1½ tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin powder
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
1 teaspoon finely grated kaffir lime or lemon rind
½ teaspoon salt
1½ lb (750 g) rump steak, in ½ in (1.5 cm) slices, cut in I in (2.5 cm) squares
bamboo skewers, soaked in cold water 30 minutes
Put the soy sauce, lime juice, vodka or brandy, 2 teaspoons of the oil, coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, lime rind, and salt into a bowl. Add the beef, stirring to coat thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours or up to 8 hours, stirring a couple of times while marinating
Grease the grill of a barbecue or gas or electric griller with oil. Heat until very hot. Remove the beef from the marinade and thread onto bamboo skewers, first soaked in water for 30 minutes. Grill over high heat, turning frequently, until the beef is cooked to your taste, about 5 minutes.
Serves: 4-6 Preparation time: 12 min + 2 hours marinating Cooking time: 6-10 min
spiced dried beef saiko met
I first came across Lao-style dried beef in a simple thatch restaurant in Vientiane, where it was served with mugs of wonderfully cold beer. It's not surprising that different versions dried beef are found in most of Southeast Asia, for in rural areas where refrigeration is non-existent, thin slices of marinated beef are sun-dried as a method of preservation. The dried beef is grilled to make a savory snack and can also be shredded and added to salads or served with rice. Don't worry if you can't sun-dry the beef — there are alternative methods.
1 lb (500 g) striploin or topside, in one piece
2 tablespoons minced ginger or 2 tablespoons very thinly sliced lemon grass
1-2 large red chilies, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Chill the beef in the freezer for 30 minutes, then slice it thinly across the grain. Process the ginger or lemon grass, chilies, garlic, and sugar to a smooth paste, adding a little of the fish sauce if needed to keep the mixture turning. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the fish sauce, soy sauce, salt, coriander, and oil, mixing well. Add the beef strips and massage with your hand for about 30 seconds to mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours.
Spread the meat in a single layer on bamboo tray or on a metal rack and dry in the sun, turning the meat after a few hours. Leave in the sun until the meat is completely dry; this will take around 8 hours of full sunshine. Alternatively, you can put the rack of meat slices in a large baking dish and cook in the lowest possible oven until meat has completely dried out, about 4 hours. To serve, the dried beef can be cooked briefly over hot charcoal, about 2 minutes on both sides, or under a very hot grill. If you prefer, you could cook it on racks in a hot oven (425°F or 200°C) until crisp, about 10 minutes.
Serves: 4 Preparation time: 15 min Drying time: 4-8 hours Cooking time: 4-10 minutes
steamed pork sausage cha luo
You might think that the colonial French introduced the art of making pate and sausages to Vietnam, but sausages wrapped in banana leaf or stuffed into animal casings have been around Southeast Asia for generations. This silky steamed sausage is usually purchased in Vietnam, but it's easy to make at home with a food processor. Don't be put off by the amount of fat included; as any good charcutier (French or Vietnamese) will tell you, you must have plenty fat to make a good moist sausage.
1 lb (500 g) lean leg or loin pork, thinly sliced
4 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed rock sugar or white sugar
4 teaspoons tapioca flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅓ cup (85 ml) fish sauce
3½ oz (100 g) hard pork back (loin) fat, boiled in water 10 minutes, diced to about the size of a rice grain
2 pieces of banana leaf, 12 in (30 cm) square, softened in boiling water or a gas flame
Put the pork in a bowl. Process the shallots and garlic to a paste, then add this together with the sugar, tapioca flour, baking soda, pepper, and fish sauce to the pork. Massage with your hands for about a minute so that the marinade is absorbed. Cover the bowl, refrigerate and leave to marinate for 4 to 6 hours, or overnight if preferred.
Transfer the bowl of pork to the freezer for 15 minutes, then put the pork and every bit of its marinade into a food processor and blend until very fine and smooth. Add the pork fat and pulse just two or three times, until it is well mixed.
Put the pork mixture in the middle of one piece of banana leaf and with wet hands, shape it to make a fat roll about 8 in (20 cm) long. Lift the two ends of the banana leaf up (leaving the sides open for the moment) and fold over about 1¼ in (3 cm) on the top. Roll this down until the sausage is completely enclosed, then tuck in the sides. Put the roll on the second piece of banana leaf and repeat the rolling process, starting with the sealed side of the roll face down. Tie the double-wrapped roll loosely with string around the sides and ends (not too tightly as the sausage will swell during cooking).
Put the roll on a perforated disk or in a steamer set over a wok of boiling water, making sure the water does not touch the roll. Steam over boiling water for 2 hours, adding boiling water to the wok frequently to make sure it does not dry out. Leave the cool completely, then refrigerate until required.
The pork sausage is sliced thinly and served as a snack with pickles or tangy relish, or put inside French bread to make atypical Indochinese Sandwich (see below).
Serves: 6-8 Preparation time: 1 hour + marinating 4 hours Cooking time: 2 hours
indochinese sandwich
This fantastic snack is found everywhere that the French left their wonderful bread. It's a flexible recipe, with variations within each country as well as between neighboring countries. You need small loaves of crusty bread (crisped over a charcoal brazier in Laos and Cambodia), a spread, a filling of one or two types of meat or pate, crunchy vegetables, and herbs to finish it all off. Below are some of
