This is the sort of excellent recipe to use good value red meat shoulder in an interesting new way! A Vietnamese lemongrass marinade infuses with beautiful flavour whilst a smidge of baking soda is the name of the game to tenderising so the pork steaks are tender like top class chops. Vietnamese avenue-meals!
Vietnamese lemongrass pork
I’ve been wanting to recreate the chargrilled lemongrass marinated pork you locate “anywhere” at the streets of Vietnam for years – but it continually got here out dry. sooner or later figured out the name of the game to keeping it juicy, so I needed to percentage the recipe without delay!
throughout Vietnam, variations of this lemongrass beef are served in diverse paperwork. On rice, soups, in rice paper rolls, even in Banh Mi. even as all are scrumptious, my favorite are the popular Vietnamese noodle bowl salads, bun thit nuong. skinny rice noodles, crowned with this beef, pickled veggies, lettuce, a smattering of peanuts, lime and served with nuoc cham, that sauce served with “everything” in Vietnam.
On Friday, I’ll percentage the overall noodle bowl recipe. I desired to post the marinated beef separately because I suppose it’s worth of your attention!
right here’s a picture of the pork rice noodle bowls. I truely took this image in Vietnam – it’s a dish i purchased from a avenue supplier in Saigon and took again to my motel to take a image:
Oh look! And stated seller in Saigon. They cooked the beef on skewers over charcoal. I’m doing a domestic version – steaks on a stove. so you can make this any night of the week – rain, hail or shine!
Why you need this Vietnamese pork in your life!
- awesome price – It’s made using affordable pork shoulder this is tenderised so it’s juicy like top rate pork chops!
- Flavour plus cost – the meat is sliced and pounded thinly for maximum flavour penetration and so much less meat goes further.
- some thing unique however yet so easy, with ingredients you can get from the local shops.
- flexible – Serve at your next BBQ with coconut rice and Asian slaw. Or wait until Friday to make Vietnamese noodle bowls!
What you need
here’s what you need to make this.
- red meat shoulder – normally, this comparatively cheap, tough reduce of red meat is slow cooked till it becomes fall-aside smooth. today, we’re the usage of it in a simply exceptional manner. Sliced thinly, then marinated with baking soda which tenderises it so when it’s cooked hard-and-rapid like steak, it’s miles soft like a high priced pork chop. (hyperlinks again for glowing reader critiques who have discovered the wonder of this approach with hen and beef!).
- Baking soda – also referred to as bi-carb / bi-carbonate. As stated within the factor above, that is what tenderises the difficult beef shoulder meat.
- Lemongrass – For unmistakable, irreplaceable lovely Vietnamese flavour!
- Limes – For tang. A Vietnamese meals favourite.
- Sugar – For candy and caramelisation.
- Soy sauce and fish sauce – The saltiness. i really like to apply each to get the right flavour balance. best fish sauce = too fishy. handiest soy sauce = lacks complexity of flavour.
- Garlic – lots!
- Oil – To increase the quantity of the marinade so there is the proper flavour infusion for the extent of meat we’re the usage of. (initially I simply had extra of all the other elements but the red meat become too salty).
How to make Vietnamese lemongrass marinated pork
the important thing to this recipe is to slice and pound the beef as thinly as you can. This serves a few purposes:
- head begin tenderising the flesh
- opens up the fibers to permit the marinade to penetrate very well
- increases surface location and flattens the beef to improve surface vicinity char – for maximum real chargrilled road-food flavour!
- lets in us to make this with good value red meat shoulder in place of costly red meat tenderloin or chops.
- Slice the beef shoulder into eight thinnish portions – gives us a head begin at the pounding. I locate it simplest to do this by using reducing the red meat on 45 diploma angle however if you have the right shaped piece, you could just cut immediately down.
- seasoned TIP: To get even(fish) pieces without pulling out the scales, cut the pork shoulder in 1/2, then every half in half of again, then each in half of once more. Voila – 8 pieces!
- Pound to 5mm / 0.2″ thickness thick using a meat mallet (the jagged side) or rolling pin. cover with cross-between or freezer luggage to save you unfavorable the beef. (pass-between is a reason made plastic sheet, sold alongside hold wrap. also useful for stacking foods inside the freezer without sticking together).
- post pounding thin pork!
- Marinade – blend the marinade components in a bowl.
- Coat pork add the red meat and use tongs to coat properly.
- Marinate 24 hours – transfer to a ziplock bag and marinate for 24 hours.
- Why blend separately first? To ensure certainly right, even distribution of the small amount of bi-carb across pretty numerous floor area. I wouldn’t ask you to dirty a bowl unnecessarily
Why a ziplock bag? because it continues the meat completely lined in a incredibly small quantity of marinade. in case you prefer a field, use a small one so the meat is as snugly outfitted as possible and toss the beef a few times for the duration of the marinading time.
- excessive warmth cooking – prepare dinner for 1 half of mins in a warm cast iron skillet OR for your BBQ over high warmness. Then prepare dinner the opposite facet for 1 minute. extremely good brief to cook dinner as it’s so skinny!
- aim for a pleasant char – The beef will char quick because of the sugar inside the marinade and that’s what we want, that true chargrilled flavour.
- nonetheless soft! Technically, with 2 1/2 minutes of excessive warmth blasting, the skinny red meat should be overcooked and dry inside, no longer to mention the hard beef shoulder hasn’t been sluggish cooked as it ought to so it need to be horridly difficult. Nope! The interior is still juicy, and it’s greater gentle than you ever imagined beef shoulder will be, way to the baking soda (examine greater in this above within the substances segment).
notice: Meat tenderised the usage of the baking soda method will be crimson inside even when it’s cooked to nicely completed! It’s simply what happens. It happens with beef too
As cited above, I’ll percentage the Vietnamese red meat Noodle Bowls recipe on Friday. but suppose past the noodle bowl! Serve it with a aspect of coconut rice, Vietnamese crimson fried rice or simple jasmine rice with a side salad. strive this type of:
- Vietnamese bird salad – minus the fowl
- Asian Slaw
- Chang’s Crispy Noodle Cabbage Salad
- Asian side Salad
- Steamed greens or any leafy greens drizzled with Asian Sesame Dressing
And simply earlier than I sign off, one extra sneak preview of this Friday’s noodle bowl:
It’s so suitable! ADORE the contrasting textures of the clean greens and herbs with the flavourful marinated lemongrass beef all doused in nuoc cham, the Vietnamese chilli-garlic sauce served with “the entirety”.
What do you observed?? Have I convinced you to provide this Vietnamese red meat a cross? i’m hoping so!!! If something, it’s really worth experiencing the magic of the marinade and the way gentle it makes beef shoulder steaks. try it!!
