For those who did not catch my response to the comments I received on my Vietnamese food post a while back, let me reiterate that I DID NOT cook the beef stew shown in that picture 😛
Instead I had tarpowed the stew for dinner that day.
However, today I decided to try making my own Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo’ Kho). Hehehe…itchy hands make for a busy kitchen, eh? I googled for the recipe, and not surprisingly, I found so many different variations of the stew. So instead of just following one recipe to the tee, I mixed and matched several and came up with my own.
Here’s my recipe for Vietnamese Beef Stew:
Ingredients
For the marinade:
- Chunks of beef (I chose the one that stated “good for stews”), about 1lb
- 1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
- A few slices of fresh ginger
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp five-spice powder
- 1 or 2 star anise
- 3 tbsp fish sauce (this is a must for Vietnamese cuisine)
- dash of salt
- some freshly ground black peppercorn
N.B. I did not measure everything using measuring tools, most of the time I just did the agak-agak trick.
For the stew:
- Vegetable oil for sautéeing
- 1 bombay onion, sliced (oh shucks… I just realized I left out the garlic!)
- 1 small can tomato purée
- 3 cups water
- 1-2 carrots, cut into chunks
For the garnishing:
- Fresh coriander
How I experimented:
- Marinade the stuff under the marinade section for at least 30 minutes. I kinda lost track of time, but anyhoo…
- Then heat up the vegetable oil in a pot or deep saucepan and sautée the beef chunks for just a little while. Remove and place back into the marinade bowl. Set aside.
- Sautée the bombay onions for a few minutes till fragrant, then add the tomato purée. Add some water to prevent it from becoming too thick.
- Simmer for about 5 minutes covered.
- Pour the beef chunks and everything else in the marinade into the pot, and add the 3 cups of water. Bring mixture to a boil, add the carrots and simmer on low for about an hour and a half. I suppose it would be easier had I used a slow cooker, but I do not have one with me here in US, so I had to periodically check on the pot to avoid it from drying up.
- Dish out into a bowl, garnish with some coriander and serve with hot steamed rice! Oh…don’t forget to take a picture first! *wink*
I can’t wait to see what my hubby and my boy thinks of my lil experiment! 🙂
Now you are making me hungry…so how was it?
The Giddy Tigress says: Both boys gave the thumbs up! 😀
actually it looks like the vietnamese beef stew i’ve seen here b4. so it shd be yummy!
The Giddy Tigress says: You bet it was!
Thanks for the recipe.It looks delicious.
The Giddy Tigress says: You are most welcome. And thanks for stopping by.
Super cool! I’m going to try this. I tried googling for the recipe…like you, heaps of variations came up. I got fedup and decided to DIY. But it ended tasting a lot like minestrone. HA HA HA!
The Giddy Tigress says: Minestrone? Probably you put too much tomato puree in it!
the one i tried in melbourne is good. so far the one is KL’s one is no good at all. hmm am tempted to try this recipe myself
got a tag for u
http://thotsntales.com/?p=1416
The Giddy Tigress says: Yeah, try it and let me know how it turns out. Thanks for the tag!