Vietnamese Cookin' in La Honda

Do any of you know where La Honda is? Ok so I had no idea either until my boyfriend invited me there to eat dinner one night. Truthfully, I was a little scared to go since it's about 10-15 miles into the woods of Skyline off Woodside Road in Palo Alto, and at night it's kinda creepy...BUT it is an amazing place during the day! There is tons of hiking, biking, trails, views, wineries, and things to do there. It's also just a great place to go to be outdoors and get away from the loud bustling city of SF.

Anyway, I don't go too often, but I did go last week. We didn't really have a set menu for cooking, but my bf, Jeff, has lived in Cambodia and in turn loves Vietnamese food- as do I! What food don't I like? =) He grabbed some chicken and Vietnamese fixings for dinner, we headed back, and his roommate, Rick was already cooking Vietnamese food and had some people over! Talk about coincidence and a yummy feast. Rick is also an amazing cook. He makes everything from scratch- including Bacon!

The menu items for the night were a cabbage, cucumber, carrot salad, marinated chicken thighs, shaking beef (a la Slanted Door in SF), roasted BBQ eggplant, and rice. Gotta have rice!

Below are the chicken thighs. Jeff marinated them in fish sauce, mint, lime juice, rice wine vinegar, salt, pepper, green onions, and some other good stuff. He then grilled them in an egg grill, aka The Big Green Egg. They were delicious! You can't really see from the horrible Blackberry picture I took with my less than 1-2 megapixel camera, but just imagine smokey, tender, juicy chicken Vietnamese style.

Here is the shaking beef that Rick made. He bought an entire beef shank, cut off all the fat, cubed it, and then marinated it. If you want to see the real recipe, I've included it below. Basically if you love beef, shaking beef is something you'll really like. Get the right beef and it's tender, flavorful and just really simple.

Shaking Beef 

Charles Phan, The Slanted Door

The Meat
2 T chopped garlic
1 t sugar
1½ t salt
¾ t fresh black pepper
2 T neutral cooking oil, such as canola or corn oil
1½ lbs filet mignon, cut into 1” cubes

The Vinaigrette
¼ c rice vinegar
1 T sugar
¼ c rice wine
4 T light soy sauce
1 T dark soy sauce
1 T fish sauce

The Dipping Sauce
Juice of 1 lime
½ t kosher salt
¼ t fresh black pepper

The Stir-Fry
4 T neutral cooking oil, such as canola or corn oil
3 stalks green onion, cut into 1” pieces
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
2 t butter
2 bunches watercress, for garnish

1.   Prepare marinade by combining garlic, sugar, salt, pepper and oil in a large nonmetal bowl.   Add filet mignon, combine and marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for two hours.

2.   Prepare vinaigrette by combining rice vinegar, sugar, rice wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and fish sauce.   Set aside.

3.   Heat a wok over high heat.   Divide beef, green onions and red onions in half, as you will cook in two batches.

4.   Add 2 T oil to the wok.   When the oil starts to smoke, add first portion of the beef in an even layer.   Let it sit until a forms a brown crust, about 2 minutes.   With a spatula, flip the beef over to brown the other side, about 1 minute.

5.   Add first portion of the green onions and red onions and cook for 1 more minute.   Pour half of vinaigrette down the side of the wok, and then shake pan to release the beef and toss with the vinaigrette.   Add 1 t butter and continue to shake pan until butter melts.   Remove the meat and onions from the wok.   Keep warm.

6.   Repeat steps 4 and 5 with second portion of meat, green onions and red onions.   Place the watercress in the middle of the serving plate and spoon hot beef and onions on top.

7.   Prepare dipping sauce by putting salt and pepper in small ramekin and squeezing lime juice over it.   Serve alongside the beef.   Serves 4.

My next adventure that I post about will most likely be "Incanto" for the Leg of Beast happening on 7/30! But who knows. I may go somewhere this week or next that is blog-worthy.

Happy eating! I know I will.