"Wild Fire" - Rice Noodles with Beef Rolls and Onions
Firehawks #5
EXCERPT:
Several bicycles pulled up with small food carts in tow.
“Xoi cha. Very good. Very good,” Minh, the Vietnamese interpreter, repeated as he led Gordon first to the cart. Again, apparently he was the leader. Others were practicing snatches of English on the other members of MHA with varying success.
In moments he was served a pristine white dinner plate piled high with sticky rice, fried meat rolls cut into bite-size pieces, and a small bowl of sweet dipping sauce. He nodded his thanks and tried not to wince at the sight of chopsticks.
Ripley was soon served and came to stand beside him. She was eating easily.
“How can you do that?” he asked her quietly.
“I’m from Oklahoma, not the moon.”
“I’m from Wyoming. I think we have three Chinese restaurants in the whole state.”
“Wimp,” she kept eating and his stomach growled loudly.
The interpreter noticed and with little fuss managed to find one of those porcelain soup spoons and hand it over with an indulgent smile. Gordon felt like a heathen for the rest of the meal…which was good, even if it was lightly flavored with the odor of the kerosene in the Jet-A fuel being pumped into their helicopters so they could return quickly to the firefight.
NOTE: When I wrote this, I off-handedly chose a recipe for Xoi Cha, or more properly for Xôi Mặn Cha Que, Savory Sticky Rice with Meat Rolls. As I explored recipes for the dish, I ran into numerous ingredients that were difficult to find. Rather than sending you hunting after exotic ingredients or overly complex workarounds—like making your own Cha Que cinnamon pork loaf from scratch—I decided on this dish. I sadly haven’t lived near a Vietnamese restaurant in ages but I do remember this dish as one of my favorites.
Also, the noodles want a sauce. A second helping of the marinade seemed too heavy. We found that Pad Thai sauce, available in the Asian section of most grocery stores gave a light, contrasting flavor adding to the depth of the dish.
Active time: 45 minutes / Cook time: 10 minutes / Total time: 45 minutes / Serves: 4
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Ingredients · 8 oz. vermicelli rice noodles, Asian · 2 lb. flank or other lean steak · 8 scallions, cut per below · 1/2 yellow onion or 1 lg. shallot, sliced thin · 3 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil · Garnishes for the noodles: o 1/2 c. Pad Thai sauce, to taste o 2 tsp. sesame seeds o 1/2 c. carrot, grated o 1 c. cabbage, shaved o 1/4 c. peanuts |
Marinade · 1-1/2 Tbsp. Five Spice powder · 1 Tbsp. Oyster or Fish sauce · 1/2 tsp. red chili powder · 1/2 tsp. baking powder · 2 tsp. honey · 1 tsp. salt · 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper · 2 cloves garlic, minced · 1 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil |
The Instructions
1. Place the meat in the freezer. Leave it there for 30-45 minutes, until stiff but not hard frozen. This will make it much easier to slice thinly.
2. Combine marinade ingredients, set aside.
3. Heat 2 quarts of water to a boil.
4. Cut the scallion whites into 1/2” length and set aside with garnishes. Cut the greens into 4” lengths. Prepare a cold water ice bath in a small bowl. Blanch the greens in the boiling water for 5 seconds, then drop into the ice bath. Drain and set aside.
5. Add the noodles to the water and remove from the heat. Let stand until soft but firm, 4-7 minutes (taste a noodle for no longer crunchy but still toothsome). Rinse under cold water in a colander until cool and set aside to drain.
6. While noodles are soaking, roll scallion greens in a paper towel to remove excess water. Combine on a plate with yellow onion slices. Sprinkle generously with salt. Once scallions and onions have softened, rinse lightly, then dry as thoroughly as possible.
7. The meat should be ready for slicing now. With a very sharp knife, cut the meat as thinly as possible into sheets. The steak can be cut sideways into three-inch chunks and then sliced thinly. Or cut on a very flat diagonal, not quite cutting through the slice, then make another thin slice below it (see pictures below) to create thin beef wraps.
8. Brush marinade on both sides of each piece of meat, lay 2-3 scallions and some yellow onion (shallot) in the middle and roll up. Each roll should be no thicker than your thumb. Slide the rolls onto 2 toothpicks or thin skewers to make a neat package.
9. Heat a flat-bottomed pan with 1 Tbsp. of canola oil until shimmering. Fry the meat rolls for 2-3 minutes per side until well-browned. Set aside. Use more oil as necessary for additional batches. Slice meat rolls into 1” sections, removing from skewers.
10. Add a final tablespoon of oil. Sauté the carrot, scallion whites, and cabbage for 1-2 minutes. Add the noodles and sauce. Sauté for 1-2 minutes until warmed and well combined.
11. Serve noodles, topped with meat rolls, peanuts, and sesame seeds.
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A thin, diagonal slice, not cutting all the way through. |
Folded open after the second cut creating a larger thin piece of beef. |
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Lovely browned meat rolls sizzling away, two together on a pair of toothpicks. |
The beef rolls, which should have had the toothpicks removed and been pre-cut, were rich with strong umami flavors. This made a lovely contrast to the lighter noodles. |
