Saturday, January 22, 2011

Vietnamese Beef


This was delicious! I found a recipe for grilled beef that I liked, so I just adapted for the stove top. Please see my previous post regarding authenticity.

The sauteed beef is dressed with garlic, ginger, chilies, sugar, rice vinegar, lemon grass and fish sauce, and topped with mint and peanuts. I served it with a ginger rice.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls


This was my first attempt at cooking Vietnamese food. Or "Vietnamese" food. I have very little experience with it, and so I can't claim to have the flavors exactly right. My apologies to the Vietnamese if this tasty version is not 100% authentic. (I know I get annoyed when people totally change a dish, but still claim it's "Middle Eastern.")

I consulted several Vietnamese sources, and each had a slightly different recipe, so I filled the rice paper with my own combination of pork, shrimp, mint, lettuce, bean sprouts, rice noodles, and scallions. The dipping sauce is made of water, rice vinegar. The dipping sauce is made up of water, fish sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, chili, sugar, and ginger.