Seared Rare Beef on Fresh Plantain (Bò Tái Me Lót Chuối Chát)

My husband and I used to dine out frequently when we were still dating. We would follow our noses around to good food in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco mostly. Eight years of dating meant an abundance of good food and one fat check, but the experience was worth every morsel. One of our favorite restaurants is Ana Mandara on Beach Street located in San Francisco. This exotic, beautiful restaurant is owned by Don Johnson, Cheech Marin and executive chef Khai Duong. What we like about this place is chef Khai Duong's modern, sophisticated, French-influenced Vietnamese cuisine and of course the beautiful and romantic atmosphere. 

I used to watch chef Khai Duong's cooking show on the Vietnamese channel when I still lived in San Rafeal.  Every time when his show was on, I sat on my bed with my laptop eager to  jot down his recipes.

We haven't been back to Ana Mandara since the birth of our kids. So to stir up the nostalgia, tonight I made four dishes using most of chef Khai Duong's recipes: Seared Rare Beef on Fresh Plantain; Garlic Crab Butter Noodles; Banana Blossom Salad with Chicken and Grapfruit ; and Crispy Skin Salmon with Yellow Chives & Sweet Chili Sauce.

Since I made all the dishes at once and tried to get them done before my husband came home from work, I didn't have enough time to take pictures of all the dishes.

Enjoy a wonderful recipe of one of the dishes that I experimented: Seared Rare Beef on Fresh Plantian.  A hearty, yet elegant appetizer that can be served at room temperature up to an hour from preparation. Great for entertaining.

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RECIPE: Seared Rare Beef on Fresh Plantian

Serves: 4

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Making Tamarind Sauce
1/2 package of tamarind pulp (7 ounces), cut into small pieces

2 cups of water

10 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon sambal oelek (ground fresh red chili paste)

 8 tablespoons of  fish sauce
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Put the tamarind pieces into a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8 minutes. Drain and pour the mixture into a fine mesh strainer.

Wet Tamerind, Seedless come in a 14 oz bag

 Press the pulp to extract the thick tamarind liquid into a bowl. (Makes about 1 1/2 cups tamarind liquid). Add the sugar, sambal oelek, and fish sauce. Stir until smooth.  Taste test the sauce and adjust the fish sauce and sugar for salt and sour-sweetness.  The orignal recipe called for only 3 Tbsps of sugar and 4 Tbsps of fish sauce but the tamarind sauce was still very sour.  I ended up adding a lot more of sugar and fish sauce. 

Pour tamerind sauce in a glass jar and store in ther refrigerator for later use.

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Making Beef

1/2 teaspoon of 5-spices powder

1 teaspoon of chopped garlic

Several twists of black pepper

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

8 ounces New York sirloin strip, trimmed of fat

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons of tamarind sauce (see recipe above)

1 tablespoon of crisp shallot flakes

1 tablespoon of Thai basil, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of mint (rau hún), roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), roughly chopped

1 small firm fresh plantain with the peel left on

3 tablespoon of white vinegar to mix with a bowl of cold water
Chopped peanuts for garnish

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Combine the first four ingredients in a shallow bowl and stir to distribute ingredients. Place the sirloin strip whole into the bowl to coat each side of the beef evenly with the marinade.

Prepare a grill or skillet until it is hot. Sear the beef for about 30 to 45 seconds on each side or until there are grill marks, leaving it rare inside. When cool enough to handle, cut crosswise into thin slices. Put the beef slices into a bowl and toss with lemon and lime juice. Let sit for about 2 minutes.

Add two tablespoons of the prepared tamarind sauce to the beef and then fold in the crisp shallot flakes (I made my own crisp shallot flakes, but you can find at Asian markets), mint and basil. Make sure to taste it and adjust tamarind sauce to your liking.  The original recipe didn't call for mint but always like to add some mint (rau hún) and Vietnamese coriander (rau răm) to salad dishes.  Toss to mix. Set aside.

Do not peel the plantain, but use a vegetable peeler to remove any black spots. With a mandoline, cut the plantain crosswise into thin slices and put into a bowl of cold water with the 3 tablespoons of white vinegar to prevent discoloration.

You can find Plantain at Asian Supermarkets.

When ready to serve, pat the plantain slices dry and arrange the slices on a platter. Arrange a small mound of the rare beef on top of each slice of plantain.

