Vietnamese caramelized beef rice bowls
Beef cooked in a dark caramel with fish sauce, garlic and black pepper, over jasmine rice with quick-pickled carrots and cool cucumber.
- 40 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.94 a serving
- 620 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups jasmine rice
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- ¼ cup cilantro, leaves (optional)
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
From your pantry
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 620 calories, 28 g protein, 78 g carbs and 21 g fat, and costs about $2.94 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No jasmine rice? Long-grain white rice or basmati rice works.
- No shredded carrots? Carrots work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice until the water runs mostly clear.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Put it in a with the water and over high.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn to low and cook 15 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Let it sit covered.
Stir the carrots with the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and set aside to pickle.
Dolly’s tip: Fifteen minutes is enough to turn them tangy and bright.the garlic and the shallots.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Heat the oil in a large over medium. Add the brown sugar and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until it and bubbles into a dark amber caramel.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Watch it closely. Dark amber is perfect, black and smoking is burnt. It moves fast.Add the shallots and garlic and stir 30 seconds.
Medium heat
Add the beef, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook 7 to 8 minutes, breaking it up, until no pink is left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: The caramel may seize into hard bits when the beef goes in. It melts back into a sauce as it cooks.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the fish sauce and pepper and cook 2 minutes, until the beef is sticky and glossy.
Medium-high heatTimer: 2 min
Fill bowls with rice and top with the beef, pickled carrots, cucumber, cilantro and a wedge of lime.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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