Category Archives: Recipe

Bo Xa Dam

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in paleo-cuisine, Recipe, Vietnamese

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A few years back, we encountered Bo Xa Dam at a Vietnamese restaurant outside of Denver. As it happens, the dish is very paleo-friendly, and while rice is no longer a staple, it goes very well on top of fresh greens to make a warm salad.

Bo Xa Dam

  • 8-10 oz lean beef
  • 2 medium onions
  • 1-2 large tomatoes or equivalent
  • Salt
  • Pepper

  • 1 TBS Ghee
  • 2 TBS Fish Sauce (Ingredients should be anchovies, water, and salt only)
  • 2 TBS Aged Balsamic Vinegar
  • 2 TBS White Wine

Directions

Salt and pepper the beef, and put aside for the moment.

Sliver the onions, and place in a bowl. Add the ghee, fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, and white wine to the onions.

Slice the tomatoes, and place on a serving dish.

Heat a fry pan (do not use a non-stick surface for this, although you may for the onions) over a medium-high heat. Add your high temperature oil of choice (for this I would use Lard) when the pan is hot. Sear the beef once on each side (the cooking time will vary based on your stove, but should be approximately one or two minutes on each side).

Remove the beef from the heat, and let rest before slicing it.

While the beef is resting, reduce the onion and sauce mixture over a medium heat. The goal is not to carmelize the onions (the water we’ve added would make that impossible), but cook the sauce into the onions. The sauce is ready when the onions are cooked to your preferences (some prefer them fairly firm, others softer, I tend to like them cooked soft).

Taste the resulting sauce. If you want more acid or more sweet, add additional aged balsamic vinegar. If you want more salt, or more of the savory mouth feel (umami), add more fish sauce.

Slice the beef, and then toss the sliced beef with the onions and sauce for 30 seconds, and then remove from the heat. Serve over the tomatoes, or with the tomatoes over a bed of fresh greens.

 

Basic Quickbread

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Baking, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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I wish I could find the author of the recipe I based this on, but it’s not showing up on what I thought were the searches I had used, so I’ll have to add attribution as soon as I can find it.

The modified version is provided here.

  • 1 large egg (Duck egg preferred)
  • 45 grams almond flour
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder (Aluminum Free)
  • 1.5 tsp Olive Oil or Ghee
  • Salt to taste, but don’t short it (even if making a sweeter bread)
  • Pepper or other Herbs or Flavorings as desired

Combine all the ingredients, you will end up with a thick batter. Bake at 335F for 15-30 minutes (depending on how thick you’ve spread the resulting batter into pans, muffins, or however else you plan on cooking it. I normally spread it on a Silpat (or, for “rolls”, spoon it into a round egg ring on the Silpat, and then remove the ring).

In general, you’ll use more than one instance of this, but as a topping for a cobbler, you might do just one instance, add vanilla extract and some Stevia leaf, and put it on top of fresh fruit tossed with a bit of Arrowroot or other paleo-friendly thickener.

 

Bo Xa Dam

10 Monday Aug 2009

Posted by in Food, Recipe

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While in Denver, we had dinner at Kim Ba, in Aurora.

On the advice of the chef, we had Bo Xao Dam, described as “Strips of tender beef in wine vinaigrette sauce, served on a bed of lettuce, tomatoes and onion“.

Now, Seattle is sadly lacking in Vietnamese restaurants. Pho aplenty, but no non-Pho restaurants. So on our return, I started checking my collection of Vietnamese cookbooks.

Nothing.

Bupkes.

Ugatz.

Fortunately, it turns out that it isn’t a complex recipe to duplicate.

Ingredients
One or two large shallots, diced
8-10 oz of sliced flank steak
2 TBS White Wine
2 TBS Fish Sauce
2 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
2 TBS Sugar or Splenda
2 TBS Butter
One sliced tomato
Lettuce leaves

Instructions
Combine the wine, fish sauce, vinegar, and sweetener, and set aside.

Slice the tomato and place the lettuce leaves and the tomato slices on a serving platter.

Get a non-stick pan hot. If you use something other than nonstick, you will need to use additional oil. Add the shallots, and when they have just started to brown (or sooner, if you are using frozen sliced beef), add the beef. When the beef is seared on both sides, add the vinegar/wine/sweetener mixture, and blend it in well. When the liquid has reduced by approximately a quarter, add the butter, and stir it in to mount up the sauce. Pour the results over the serving platter, and serve with rice.

Update: Expect to see an updated version of this recipe soon, because the sugar is not necessary in the slightest, and you’ll want more liquid for the sauce.