Vietnamese beef stew (bò kho) (bò kho)

Instructions

1.  Start off with making the marinade and cutting the beef in cubes and put it aside in the bowl for marinating.
2. Chop 2 garlic cloves finely and add it to the meat with the other ingredients for the marinade and mix it all together. Let it sit for approx. 30 minutes while the rest is being prepared. 
3. Cut 1 lemongrass into 3 equal length pieces and chop the rest of the garlic and ginger finely.
4. Cut the onions into thin slices and set half of it aside for garnish. 
5. Heat cooking oil in a pot and when the oil is warm add the lemongrass for approx 2 minutes.
6. Mix in the rest of the chopped lemongrass, garlic, ginger and the sliced onion from before.
7. When all the ingredients have started to become aromatic then add the meat and make sure that all the sides have gotten color evenly.
8. Add the tomato puree and mix it well for a few minutes.
9. Now add the water, star anise, paprika, chili and pepper to the bowl and turn the heat down to low/medium when the water starts to boil.
10. Let it simmer for around 1 hour and after that add the salt, rock sugar and soy sauce. Remember that the carrots will also add make the soup sweeter.
11. Around 30 minutes before serving start to peel the carrots into chunky bits and add them the the pot 15 - 30 min. before serving depending on preferred softness of the carrots.
12. Rinse the thai basil and/or culantro and cut out the lime into wedges.
13. Boil the noodles after the package instructions or warm the bread depending depending on how you want to serve the dish :)
14. When making the bowls for serving start off by adding the noodles if that has been made, or just add the soup in through a strainer to avoid small pieces of lemongrass, ginger, garlic etc. Remember to add meat and carrots to the bowl.
15. If you are eating the dish with bread then dip the bread in the soup.

Fresh ginger, star anise and cloves and also be exchanged for the powdered versions and some recipes also add a cinnamon stick or powdered cinnamon but that is already a part of the five spice.

If you don't feel like purchasing five spice it is also possible to buy bo kho spices that can be bought in small packages or tubs for several servings. I noticed that the one I have bought before contained MSG, so remember to read the list of ingredients.

Many recipes also use annatto but this isn't something my mom would do and it is not all recipes that use tomat puree either but one of them is fine as it is for adding the red color to the dish.