Discussion Thread -> "Vietnamese" Throwdown (Entries and Quality ON TOPIC *CLEAN* Discussion Only)

That looks great!!!

Pork Belly Crisp. Thit Heo Quay

Please accept this as my official entry into the latest Throwdown Vietnamese. Got a nice slab of Pork Belly from the butcher. Wet cured it in soy, pink salt, brown sugar, and garlic.



After 10 days and some serious injecting it looked like this.



I replaced the gaskets on my Vision Kamado this afternoon and started a pile of lump with some grape vine wood for flavor.



Scored the top of the pork belly skin with a razor blade and rubbed it with white pepper and garlic powder.



Took it downstairs to the cooker



Once the kamado got settled in I put a water pan under the grate and got ready for a nice hot smoke at 250°







When the IT reached 140° I moved the pork belly over to my Lion Gasser, Libby, to crisp up the skin and finish the cook!



Mrs. CA was inside finishing up the Rice Noodles and stir fried veggies.



Cubed up the pork belly





Then it was plated and time to eat! My pollng pic if you please!



Thanks for looking, I'll keep on cooking! :biggrin1:

Jed that looks and sounds amazing

Big George's BBQ said:

Jed that looks and sounds amazing

Click to expand...

Thanks George one day I'll post these things where they belong!

MS2SB, what a fantastic cook! Pork noodle bowls are Carol's favourites and I would order it too if I wasn't so addicted to pho. I love the way the pork looked from the screaming hot fire and the marinade sounded delicious. Love the pup crutch, too.

I'm in the process of making pho for this throwdown, it's a real treat to spend the day cooking considering how hard I've worked the last two weeks. Mmmm, pho!

Thanks Kathy! I was starting to wonder if I was going to end up winning this thing by default! Can't wait to see your entry.

:laugh:

I can't wait to see my entry, either, never mind eat it. What is it about pho that is so addictive? You have this addiction, too, don't you? I like to bake the bones with water and the spice tea bag overnight in the oven in a roasting pan. Since there is also a crock pot TD I thought, heck, why not make the soup base in the crock pot? Pho double entry!

The beef cut I'm smoking to slice thin for the pho is new to me. It's from the half traditionally-raised and pastured steer I bought last autumn where I had a nice chat with the butcher for special smoking cuts. He marked "steak tail" on the paper and "smoke" below that to give me the heads up it was tough and fatty. I didn't know what a steak tail was but the package looked like a small roast so I thought it was good for a few bowls of pho. Was I surprised to see it unfold into a flat, deeply-grained piece of meat! Looks a bit like brisket. I've been smoking it for about 2 hours now and the temperature is around 170F. I'm not sure if I'm getting a good temperature reading, though, because it feels very soft….. as in raw. I've got my digital going into the thickest part sideways so it should be correct but somehow I'm not feeling sure. Pull it and take a look, right? Okay.

I don't know how Vietnamese this is, but not bad since I worked with what was in the house to begin with. I'll add the link to the full cook in a bit. It's a........sweet Thai chili sauce loin, with some oj and siracha glazed bird and some butter, curry rice and drizzled with some scallion, garlic, and jalapeno oil. I'm sure I missed a few ingredients, but hopefully I can get em out there!

My entry. Oniony, garlicky, oily, spicy,.............well, it was damn good, and put a nice end to our weekend and Sunday! I wish everyday was Sunday. I love Sundays! Aint' nuthin but a chicken wing!

This be my entry!

Play by play HERE: Sort of!
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=187953

Can I sneak an entry in just before the buzzer?

Here is tonight's cook:

Start with some ground pork and seasonings:

Make some meatballs:

Let them rest while we burn some coals and cut some veggies:

Grill the meat balls:

Then plate it up.

Here is my official entry: Grilled Vietnamese Meatballs with Sesame-Lime-Cilantro Slaw

My photography skills need work, but this was absolutely delicious.

David

Well hot dog! It looks like we've got a serious competition going here. Jed, that pork belly looks fantastic, extremely succulent and the crispy skin, hell yes.

Bobby B, whether it's Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese or Martian I don't care, I'll take a bowl please.

David, the plating on that is fantastic, beautifully arranged and looks delicious.

Please accept this as my entry into the Vietnamese throwdown.

Let me first say I was going to make something else but forgot I had company (my BIL) here this weekend so settled in on these. Here are most of the ingredients.

Loaded up and light the kamado. Place a huge chicken breast on the grill.

And some shrimp.

Here is the plated shot (Entry pic) below with some Hoisin sauce and some homemade Peanut Satay sauce.

They were delicious. Just like what I order at the local Vietnamese restaurant.
The full cook thread can be seen here: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2908154#post2908154

Please accept this Official Entry into the "Vietnamese!" TD.

This is my entry titled, "Smoked Beef Pho".

My name is Kathy and I am addicted to pho. :mrgreen: Special thanks to my pho mentor, Buccaneer, for without you I'd still be making that mediocre stuff instead of this excellent bowl.

I pulled what looked to me like a small beef roast that my butcher labeled as "Steak Tail" with "Smoke" underneath. I've never heard of steak tail before but it looked like a small roast and if my butcher says it's good for smoking, I'm not arguing.



Was I surprised to see it unfold into this! :shock: I made a rub of Chinese 5 Spice, granulated garlic and ginger and left the meat to rest in the fridge one day. I use very little salt when cooking, my partner struggles with edema, so I add salt to my finished bowl rather than the ingredients, rub or pot. If you use salt please add it to the rub.



