Well it is that time of year again, Father's Day! We were all going to go down to Asian town for dinner, but we had had a long night the night before. So I decided to bring Asian town to my parents once again.
There are a couple dishes that were a hit with my family previously so I decided to make again. These include peking ribs, walnut shrimp and black pepper beef. For the black pepper beef, instead of using skirt steak like I did previously, I decided to use short ribs since it is one of my Dad's favorite cut of meat.
Growing up, we would go to California quite often to see my Mom's side of the family and my uncle would always make this one dish called bo tai chanh. It is such a simple dish, but it is so amazing. All it is, is thinly sliced pieces of beef and marinaded in some Asian sauces with lemon and lime. The lemon and lime "cooks" the meat. The other key ingredient to this dish is an abundant amount of cilantro.
Prepping:
After going to the store, I went to my parent's house and basically started prepping immediately. For me it was an adrenaline rush because I was trying to work quickly as I can, but luckily Crystal and my Mom offered to help so I started giving orders.
First thing first was to throw the eye of round roast into the freezer. It is much easier to thinly slice any meat if it is partially frozen.
For the black pepper short ribs, I simply seasoned it with salt and pepper since most of the flavor is going to come from the Asian sauces that I used and from the onion and garlic. I set that aside and jumped onto the next item.
The shrimp for the walnut shrimp and the was simply seasoned with Chinese five spice powder and salt and pepper.
The peking ribs were seasoned similar to the shrimp. Since I am going to fry these, I needed to partially cook it by boiling it so it fully cooks through when I fry it.
After seasoning all the protein, I started prepping the broth for the mussel. I sauteed some onion, garlic, ginger and lemon grass and poured in my homemade chicken stock. I started on this earlier because I like to let my broth simmer for a while to extract all the flavors.
As I let the all the proteins season, I prepared all the sauces for each plate. I grabbed the beef out of the freezer and started slicing away for the Asian Beef Carpaccio.
Cooking:
The real fun finally begins...cooking. I moved quickly and carefully coordinated everything because I was preparing a six course meal on a four range burner and wanted everything to be hot when we eat. I set up a fry station for Crystal since she was in charge frying the shrimp and ribs.
For the black pepper short ribs, I seared off the the short ribs on both sides and set it aside. With the same pan, I sauteed the onion and garlic and cooked it down and added in my Asian sauces with my chicken broth. At this point, return the meat back into the pan and let it simmer so it takes on all of the flavor from the sauce.
At this point Crystal had finished frying the ribs and tossed it with the sauce. I went ahead and added in my sauce for the carpaccio. I do not like to let the beef sit in the lemon and lime too long because it will "over cook" it.
Crystal finished the shrimp pretty quickly since it cooks so quickly. She tossed it with the sauce and she was done with her fry station. I drained out the oil in her pan to begin pan frying the fish and sauteed the veggies for the fish plate.
As all this was going on, I had turned the broth for the mussel on and dropped it in. Finally everything was done and we were ready to eat.
Father's Day Menu:
Black Pepper Short Ribs
Mussel
Walnut Shrimp
Asian Beef Carpaccio
Pan Fried Fish with Stir Fry Vegetables
Peking Ribs
The dinner was delicious. So good that my parents said that it tasted better than going out to Asian town. This made me happy because Asian parents are very honest and for them to say that, it actually really meant they liked the dinner.
I had tons of fun because it felt like I was in a restaurant kitchen working at fast speeds and barking orders.
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