Shaking Beef - Bo Luc Lac

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This dish has been on the menu at the Slanted Door since it opened in 1995. Although I was born in Vietnam, I grew up in Northern California just as the farmer's market revolution was beginning, around the time that legendary Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse was really hitting its stride.
When I began to think about opening a restaurant, I knew I wanted to serve Vietnamese food but made with the same great ingredients that the other top restaurants were using. Although I had eaten shaking beef in Vietnam, the versions that I had tried were usually made with tough beef cuts that were overcooked. But the flavors - carmelized cubes of beef and a dipping sauce of salt, pepper and fresh lime juice - were so good that I knew it would be exceptional if I made it with better ingredients.
I started making the dish with cubes of filet mignon and cooked them to a rosy medium-rare. Later, I began using exclusively grass-fed beef, which we now get from Estancia, a US-based company that raises its beef on ranches in the United States, Uruguay and Argentina, the only place we can source the quantity we need. We use about eight hundred pounds of beef each week at the Slanted Door.

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  • 3

Ingredients

  • Shaking Beef
  • 1 1⁄2 - 2 pounds filet mignon, fat trimmed and cut into 1 1⁄4-inch cubes
  • 1 teaspoons ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 cup thinly sliced red onion, preferably spring onions
  • 3 stalks green onion, trimmed and cut to 1-inch lengths
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Stir-Fry Sauce
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 ⁄4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 ⁄4 cup light soy sauce
  • 1 ⁄4 cup fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine
  • Salt and Pepper Dipping Sauce
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 ⁄4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 1 bunch watercress, washed

Preparation

Step 1

1. Marinate meat 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and 1 tablespoon oil for about 2 hours.

2. Meanwhile, make the stir-fry sauce by combining the white vinegar, sugar, soy, fish sauce, and rice wine. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

3. Divide the meat into two portions, and do the same with the onions. Heat 1⁄4 cup of oil in wok or large sauté pan over maximum heat. (Don’t overload the pan, or the meat will not brown properly. You may need to divide the cooking into batches depending on your pan size and the strength of your cooking range.)

4. When the oil begins to smoke, add the first batch of meat in one layer. Let a brown crust form, and turn to brown the other side. Browning should take 3-4 minutes.

5. Add red onion, scallions, and garlic to the pan. Shake or stir ingredients in the pan for about 30 seconds.

6. Add stir-fry sauce. Continue to shake or stir ingredients.

7. Add butter, and continue to cook and shake pan until butter melts. Remove from heat. Wash your pan and cook next batch.

8. Make lime dipping sauce by mixing together salt and pepper in a ramekin. Pour lime juice over salt pepper mixture.

9. Serve beef over watercress with lime dipping sauce.

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