Next to Seared Rare Beef dish is Banana Blossom Salad with Chicken and Grapfruit.

Garnish with chopped peanuts and crisp shallot flakes

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Serving Suggestions:

Serve with roasted sesame rice paper.

Kem Chuối (Banana Ice Cream Bars)

Have you ever tried Vietnamese Banana Ice Cream Bar with roasted peanuts and shredded coconut? It's very simple to make and actually tastes pretty good. I haven't had it for so long. It's not that bananas are rare  by any means in the U.S. It's just that we have abundant food here and sometimes forget the simple good old day food that we used to eat.

Banana ice cream bar (we called Kem Chuối) brings back so much memories from my precious childhood in Vietnam. Since 3rd grade besides going to school, everyday a few of my close friends and I walked to our tutors's houses for Math, Vietnamese and English.  After our tutoring session over we often walked to a dessert house for yogurts, banana ice cream bars and glasses of cold water.

During the summer time, my neighbor friends and I made kem chuối at her house and sold them to the other kids.  We didn't make much profit but we enjoyed being little entrepeneurs.

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RECIPE: Banana Ice Cream Bar (Kem Chuối)

Make: 4-8 banana ice cream bars

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4 ripe apple bananas or any types of banana, peeled

1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 tablespoon or more of fresh durian (optional)
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts or roasted pecan, chopped
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
plastic food wrap

4 bamboo sticks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon tapioca flour + 2 teaspoon water, mixed it

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Prepare Coconut Milk

Bring coconut milk, salt and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Coconut milk should taste sweet and a little bit salty. Do a taste test and adjust sugar and salt if needed.  When coconut milk starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium.  Stir the mixed tapioca flour, slowly pour it into the saucepan and constantly stir it for a few seconds. Coconut milk needs to be thicker.  Remove from heat. Pour it on a plate. Let it cool down. If used durian, add it to mixed coconut. Mix it well. 

frozen grated coconut (white bag)

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Assemble Banana

Use spatula to press a whole banana down.  If you want to make a smaller size of banana bar, split a banana into 2 pieces and press it down. Dip it in coconut plate, sprinkle shredded coconut and roasted peanuts or roasted pecan. Repeat it on the other side of banana.  Stick a bamboo stick in the middle of banana.  Wrap banana with plastic food wrap.  Freeze it until firm.

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I made 2 kinds of dip: coconut and durian coconut

Bananas are ready to freeze.

My girls are enjoying delicious Kem Chuối.

Brrr...it's too cold!

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*The orange stripes you see on the banana ice cream bars (picture shown on top of the page) are carrot stripes. If used carrots, shred carrots into thin stripes. Sprinkle carrot stripes on the banana.

Tép Mỡ (Fried Pork Fat)

Fried pork fat might not be the heathiest due to the high amount of saturated fat but it's certainly delicious. You may use fried pork fat to sprinkle on anything.

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RECIPE: Fried Pork Fat 

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Ingredients

2 pounds of Pork Fat - availabe at any Asian stores. 

They usually have it in the back. So just ask the person at the meat department. 

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Prepare Pork Fat

Remove pork skin. Dice the pork fat into small cubes.

They will shrink during the process. Put them in a large pot and render the pork fat cubes over medium heat, occasionally stirring. As the cubes release more and more fat, the rendered fat tends to splatter quite a bit. It's done when the pork fat cubes are golden brown; remove them from the oil.

Place a piece of paper towel on top of a plate and pour the fried pork fat over the top to drain.

You can store the left over fried pork fat in a glass jar and keep refrigerated once it has cooled. They should be fine for a couple of weeks.

Raspberry Palmiers...a perfect treat for Valentine!

Every month I try to experiment with a new recipe for my daughter's preschool class. A friend of mine suggested to try puff pastries with raspberry since I have lots of puff pastries in the freezer. That sounded yummy and I think the kids would love it.
So yesterday, I made Raspberry Palmiers for the first time. My daughters and my husband devoured them. I made some extra rolls and freezed them. Today my oldest daughter begged for them so I took one roll out from the freezer and baked it. She ate them all through out the day.

