Food: Dinner Tonight – Beef Stew Vietnamese Style |

San Francisco is filled with wonderful cuisine, fusion or traditional, Asian food has been one of my favorites. But I’ve never tried to make a dish at home, well, except Thai peanut sauce chicken, with store bought Peanut sauce which is no longer available in stores, I imagine because of the growing peanut allergy in this part of the world.

Anyway, I have a pound of stew thawing out in the refrigerator, and while scrolling through Instagram this morning, I found this recipe and traced it back to the original article. Dinner tonight is beef stew Vietnamese style.

Ingredients

2 pounds trimmed boneless beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
3 tablespoons fish sauce, plus more as needed {not a fan of fish sauce, so I will be omitting}
2 teaspoons light or dark brown sugar {also I never add sugar when a recipe requires it}
1 1/2 teaspoons five-spice powder
3 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil, plus more as needed
1 cup chopped shallot or yellow onion
3 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes or 2 cups chopped peeled tomatoes
2 large or 3 medium lemongrass stalks, trimmed, cut into 3-inch lengths, and bruised with a meat mallet or heavy saucepan
2 whole star anise
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more as needed
2 1/2 cups water, plus more as needed
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, mint, or basil {more}