Tag: southeast asian
Vietnamese Sweet Lamb Shanks
Vietnamese Sweet Lamb Shanks
Much like Vietnamese sweet pork belly, these lamb shanks are to die for. The shanks are browned with shallots, garlic, lemongrass, chilies, and ginger; then braised with coconut water, dark soy, fish sauce, and brown sugar. The shank meat is so tender that you barely have to chew it. Other cuts of meat that would work well in this recipe include lamb shoulder, beef short ribs, chuck, pork shoulder, baby back or spareribs, pork shanks, and even chicken thighs.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs lamb shanks each cut into 3 pieces
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup shallots sliced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 3 stalks lemongrass finely chopped
- 2 red chilies finely chopped
- 1 thumb ginger split in half
- 2 cups coconut water
- 2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Heat up cooking oil in a large oven sage sauté pan over medium high heat. Brown the lamb shanks on all sides for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the pan.
- Sauté the shallots, garlic, lemongrass, chilies and ginger for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the coconut water, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, and brown sugar.
- Add the lamb shanks back into the pan. Cover. Bring to a boil. Place in a preheated 300 degree oven for 2 hours.
- Place the pan on the stove top. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced.
Raw Beef Salad
Raw Beef Salad
While this is more of a Cambodian-style carpaccio than a salad, this dish is extremely easy to make and will impress your dinner guests. The beef is technically raw, but gets cooked in the acidity of the lime juice; much like ceviche. The beef salad gets tossed with peanuts, chilies, and cilantro at the end of marination and is served with slices of cucumber.
Equipment
- mortar and pestle
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 limes juiced
- 3 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 stalks lemongrass finely chopped
- 2 shallots finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1 lb top sirloin trimmed of all fat; sliced 1/8” thick or less
- 1 red chilies thinly sliced
- 2 oz toasted peanuts
- 8 basil leaves
- 1/2 small white onion thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber peeled; thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Pound in a mortar and pestle the 2 tbsp of palm sugar with the juice of 2 limes and 2 tbsp of fish sauce.
- Toss with the onions, shallots, lemongrass, garlic, and basil.
- Add in the thinly sliced beef. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
- Pour out the marinade. Stir in the rest of the fish sauce, palm sugar, and lime juice. Toss with the peanuts and red chilies.
Hmong Smoked Pork with Ginger and Lemongrass
Hmong Smoked Pork with Ginger and Lemongrass
Earlier I did a Hmong recipe for smoked beef. You can do the same smoking process with pork. I used pork sirloin since it is minimally fatty and inexpensive. The pork is cured overnight and smoked for 90 minutes over mesquite wood. The pork gets shredded in a food processor, then mixed with ginger, lemongrass, chilies, cilantro, and green onions. This flavorful, porky mix gets topped over steamed rice. The heat from the rice melts any fat in the meat as it permeates the ginger and lemongrass. FYI, this is also one of the best pork jerky recipes that you’ll ever eat.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- meat hooks
- food processor
Ingredients
- 4 lbs pork sirloin sliced 1/4” thick
- 1 tbsp pink curing salts
- 1 tsp mushroom seasoning
- 1/2 cup ginger minced
- 1/2 cup lemongrass finely chopped
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 cup green onions chopped
- 5 Thai chilies finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp salt
Wood Chips
- mesquite wood chips
Instructions
- Mix together the curing salts and mushroom seasoning.
- Marinate the pork with the cure seasoning overnight.
- Put the pork slices on a meat hooks.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Hang the pork on the top rack in your smoker.
- Smoke for 90 minutes. Remove from the smoker.
- Place the pork on a baking sheet. Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for 8 minutes a side to further dry out the pork.
- Place the pork in a food and pulse until chopped. Place the pork in a large bowl.
- Place the ginger, lemongrass, and chilies in the food processor and pulse a few times.
- Mix together the pork, lemongrass/ginger blend, cilantro, green onions, fish sauce, and salt.
