Vietnamese Butterbeef

Dear Michelle-

Those oatmeal cookies look terrific. I don't know how you can bear to bake anything right now; I haven't turned on my oven since before I left for the West Coast. I'd love to try those (hint, hint), as I've been missing those things that I usually do like to bake when it's not stiflingly hot and humid in my apartment, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. I'll share my go-to recipe with you once I'm inclined to touch the oven dial, but for know I'll have to forgo, and you seem well-supplied with oatmeal cookies for the time being.

I feel like I haven't been cooking much lately. This isn't true, of course, since we rarely go out to eat and even more rarely (like never) miss meals, but I've been reluctant to make anything elaborate or that requires much stove time. Do you remember me telling you about my foray into Vancouver's Chinatown and the incredible Vietnamese butterbeef we had there?

Chinatown is supposed to be one of the not-so-nice parts of town, but I've felt less safe in parts of Manhattan. Though much lower and wider in scale than New York's Chinatown, the shops and smells seemed familiar to me in a very pleasing way. (I love New York's Chinatown, and have worked around there for years)




As in New York, the Chinatown area also seems to have a large number of Vietnamese restaurants, and we were headed to Phnom Pehn in search of the butterbeef and chicken wings, which are mentioned in almost all of the "must-eat in Vancouver" articles that we of course checked out.

Reviews online, you know, the democratic Yelp-type reviews, are mixed. Several talk about how great this place USED to be, how bad the service is, and how it's just not worth going any more. These are balanced by declarations of love for both butterbeef and chicken wings, among other various, but not as frequently mentioned, offerings. It felt like we waited forever for our food, but I think this was because we'd gotten lost on the way over and were very hungry, salivating over the plates in front of the parties sharing our table. We knew already what we wanted, and the other two parties had both ordered those two dishes, so we knew there was something special in store for us. Taking the time to take photos of the two dishes was torture.

The butterbeef was very rare, like bloody-in-the-middle and oh-so-tender rare, sliced so thinly it easily tore into bite-size pieces with chopsticks. It was laid out on a plate with a raised lip, and the indent was filled with the most delicious sour, then sweet, sauce with the depth of beef jus and fish sauce. All of this was covered with chopped cilantro, crunchy stem and all, and fried shallots, the whole thing at room-temperature. I don't know that it's meant to be eaten with rice, but Jeff had ordered some, and it was a great way to get all of that sauce.

I've been wanting to try to make this at home since I had it; since I can't go to Vancouver every time I wanted to have butterbeef, it only made sense to try to replicate it. The hardest thing about this is finding an acceptable replacement for the beef. Since this, in all other respects, is a terrific hot-weather-no-cooking-heat dish, making my own roast beef was not an option. I'm pretty sure that's what it was, perhaps cut at a slight angle to the grain? The texture of the cut (both to look at and to the mouth) was a bit softer than the roast beef I'm used to. I went to my butcher and got a half-pound of high-quality roast beef, which I deemed an acceptable substitute. Our friend Monique came over the first time I tried my version, and we ate ALL of it, going back for seconds or thirds.

I've made this twice now, one time guessing how much of everything I added, once actually measuring. Jeff had to taste and taste until he told me he was sure I had it right, and I think it's pretty close. The only thing I'd do differently would be to add some concentrated beef stock or demiglace, or maybe just boil it all down until it's a little thicker. We ate this on sushi rice the first couple of times, then the leftovers made pretty good sandwiches. Next time I'll toss all ingredients with rice noodles and lots of sauce. I've also used the sauce as a delicious marinade for tofu.

Phnom Pehn Butterbeef (approximation)

1/2 lb thinly sliced, very rare high-quality roast beef.

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 fried shallot (thinly slice, separate, toss in flour, fry), and garlic if you like

1 handful crushed peanuts (my addition)

cooked sushi rice

Fish Sauce Vinaigrette:

2 1/2 T palm sugar (or raw, or if you can't get either of those, light brown)

1/4 c lime juice

5t rice wine vinegar

3T soy sauce

1T fish sauce

Mix sugar with fish and soy sauces to dissolve. Add lime juice and rice wine vinegar. Taste and adjust as necessary. Jeff thought these proportions tasted too much like fish sauce to him in isolation, but once it was on the beef he did not notice. So taste on a slice of beef--you'll want to, anyway. Boil it down if you want it thicker; add a little beef stock or jus if you happen to have it. Refrigerate.

Make rice, fry shallots, chop cilantro if you haven't already. Lay the beef out on a deep plate and cover liberally in the sauce. Chuck a big handful of cilantro on top, followed by shallots and peanuts (our own accidental, false-memory addition). I'd recommend having extra sauce, shallots, and peanuts on the table.

Enjoy!