melt-in-your-mouth super tender beef
slowly braised in a beautiful sauce
spiked with Vietnamese flavors this is
my version of Vietnamese beef stew
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Vietnam has so many interesting dishes
and I love this one because it's one of
the ones that takes a little bit from
French cuisine and that's going to Viet
Nam's history of course and this is a
really beautiful beef stew but flavored
with amazing Vietnamese spices and
aromatics oh I love it anyway let's get
started on the all-important marinade
because that is gonna add a lot of the
flavor that we're looking for so I just
need some lemongrass obviously not your
usual suspect for beef stew now to break
this up I just want to hit this with the
back of my knife and I always like to
peel off these outer layers it can be
really quite firm a bit hard and tough
slice off the end so now we're in the
really soft part of the lemongrass and
I'm just going to finely slice that
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to that I'm gonna add some fish sauce
some brown sugar
and some Chinese 5-spice so this is my
homemade Chinese five-spice if you want
to give it a try you can watch the video
on how to make it on my youtube channel
I just love the fragrance of this and
when it's fresh like this it really
makes a big difference just give it a
mix through
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now let's talk about the beef I am using
beef chuck and the reason is that I love
this fatty marbling that goes right
through that beef you're really looking
for a secondary cut of beef here because
I want it to break down and all the fat
and the little bits of sin you will get
all gelatinous and soft and amazing so
that's the kind of beef that you want
you could use beef Shin as well that
would be a good one and I'm just gonna
get that straight into my marinade and I
just give this a mix through and you
will be surprised at how much fish sauce
really emphasizes the flavor of the beef
when you go to fry this a little bit
later on the beef just smells beefier
and the finished dish tastes beefier I
think and it's all because that fish
sauce just adds a bit of kick savory
kick or umami kick to the dish
you just want to give that marinade time
to do it to work in there about 30
minutes is good so the beef is had it's
time to get extra beefy in that marinade
so now we're gonna start our stew and
just like any Western or French stew
we're gonna start off by browning the
meat so I want awesome oil into a hot
pan and now contrary to what you'll hear
in a lot of different places searing the
meat is nothing to do with sealing in
juices or any wicked things like that
this is purely about flavor so the
reaction that happens on the outside of
the base or the Browning and on that
beautiful color that is the flavor that
we want in our beef stew so it's purely
a flavor play here
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now I've done it for the crowd your pan
here if you need to do this in batches
that's fine the important thing is that
they're all about the color and the heat
and the brownies here so once I've got
that beautiful deep color on all sides
of that beef I'm just going to take it
out into a tray
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okay now any leftover marinade in your
bowl just pull that on top of the beef
as well and we'll get all of that back
into the pan along with those resting
juices a bit later but first we want to
fry off a few more aromatics so I'm
going to add a little bit more oil to
the pan here don't wash the pan just
leave those lovely beefy juices in the
bottom add in some garlic and some
shallots
now if your facial it's time to soften
up in a pan here use your spoon to
scrape up any little bits of flavor from
the bottom as well now I'm going to add
in some tomato paste
that tomato-paste a little time to cook
out in the pan
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now I'm also going to need some ginger
here I just want some slices that are
going to infuse the sauce and some star
anise and some cinnamon
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now add that beef back in in any of
those juices
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just makes that beep around get it
coated in that tomato paste
now I want to add in some parrots
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and then some water
so I just want enough water that it sort
of comes about halfway up that beef and
carrot mixture a lot of juice will come
out of the beef as well so I won't add
too much
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now just wait for this to come back up
to a gentle simmer and then you can put
a lid on and you can do this two ways so
on the stove top is fine a really low
gentle heat for a couple of hours or
until that beef is really meltingly
tender I tend to find though that
cooking this in the oven is a lot easier
because sometimes you can overheat the
beef as it's cooking on a stove top
because of that really hot heat
underneath I find the beef isn't as
tender so I'm gonna get mine into the
oven
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now this beef is we make my kitchen
smell amazing take a look
all those beautiful spices of star nice
the cinnamon are divine now let's just
check and see if that beef is ready what
I want is for that piece just to fall
apart a touch of my spoon and there you
go beautifully tender ah so good now
we'll just test the sauce for a little
bit of seasoning let's just see that is
such a beautiful combination you can't
even really put your finger on all the
different aromatics because they all
just blend in so harmoniously but the
lemongrass is there and that beautiful
stone is so delish I will add a little
bit more fish sauce though for my liking
just gently stir that through
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now we just serve that up a nice big
bowl
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a little bit of coriander on top now
this goes perfectly with stand rice or
my preference is a beautiful nice crusty
French baguette dunk that into that
sauce a piece of beef that is so heaven
ah so good this is honestly these do
whole nother level if you've got any
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thanks guys
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