Bo Kho is a Vietnamese beef stew, rich and aromatic, slow-cooked with lemongrass, star anise, and carrots, often served with rice, bread or rice noodles.
Ingredients
Marinade:
2Tbspfish sauce
1Tbspbrown sugar
¼cupfresh ginger, grated
1TbspChinese five spice powder
1tspblack pepper
3lbschuck roast or beef brisket, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
Annatto oil:
½cupavocado oil , or any neutral oil
1Tbspannatto seeds
Ingredients:
6 largeshallots, chopped
3cups Roma tomatoes, chopped
3clovesgarlic, minced
3Tbsplemongrass, chopped
1Tbspkosher salt
2Tbspketchup
4 Roma tomatoes, quartered
2cinnamon sticks
¼cupstar anise
1litercoconut water
2litersbeef broth
2Tbspfish sauce
1Tbspmushroom powder
5lemongrass stalks, smashed and bundled together
2lbscarrots, peeled, cut into 2 inch pieces
1bay leaf
Optional toppings:
bean sprouts
Thai chili peppers, chopped
lime wedges
onions , sliced
green onions
cilantro
rau ram
mint leaves
basil
Optional to serve with:
Hu Tieu noodles, pho noodles, rice or French baguette
Instructions
In a medium size bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients together.
Then add the beef and massage it into the marinade mix.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
To make the annatto oil, heat oil in a saucepan until it’s just barely hot, but not smoking. Remove the saucepan from heat. Add annatto seeds and let the seeds bleed red, then strain. Put annatto infused oil in a small bowl and set aside to use later.
Take beef out of the fridge. Let it sit for an hour to bring it to room temperature.
Heat a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat. Add ¼ cup of annatto oil to the pot.
Once it’s hot, add half of beef in a single layer. Do not overcrowd. Let it brown without touching it, three minutes per side.
Remove beef from pot and repeat process for the remaining half of the beef.
In the same pot, once all beef is removed, on high heat, add 2 Tbsp of annatto oil (if there’s not much oil left in the pot) then add the shallots, lemongrass and garlic and stir fry for a couple of minutes until soft, making sure to scrape the bottom.
Add chopped tomatoes and ketchup then stir fry for several minutes until everything is nicely mixed together.
Place beef, along with all of its juices, back into the pot and coat them well with the stir fry mix.
Add remaining ingredients.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer (small bubbling) for 1 ½ hours until all the flavors have infused and the carrots are tender.
Make sure to occasionally skim the foam from the broth throughout the cooking process.
Serve with either noodles and eat as a noodle soup, or dip with French bread.
Garnish with herbs and top with bean sprouts, chopped chili and sliced onions. Finally, squeeze a lime in each serving bowl.