This family-style dish is a favourite in Vietnam, so it’s no surprise that a recipe for it appears in Jerry Mai’s Vietnam: Morning to Midnight cookbook. “This fantastic beef dish is cooked on a hot plate at the table and served alongside fragrant herbs, noodles and rice paper,” she writes. It’s perfect for picnics and patio gatherings, but be warned: “Whenever we eat it, my uncle always says we have to duck to avoid the splatters from the hotplate! Give it a go and see for yourself.”
Hot Plate Vietnamese Beef
Jerry Mai's recipe for a Vietnamese favourite: beef cooked on a hot plate, served with rice paper sheets, additional fillings and a traditional dipping sauce.
Ingredients
Nuoc Mam Dipping Sauce
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 bird's eye chillies finely chopped or sliced
- 150 ml fish sauce
- 100 ml white vinegar
- scant ¾ cup superfine sugar
Beef
- 2 lemongrass stalks white part only, thinly sliced
- 2 bird’s eye chillies thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup fish sauce
- 2 tbsp superfine sugar
- 50 ml vegetable oil
- 3 lbs 5 oz boneless beef sirloin thinly sliced
- 7 oz rice noodles
- 150 ml Nuoc Mam Dipping Sauce
- 3½ oz pickled carrots and/or daikon radish cut into matchsticks
- 15-20 medium round rice paper sheets
- 1 tbsp butter
Salad Plate
- 3 tbsp crispy shallots
- 2 bunches mint
- 2 bunches Vietnamese mint
- 2 red apples cored, halved and sliced
- 1 small pineapple peeled, cored and sliced into rounds
Instructions
Nuoc Mam Dipping Sauce
- Combine the ingredients and 200 ml water in a bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved (remaining sauce be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks).
Hot Plate Beef
- Combine the lemongrass, chilli, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and vegetable oil in a large bowl, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the beef, mix well and set aside in the fridge to marinate for 3 hours.
- Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, then drain and run under cold water until cool. Drain again and set aside.
- Place all the salad plate ingredients and cooked noodles on a serving platter. Combine the Nuoc Mam and pickles in a bowl, then divide among dipping bowls. Pile the rice paper sheets on a plate and set a large bowl of water on the table.
- Set up the hot plate in the centre of the table and heat over medium–high heat. Melt a little of the butter on the hot plate, add a few slices of marinated beef and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until just cooked through. Invite guests to help themselves, and continue to cook the remaining beef in small batches as you eat.
- To eat, invite guests to rehydrate rice paper sheets in water, then fill with the noodles, salad ingredients and beef. Roll up the rice paper and dip into the Nuoc Mam and pickles.
