Week 17 – The Cookbook Challenge: Aromatic Vietnamese Beef Curry
Week 17
Theme: Vietnamese
Cookbook Used: The Complete Book of Modern Asian
Author: The Australian Women’s Weekly
March has been a crazy month, hence the lack of blog posts. It all seems to be happening, and because I’m designing and producing alot of things for the Grand Prix which is at the end of the month, I’m pretty damn tired when I get home; so I don’t really want to spend much time in the kitchen!
The Cookbook Challenge makes me get into the kitchen at least once a week, it’s just a matter of finding a night to cook on! The book from this week is actually my Mum’s; but truth be known, I probably would have bought it anyways. I don’t own any cookbooks that are specifically Vietnamese, so I thought I could trust the AWW to bring me the goods.
I didn’t have any ground bean sauce. I looked in 3 different supermarkets and an Asian grocery store. So we settled on a black bean and garlic sauce. Luckily for me, it tasted fantastic, and Hamsely was most impressed!
Incredibly easy to make; I’m glad we have the cookbook challenge, as I’m not too sure if and when I would have made this recipe.
Aromatic Vietnamese Beef Curry
Australian Women’s Weekly
Get your hands on:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
800g beef strips
1 medium brown onion (150g), chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 fresh long red chilli, chopped finely
10cm stick fresh lemon grass (20g) chopped finely
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamon pods, bruised
350g snake beans, cut into 4cm lengths
2 tablespoons ground bean sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh corriander
1/2 cup (40g) toasted almond flakes
1. Heat half of the oil in wok; stir-fry beef, in batches, until browned. Cover to keep warm.
2. Heat remaining oil in wok; stir-fry onion until soft. Add garlic, chilli, lemon grass, star anise, cinnamon, cardamon and beans; stir-fry until beans are tender. Discard star anise, cinnamon and cardamon.
3. Return beef to wok with sauces; stir-fry until heated through. Remove from heat, stir in coriander and nuts.
Serves 4.
Fiona
Is it lunchtime yet? 🙂
Vee - A Melbourne Munchkin.
Umm would you believe I've never heard of Vietnamese curry? There's Thai..and Indian..and um…Malaysian..yeah. This looks very good though! Are snake beans any different to normal beans?
Anh
Yum! I think this would be nice with the Vietnamese bread.
Ellie (Almost Bourdain)
Yummo! Haven't tried dried Vietnamese curry. Very intrigued!
Jo - SecondHelping
When it doubt its hard to go past The Australian Women's Weekly!
This looks very tasty – may need to try it myself.
Good luck with all the work for the GP.
penny aka jeroxie
I hear you. It has been a hectic month. So much to do and so little time. I have not had Vietnamese curry but keen to try!
Adrian @ Food Rehab
Oooh, never had Vietnamese curry before! This looks gooooood!~
Finished off that bread yet?! LOL
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
It somehow makes me feel better that I'm not the only one ridiculously run off my feet right now. We all need maids. Can someone start a 'food bloggers free time creation fund' please?
Nice dinner! Hope it energised you 🙂
imasugarjunkie
ooh this looks so yum! hope life stops being so busy very soon for you!
Agnes
Another hand up for March being a busy month. I'm also glad about the Cookbook Challenge, otherwise I doubt I'd be doing much in the kitchen!
The curry looks good – I've never met a curry that I didn't like! 😉
muffinsareuglycupcakes
mmm. i love vietnamese food.
too bad there's not much good ones around here.
i love their beef noodles!
ahh. won't you come over to cook some for me, please? 😀
mademoiselle délicieuse
Seems that everyone has been too busy to post lately. What is wrong with this season?! But, we all still have to eat nonetheless so never too busy to cook =D
Helen (Grab Your Fork)
A shame you couldn't find any bean sauce but I reckon you found a worthwhile substitution anyway. Looks great 🙂
neil
Doesn't matter where the impetus comes from, so long as it gets done. I wasn't expecting to see such a dry curry, is that typical for the region?
Rilsta
How exciting to be working on the Grand Prix! Does that mean you get to go in a corporate box?!
Totally agree that the Cookbook Challenge makes me cook something different at least once a week, though sometimes it's hard to find the time to post!
I was eyeing off this cookbook but I have so many Asian cookbooks now.
Hannah
I've never managed to track down ground bean sauce either – but unlike you, I've always moved onto another recipe because of that. Good to know the sauce substitution worked! 🙂
Ravenous Couple
this looks great!
Jeanne
Love the sound of this yummy cook-up Shellie, and using some lovely rice to serve this up on. A very tasty and satisfying meal, with lots of nutrition. Love your presentation and pic's look great to.
Hugs,
Jeanne. x 🙂