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RECIPE: RASPBERRY PALMIERS

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Ingredients:

1 box of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheet or any brand you prefer

Smucker's Raspberry Jam or any flavors of your choice

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon water

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Make the Palmiers:

Sprinkle a cutting board with 1/2 cup of the sugar.
Dredge one side of  puff pastry  in the sugar. Roll out the dough into about  a 11-by-12-inch rectangle and make sure it absorbs as much of the sugar as possible.   
Spread jam on the dough. 
Fold each 12-inch side two-thirds of the way in towards the center.
Fold each side in again so that the folded edges meet at the center point. Fold the dough over again from the center forming 6 layers of dough. 
Wrap it well in plastic wrap.
Place the dough on a tray and freeze it for about 15 minutes or until firm.

Preheat to 375°F. Get ungreased baking sheet ready.

Remove dough from freezer.
Trim off the ends, if uneven.
Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/2-inch slices. 
Spread both sides of the top of slice to form a V shape.   
Arrange the slices cut side down on the baking sheet, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.
Cut only as many slices as will fit on the baking sheet.
Rewrap the uncut portion of dough and refrigerate until needed.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water until smooth.
Using a pastry brush, brush the egg mixture over the top of each cookie. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes until they are golden brown.
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.
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Not a huge fan of jam?  you can use cinnamon powder instead.  Just sprinkle cinnamon powder over the dough.

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Puff Pastries, Sugar, Egg, Jam

My puff pastries are already precut into small squares so I connected 2 squares to make a small rectangle.

 With this small size of rectangle, I can only formed 4 layers of dough

Freeze it for about 15 minutes or until firm before cutting it into 1/2 inch slices

Unbaked Cinammon Palmiers

Final result of Cinammon Palmiers

Unbaked Rasberry Palmiers

Final resutlt of Raspberry Palmiers

Pate Chaud (Bánh Pateso) & Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my Vietspices blog! I am so excited to launch my first cooking blog. Cooking has always been my passion since I was a little girl. I can never forget those days in my hometown Pleiku, Vietnam when my neighbor friends and I played with food on the side walk right in front of our houses. We used to steal food from our parents and together cooked in our pretend ceramic cookware and ate straight from the pot. I love cooking so much that I had to beg my family's maid to let me help her to cook and wash dishes. Sometimes, she was nice enough to grant my wish, but other times she would report me to my mom and I ended up getting yelled. Reminiscing of my childhood days bring back such wonderful nostalgic fun and evoke the spices that have been indelibly etched into my senses leading to the creation of VietSpices. 

So to celebrate my blog, I would like to share one of my favorite appetizers Pate Chaud (Pateso). This is the one I remember fondly from childhood. Everyday around noon, a lady would show up in my neigborhood carrying a bamboo basket full of fresh and warm pastries (Pate Chauds, Steamed Rice Cake (bánh bò), and other French pastries). It smelled so good every time she opened up the basket cover and I followed my nose to the delicious aroma of Pate Chauds. 

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RECIPE: Pate Chaud

Pate Chaud Lollipops

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Ingredients

Filling

0.7 lb Ground Pork

3/4-1 small Onion, chopped 

1/3 tube of  Pork Pate (Braunschweiger), Braunschweiger Farmer John brand comes in 8oz tube

2 1/2 teaspoons Sugar

3/4 teaspoon Salt

3/4-1 teaspoon Ground Pepper

1 tablespoon Cooking Wine, optional

Pate Chaud Shell

2 Egg Yolks

2 boxes of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets or any brand 

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Making Filling

Combine filling ingredients, and mix thoroughly

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Assembling

Thaw pastry sheets for about 10 minutes but not too long.  The pastry will be too soft and it's hard to work with.

Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles.

Scoop some filling onto a pastry.  Use a tablespoon to help portion.

Place another square or circle pastry on top and use a fork, the end of a chopstick or the end of a lollipop stick to pinch the two pastries together. Use the left over pastry from the circle to wrap around the circle. 

pinch the two pastries together with the end of a chopstick

Brush the top with egg yolk

Bake in oven at 350°F for about 25 minutes or until they are golden brown

My two darlings enjoyed freshly baked Pate Chauds

Enjoy baking! 

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*Puff Pastries can be bought at Cash and Carry.  They come in a box of 105 squares or full sheets for about $25.  Click on the link below to find stores in your area : http://www.smartfoodservice.com/

Sheets are precut into squares.  Each square makes 2 pate chauds.  Use a full sheet pastry to make round pate chauds. 

*You can make them ahead of time and store in the freezer for a couple months.