Next day I started on the broth and the 'aroma'. Since we have a special crock pot TD I decided to try making my broth that way, too. I couldn't find the two we have somewhere so went to a few second hand stores and discovered this vintage avocado beauty that was made in Montreal, Quebec. :mrgreen:





Before making the broth it is important to boil the bones 10 minutes, toss the water and clean the scum off the bones with water. Buccaneer also introduced me to Helen, a young woman who makes youtube videos of Vietnamese cuisine. She promises no flavour is lost in such a short time and it greatly reduces the need to skim the broth as it cooks. One hallmark of good pho is a clear broth. I put my beef bones in a 16 litre/quart pot and after 10 minutes boiling emptied the pot onto a sink sieve.





When the bones are clean of scum put them back in a pot for the stove, crock pot or roasting pan for the oven. I like to make the broth a day ahead in a roasting pan overnight in the oven around 220F or so. I found out the hard way if I try to shorten the cook time by raising the oven to 350F the marrow melts and makes the broth muddy. Cover with water about 2 or 3 inches above the bones. Helen puts her beef meat in at this point but I was smoking my beef so I didn't. When I told Buccs I had beef tail in the freezer he said it would create great flavour. I decided to use it for this cook and when I thawed the package I was surprised to see a distinct tail. I cut off the thin part of the tail for my dog and put the wider part in the pot. Because this crock pot is small I also made a batch of broth in a roasting pan in the oven.



Peeled one onion and split it between the crock pot and roasting pan. I also split salt and sugar between the two, the suggested amount is 1 tsp each of salt and sugar but I used less.





Now it's time to focus on the aroma. Two pieces of ginger about the size of your thumb, three pieces of star anise, two cinnamon sticks the size of your finger, two to three pieces of cardamom and one onion still in its peel. Cut the ginger and onion lengthwise, no need to peel it. I adjusted the proportions of aromatics into one large and one smaller parchment teabag to reflect the different volumes of the crock pot and roasting pan. Char the aromatics on an open flame, electric stove burner or in the oven. Scrape off char from the onion to help keep the broth clear. What a delight cinnamon sticks and star anise are when they catch fire and burn like incense. The ginger skin and hairs and the onion skin will catch fire, tamp the fire out with your tongs or throw separated burning pieces in the sink. When done wrap in cheesecloth or a parchment pouch as a tea bag and nestle it under the bones to anchor while cooking. You can cook the broth anywhere from 3 hours to overnight, just be sure to keep the temperature in the 225F to 250F range to prevent the marrow from melting.









Once the broth was cooking I started the kamado and smoked the steak tail at 250F for just over 2 hours and pulled it at 170F. Because the grain of this cut runs lengthwise it helps to section it for cross-grain cutting. It looks a lot like brisket.





About 6 hours later I removed the bones and tea bags from the broth and ran it through a sieve. Then I used a fat separator to further clean up the broth. Returned the broth to the crock pot and added the beef slices and 1 Tbsp of fish sauce to heat up. When making pho always preheat your soup bowls either with hot water or in the warm oven after it's just turned off from making the broth. Once I learned that my days of eating lukewarm pho ended.







To finish I boiled pho noodles about 5 and one half minutes. Carol likes the medium size noodles so I used those. If you like thinner noodles cut down the boiling time. I used to have a lot of trouble making asian rice noodles until Buccaneer told me to check them every minute with a pinch because it's a narrow margin between undercooked and overcooked. Since using that piece of advice I'm getting better and better at judging their doneness. Garnishes are blanched bean sprouts, Thai basil, squeeze of lime and Sriracha in my bowl.









Please use the photo below for voting.



That was excellent pho. I love the different textures of the noodle mass, bean sprouts and meat. I love the balance of sweet, salt, heat, spice and lime against the wondrous flavour of Thai basil. I just love pho. I smoked the steer tail for a bit to ease off the rawness but maintain bone integrity against splintering. I don't know who loved what they were eating more, me or my dog.

Thanks for looking! :grin:

Beef: Bolar Blade is what it's called here.
Grass fed and pretty lean making it nice for this dish.



The unique but Vietnamese part of this cook is my idea to make a Vietnamese rub.
Ginger, lemongrass, onion powder, pepperberry powder, chili, garlic and a trip into the city to buy some Vietnamese cane sugar went into making the rub.








I used a dark sweet soy sauce mixed with Red Boat fish sauce to form a pelicle then applied the rub.






At this stage, it smelled so good I wanted to eat some raw!




Next, onto the BBQ at 400f and rose up to 550, searing a nice bark and leaving it medium rare in the middle.











Nuoc Cham
Clove of fresh garlic
6 small chilies
150 ml of nuoc mam nhi, Vietnamese fish sauce of top teir
100g sugar
2Tbs sugar
juice of 1 lemon
Pound chilies and garlic to a paste. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl until the sugar dissolves then add chili garlic paste.
The chili should float.
This is an essential condiment to Vietnamese dishes

Finally I rest the beef in a tray covered with foil ready to slice.
Took noodles and blanched them in hot water, heated a little oil in the wok and cooked some chili paste and added some dark soy and garlic, dropped the noodles in and tossed, added sliced scallion and carrot and cucumber shreds and served immediately while the vegetables are still crispy.Sliced the aromatic Vietnamese beef and served with Nuoc Cham drizzled over!
My Official Vietnamese entry pic!

:yo:

Wow a couple of incredible entries coming in late! That's a beautiful plate Bucc. Kathy I love the care and effort that you put into making that broth. I may need to give this a try.

Thanks! :yo: