Vietnamese Braised Beef and Ice Cream Spring Rolls

It's been a wonderful food weekend. Sometimes, you bookmark a recipe that you just have to make as soon as possible. It happened twice this week! This is so rare that you'd think I'd win the lottery or something (which by the way, Lotto Max is still at a grand prize of 50 million with fifty 1 million prizes - come on ticket, just a measly million please).

The first one is from Steph's blog, i am a food blog, with her Vietnamese Braised Beef Taco post. If you know me, you know that I love tacos. Any given night if you ask me what I want to eat, it'll most likely be tacos (or sushi). So I went out and bought the 2 1/2 pounds of boneless chuck roast. Do you ever feel grown up going to the butcher? I do. I feel so much more like a cook when I get to unwrap the butcher paper and cut off the tied string. Or maybe I just like unwrapping presents.

Total aside and speaking of feeling like a grown up, I finally bought a new work bag. I've been alternating between my high school backpack and my weekend camera bag for my commute. But Howard finally said, enough is enough, and forced me to look professional. Thanks for looking out for me? Hahaha, it's a colour-blocked tote bag in light and dark camel. The best part is, the base is wide enough to fit my lunch box, which was my main criteria.

In other grown up news (geez, I'm all about growing up today), my maid of honour bought me an early wedding present last month and I used it for the first time today. Oh beautiful round cocotte, how I adore thee! I think I might like it more than my cast iron skillet, less oil splatter as I brown the meat.

So where are the tacos? Well, I did buy the tortillas, but at the last minute, I boiled some noodles to go with the Vietnamese braised beef. This way, I didn't waste any of that delicious juicy stew, the noodles soaked it all up and then it went in my belly. I hope you get a chance to try the recipe. It was quick and easy, just make sure you start in the afternoon and then let it braise until dinner time. You brown the meat, cook the onion, shallots, garlic, carrots, and tomatoes. Add the beef stock and then throw in more aromatics like star anise, cinnamon, five spice, bay leaves, and fish sauce. Then pop it in the oven for the flavour magic to happen.

Even though I took all the ingredients out, I forgot the brown sugar. It was sitting on the counter top and I was too lazy to take the cocotte out of the oven. But guess what? It came out tasty so I won't know what I'm really missing.

The second one is from Lady and Pups who posted Ice Cream-Spring Rolls with Ground Peanut Brittle. I've had this twice this weekend. Mainly because I have so much ground peanut brittle left over (am I not sprinkling enough on my ice cream?!?) and because it's freaking delicious. The crepes are so easy to make, it's only three ingredients! We have an assortment of green tea, mango, and red bean ice cream in the freezer - aren't those everyone's staples? Then we bought an assortment of mochi - green tea, strawberry, vanilla, and red bean.

The photo above is red bean everything - ice cream and mochi. Did you know that peanut brittle can be used for anything? Put it on fruit or try sprinkling it on savoury food. It should be the new condiment, sold with ketchup and mustard.

Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle.

You know that scene in Chef where he makes ground brittle and splashes it over the dessert? I now appreciate the beauty of that scene even more.

Fish Stick Tacos

I thought I'd share one of our favourite quick and easy meal ideas. This is perfect at the end of the week or on weekends when you don't need leftovers for lunch the next day. There are so many things to love about fish stick tacos: it takes about half an hour to prepare and it isn't a heavy meal. Plus, Howard and I can usually finish everything, meaning there's no waste or leftovers to pack away.

To start, purchase your favourite breaded or battered fish stick brand and follow the baking instructions. I bake around 5-7 fish sticks depending on how hungry we are. The ones we buy take about thirty minutes in the oven, which gives me time to prepare everything else. We also buy large size tortillas.

Garnish #1
1 medium size tomato
1 medium size onion
1 sprig of cilantro

Dice up the tomato and onion.
Keep 3/4 of the tomato and onion in a bowl.
Put the remaining 1/4 of tomato and onions in a blender. Set aside.
Chop up one sprig of cilantro and mix it into the bowl of tomatoes and onions.

Garnish #2
1 mango

This can be optional, but we love the sweet taste of mango with the fish sticks. Dice up the mangoes and set it aside. If you want more sour notes and crunch, don't use ripe mangoes, use firm ones instead (similar to mango salads).

Garnish #3
2 small-medium sized avocados
1 clove of garlic
1 sprig of cilantro
1/4 of diced tomatoes
1/4 of diced onions
1-2 small limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Add the avocados, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper into the blender with the chopped tomatoes and onions. Pulse until smooth. See how quick and easy that was? Guacamole in under a minute!

Lettuce is also optional, I think as long as you have garnish #1 and #3, the flavours are there to work with the fish stick. But, if you have a bit more time and ingredients on hand, include the mango and lettuce.

You leave all of the mise en place out and warm up the tortillas. When the fish sticks are ready, everyone grabs a plate and piles on the deliciousness. You can even have wedges of lemon out if people want to squeeze some more citrus over their taco creations.

Enjoy!