Secrets to Delicious Steamed Lamb with Lemongrass, Ginger, and Perilla
To prepare a flavorful, sweet steamed lamb with lemongrass, ginger, and perilla, proper preparation, marinating, and steaming time are crucial. Follow Cookbeo's recipe for steamed lamb, and learn how to make a perfect fermented soybean dip to go with it in this article.
Ingredients
- 1kg lamb
- 8-10 stalks lemongrass
- 1 big ginger, 1 young ginger shoot
- Perilla leaves ~ 10g
- Hot chili, horn peppers
- Grain salt, ginger wine or white wine
- Seasonings: Oyster sauce, seasoning powder, monosodium glutamate, sugar, ground pepper
- Fermented soybean sauce
- 1 small ginger
- 1-2 hot chili peppers
- Monosodium glutamate, sugar
- Some roasted peanuts
- 3 green bananas
- 4-5 green starfruits
- 1 pineapple
- Polygonum hydropiper, polygonum odoratum, perilla
- Vermicelli (optional)
Ingredient Notes
When buying lamb, select evenly shaped cuts with a balance of lean meat and fat to ensure the steamed lamb is flavorful and not dry.
The dip for the steamed lamb can be fermented soybean or fermented tofu, depending on your preference.
You can choose any vegetables to accompany the steamed lamb, but green bananas, sour starfruit, and some perilla leaves are recommended.
Instructions
Preparation of Beef
Beef has a strong, distinctive aroma. Before you start cooking, marinate the beef with coarse salt and ginger wine. If ginger wine is not available, you can use white wine and fresh crushed ginger instead.
Then, rinse the beef and let it drain.
Preparation of Other Ingredients
Pick and clean the perilla leaves, soak them in salt water, and let them drain.
Peel off the outer layer of the lemongrass, keep this layer and clean it for later use in steaming the beef. Divide the lemongrass into two parts, one part should be thinly sliced diagonally for marinating the beef. The remaining part should be crushed and cut into chunks for steaming the beef.
Crush the ginger and galangal, divide into two parts. One part is for steaming the beef, the other part is finely chopped for marinating the beef.
Finely chop the chili peppers. If you can't handle the heat, skip this step. Slice the remaining chili peppers into thin strips for garnishing the dish once it's done.
If you have any accompanying vegetables, clean them, soak in salt water, and let them drain. Then, cut them into thin strips for easier wrapping. The process is similar to making pork spring rolls or rare beef with lime.
Marinating the Beef
Before steaming, marinate the beef with some spices to enhance its flavor. For 1kg of beef, marinate it with:
- 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon of seasoning powder
- 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of MSG
- A little bit of ground pepper
Evenly distribute the spices and add the sliced lemongrass, crushed ginger, galangal, and chopped chili. Mix and marinate the beef for about 20-30 minutes.
After marinating, you can tie the beef with a string to make it neat. It will look more attractive when sliced.
Making the Dipping Sauce
To make the dipping sauce, you need to add sugar, MSG, chopped ginger, and chopped chili to reduce the strong saltiness of the shrimp paste. Here is how you can do it:
- 2 tablespoons of shrimp paste
- Almost 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of MSG
- Chopped ginger, chopped chili
- A bit of crushed roasted peanuts
You can adjust the amount of sugar according to the saltiness of the shrimp paste.
Steaming the Beef with Lemongrass, Ginger, and Perilla Leaves
Fill the steamer with water. The water should reach about halfway between the bottom of the pot and the steamer rack. Alternatively, you can steam the beef with beer for a delicious aroma.
Add the lemongrass, some crushed lemongrass, ginger, and galangal into the water. Bring it to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, place the beef on the steamer rack, sprinkle the remaining lemongrass, ginger, and galangal around. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to medium. For example, if your stove has 8 settings, set it to number 3.
The cooking time depends on the size of the beef. Here, 1kg of beef is divided into 2 pieces, each weighing 5 ounces. At this heat level, it takes about 23 minutes for the beef to be well-cooked and still retain its juicy sweetness. If you prefer medium-rare beef, steam it for 18-19 minutes.
Note, 3 minutes before turning off the heat, which means after 20 minutes of steaming, add the remaining perilla leaves. The fragrant aroma of the perilla leaves will permeate the beef, making it very appetizing.
To check if the beef is cooked, pierce it with a skewer. If the juice that comes out is red, continue steaming. If it's light pink, the beef is well-cooked.
After a total of 23 minutes of steaming, turn off the heat, remove the beef from the pot, and let it cool completely before slicing. While waiting for the beef to cool, you can prepare and arrange the accompanying herbs and vegetables.
The beef steamed with lemongrass, ginger, and perilla leaves is very aromatic. Thanks to the proper preparation and marinating process, as well as the appropriate steaming time, the beef is well-cooked, very flavorful, and retains its juiciness. Enjoy it with shrimp paste, accompanied by green bananas, sour starfruit... it's absolutely mouth-watering.
Good luck with preparing this steam beef dish following the method shared by Cookbeo!
