Add an Asian flair to your mid-week supper routine with this easy and flavorful Thai Beef and Lemongrass Rice Bowl.
Can we talk about one of my favorite parts of Brooklyn today?
I realized that as much as I might talk, excuse me, I mean complain about city life, I don’t always talk about my very favorite things. Especially some of the things that people might not really know about it.
My main example is Brooklyn Chinatown. Did you know it existed? Sure everyone thinks about the one in Manhattan and yes, I realize if you’re into food or have lived in Brooklyn forever it’s going to be your place to go for some seriously good Asian food. However outsiders, well, now you know.
Braden and I pop down there a few times a month, mostly because it’s just so easy to get to from our apartment. Plus who can say no to a piping hot bowl of noodle soup, dumplings for a dollar or pho? Yeah, that’s right, there’s more than just Chinese food lining the streets of 8th avenue in Brooklyn.
It’s essentially the mecca for any Asian cuisine cravings – well most cuisines. Next to your dollar dumpling guy is our favorite Vietnamese restaurant with bowls of pho bigger than your head that costs $6. A couple of blocks down you have Chinese restaurants specializing in seafood with crazy live fish displayed in the windows and a Malaysian restaurant across the street.
For a first timer, it can be a little overwhelming but after awhile you figure out your favorite places (hint hint, if I find peking duck hanging in the window I’m likely to pull you in). Oddly enough what’s not circling around much are Thai restaurants and for a staple that everyone seems to eat in NY, we just don’t.
I think it’s my doing though, too much heat, too much coconut in a lot of those dishes. Except once in a while you get that craving and one night I did, so we circled round to a Thai joint near our apartment to finally find the one Thai dish that was meant for me. Somewhat like our Thai beef, it was ground pork with chiles, ginger, garlic, long beans, all over a bed of rice.
The dish struck a chord with me and then I sort of forgot about it. It happens, I was probably distracted by dumplings.
Then I sort of remembered it again but not everything about it, so I made up my own and safe to say I like Thai food but when I make it at home! My version was a bit light in the heat department but feel free to spice yours up as much as you want by keeping the capsaicin seeds of the chiles in there.
Let’s also ignore that it’s not actually in a bowl, it was an artistic choice.
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Ingredients
- 1lb ground beef
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 stalk lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed, finely chopped
- 1 thai chile, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- juice from 1 lime, plus extra for garnish
- chopped scallions and thinly sliced carrots for garnish
- 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice
Instructions
- Prepare the jasmine rice according the packages directions.
- In a skillet over medium heat, drizzle 2 teaspoons of avocado or grapeseed oil and add the ginger, garlic and lemongrass. Saute for about 1 minute then add the sliced thai chile.
- Add the beef and break it up into small pieces, combing it with the ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chile. Season with kosher salt. Cook until the beef is browned and no longer pink throughout.
- In a small bowl whisk together the fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and lime juice.
- Pour the sauce over the browned beef and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the beef has mostly absorbed the sauce and it's thickened up a bit in the pan.
- To serve divide the rice between 4 bowls and top with the beef. Finishing with chopped scallions and sliced carrots with a slice of lime on the side.
beautiful! I am pinning this for later
Wowser of a dish — fast, easy and DELICIOUS! I adore Thai food.
Living in suburbia (we’re about an hour away from Boston) – we miss having lots of great restaurants so close by like when we were in the city! But – this looks like a great make-at-home option!
I love thai flavors. This looks like a good way to get those flavors at home.
This post made me so stinkin hungry. $1 dumplings and $6 pho?? I’m starting to think you all were jokin about the high cost of city living! 🙂 This is definitely going on my to make list!
The high cost is elsewhere Courtney! The secret is to learning where the cheap eats are. So when are you coming to visit? 🙂
Ha! I didn’t even realize it was on a plate instead of a bowl until you mentioned it! So pretty!
Well, I guess I know where you’re taking me next time I get to your neck of the woods. I want to go in the place with the duck hanging in the window, too! 😉 This sounds incredible, I have to try making it soon, I know I’d love it.
It’s a date! Come hungry. 🙂
What is it about Chinatown in the winter? I mean, sometimes there is just no better combination. Winter is my favorite time to visit any of the Chinatowns – Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan. I would dive into your rice bowl too, though, it looks amazing!
I love Asian influenced food. I eat it all the time. I can flat out
say this is super GOOD.
I love the San Francisco Chinatown – you can get lost in there for hours. Love your rendition of this Thai dish!
Yes! I visited San Francisco Chinatown too and we ended up in this little Dim Sum place that was cheap, delicious and a dive. The trifecta completed!
So much deliciousness! I’m a big fan of Thai food!
I’m saving this to try, but will use ground turkey and make a lettuce wrap. I sprouted some lemongrass and now have a pot growing outside since lemongrass is now one of my favorites.
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