~ New Cookbook ~

I love my new Williams-Sonoma cookbook - Flavoring Southeast Asia. It's nice and big, not to mention a bit on the heavy side. As you flip the pages you can't help but notice how thick and glossy the pages are. I'm not sure if I want to take it to the kitchen. I might end up splattering fish sauce all over it. Anyways, the book is filled with wonderful recipes from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma). It also has gorgeous life-size pictures that accompany these recipes. I'm not an amazing cook. I'm not even sure if I can really say that I can cook. I just want to learn about new dishes. How do I know if I'm making Fish Head Curry correctly, if I have never seen it before in my life. Therefore, I conclude that cookbooks without pictures are useless.

Sooo. the first dish I tried making was Bo Luc Lac. I made it with my boyfriend, Dan, who I must thank for this wonderful cookbook. Thanks babe! The Vietnamese dish, Bo Luc Lac translated means shaking beef. Really, no joke! The beef is cut into cubes and when cooking you give the pan handle a quick shake to flip the meat over. The cubes move like a pair of dice, thus the name shaking beef!

Here's what you need to make this sumptuous dish (recipe according to the cookbook):

3/4 lb beef sirloin, cut into 1-inch cubes

6 cloves garlic, chopped (about 2 tablespoon)

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

First we need to make the garlic sauce. In a bowl, mix together ingredients, but only use 3 cloves of garlic. The rest is used when you cook.

*TIP: Prior to marinating, put the meat in soda - 7 up or Sprite. (got this from a Vietnamese restaurant that makes excellent Bo Luc Lac) We left it in for 15 min. I think it needs to be left in for about 30 min. We didn't want to wait.

Next - Marinate for 30 min. Drain out the soda and mix beef cubes in the garlic sauce.

Now preheat you frying pan over high heat. Add 2 tablespoon of oil and add the remaining garlic and stir-fry till lightly browned.

Serve with salad and/or rice. We didn't have watercress to make the salad that was to accompany the Bo Luc Lac, so we just had it with white rice.

It was surprisingly really really good. (The above picture does not do it justice!) We are not very good at cooking. In fact, cooking is very stressful for us. We always bicker. This time was no different, yet the results were amazing. It was a tad on the salty side, but with rice it's perfect!

Thinking back on how we made it really puts a smile on my face. I love the sizzling sound that it made when we dropped the cubes on the hot pan. The smell left our place smelling like a restaurant. You don't need acquired taste to enjoy this dish.