A good thing about having Hawaiian health insurance is the
Island Scene magazine that shows up every quarter, bringing a bit of paradise to this windswept corner of New England. Each issue has two or three ostensibly healthy recipes; one issue from last winter had an intriguing
Vietnamese beef stew recipe that we didn't get to try until today. It turned out to be a fantastic comfort food, perfect no matter if your winter days are 58°F (Hawaii) or 28°F (here).
- The original recipe makes enough for 8, so we cut ours in half. We still ended up using about a pound and a half of beef tri-tip, 3 star anise, and 2 stalks of lemongrass.
- We had half of a jalapeño in the fridge, so we used that instead of chili peppers. Because I was the one slicing all of the ingredients, I only used about half of the seeds, but I'd probably just leave all the seeds in next time; it wasn't THAT spicy the way we did it today.
- Next time, I'd add less salt and cut down the amount of fish sauce: the sauce overpowered many of the other flavours. I'd cut it back to maybe a tablespoon for the half recipe. Or maybe I should get a better-quality fish sauce that doesn't taste like mostly salt.
- I thought the inclusion of tomato paste was kind of odd, and then when I actually added it in I was convinced it was a poor idea because my pot now resembled something Italian as opposed to something Vietnamese. But after cooking for an hour, the pot no longer looked like a thin pasta sauce and since the final dish was so tasty, I figured the tomato paste was a worthwhile addition. Possibly something to reduce a bit for the next time we make the stew so that it doesn't overpower other flavours.
- I have a bunch of candied ginger from some recent baking projects, so instead of buying fresh, I just sliced up some of the candied stuff and reduced the added sugar called for in the recipe. For what it's worth though, it was the kind of candied ginger that is not coated in sugar crystals.
- Homemade bread goes VERY WELL with this.
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| We had to buy star anise and lemongrass for this, but it was a great excuse to finally try some new spices. |
The stew has some great flavour: so much so that I declared that I didn't need anything for dessert this evening, which is something incredibly rare for me to say (usually I'm all "Ice cream? Macarons? Pie? Fruit? Dried fruit? Cereal? Chocolate chips? All of the above?"). We both agreed that this stew was definitely something to make again, especially since we'll probably have to put up with a couple more New England winters before we can move out to Honolulu. :)
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| Seriously: so tasty. |
