into 500 grams(or up to 1 kg) of rump steak.

Leave for 1/2 hour to 1 hour.

Take steak out of marinade and grill as you normally would. Serve with salad.

Papaya and avocado salad
1 spring onion, sliced
1/4 papaya, sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced
1/4 capsicum, sliced
1 kaffir lime leaf, sliced thinly
1 Tablespoon toasted pine nuts 

Place all in a bowl and gently toss together.

Dressing
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar

Mix all together and drizzle over salad.

An InLinkz Link-up

We've been marinading!*

*I was supplied with the four flavours of 'Marinade in a bag' from a PR company for this review, with a voucher for meat. This is my honest and truthful opinion.

Years ago,  the colour of our lounge room walls were a Dulux colour, called Marinade. It was red wine coloured and I loved it. When we built on, I wasn't ready to let go of the colour, it went so well with the space. I couldn't find the colour again and went with a colour called Murray Red. I died in the arse, when a four litre tin came to nearly a hundred bucks. Surely it couldn't have been true, but I was assured it was. Shite!

It was the best colour that went with the other colours in the space, 'WaxWay', a yellow and 'White duck', which is more of a grey!

When did paint become so expensive? I have never been such a princess on colour and price, but suck it up I did. Never looked back, I love our two feature walls in the big expanse that is our lounge/dining/ kid play area.

Recently I was asked to try out McCormicks, Marinade in a Bag. It reminded me of the wall colour in my previous, minute lounge room, and strangely enough, of a box of bladder wine. 

I have many memories of blowing up that bag to get every morsel of wine out. Those were the days. In my old age, I prefer to buy by the bottle. Especially when I have an image to protect, you know the image of wheeling a pram through the bottlo and not seeming like a total alco.

My favourite was the Terayaki flavour, when I got a whiff of this one as I opened the bag, I knew it was gonna be good, and it was. I chopped up some breast chicken into the bag and made kebab skewers. This was the most delicious of the range, but the others were just as awesome.

Izzy loved helping putting the chopped up breast chicken in.

Terayaki chicken skewers were tasty as!
Terayaki for chicken, pork, beef, fish and stir fries

The bags were very convenient, with a zip lock, however the seal was a bit hard to break open initially to get the meat into. Understandably so I suppose, so the marinade would not escape the bag. 

Once you have up to a kilo of meat in the bag, it is easily stored in the bag in the fridge, laid flat or just chucked in the door. 

If you are the kind of person who likes to be organised, it can be loaded with meat on shopping day, and thrown in the freezer for later use as a prepared meal ready to be defrosted for a BBQ or a family meal.

The marinades were very tasty and convenient. The meat is easily transferred onto a roasting dish, grill, BBQ or fry pan. There is some handwashing involved after this process though, depending on how much marinade you want in said roasting dish or grill, I had to get my hand in there and individually get the chops out the bag.

McCormicks Marinade in a Bag, is available to buy at Coles and Foodland supermarkets(RRP $2.99 each).

It is easy to throw in an esky for a BBQ or in the fridge or freezer for an easy tasty meal, using a wide variety of meats.

Chicken wingettes with Honey and Soy, der-licious :)
Honey and Soy marinade perfect on: chicken, pork, fish and stir fries.

Pork chops with Sticky BBQ :)
Sticky BBQ perfect on beef, chicken and pork.

Lamb chops with Red wine and garlic :)
Marinade perfect on beef, lamb and chicken.