072/18 – Grilled Beef in Grape Leaves:
I have cooked with a lot of different leaves this year, most of them for the first time: Banana Leaves, Betel Leaves, Pandan Leaves and Grape Vine Leaves. There were still quite a few Grape Vine Leaves left from the last cook and I spotted Grilled Beef in Grape Leaves on my list. Decision made!
The recipe is from The Asian Grill by Corinne Trang which I bought 2nd hand off Amazon for around £5.
Some previous leaf based cooks:
The Prep:
Minced beef from Turner and George was mixed with shallot, garlic, lemongrass, sugar and fish sauce. The bowl was covered and put in the fridge for an hour.
The recipe suggests an Asian Coleslaw to go with the dish. I mixed fish sauce, lime juice and sugar then added garlic, chillies, shredded cabbage, carrots and red onion. This was covered and left in the fridge for around an hour also.
The Sweet, Sour and Spicy Fish Sauce Dressing was made by whisking together sugar, fish sauce and lime juice before adding garlic and chillies.
The Grape Vine Leaves were rinsed under the tap then dried to remove some of the brine flavour. On each vine leaf a full (loaded) tablespoon of the beef mixture was placed into the centre of the leaf before the edges were folded in and the mixture rolled over on itself to create a tight package. This was then slotted onto a wooden skewer. The recipe said it would make 32 portions, my 15 portions must have been more generous in size!
The Charcoal:
Oxford Charcoal Oak Lumpwood – nice big pieces and it smells great. I have enjoyed cooking on the Oak so much I just bought another 4 bags.
The Cook:
Once the grill was up to about 200c I put the skewers down over direct heat. The grill was in the raised position as I needed to brush the leaves with oil so there was potential for flare up! 
5 minutes later, flipped over.
I had gone back into the house to get something and when I walked back into the hut I spotted the smoke coming out the top of the Kamado Joe and had to take a photo.
Another 5 minutes later, rotated again. I checked the internal temperature of the meat with my Thermapen and it was around 65c.
A couple of minutes later the Thermapen was reading around 70c so it was time to take the meat off.
Time to Rest:
Not really a rest, just waiting to be plated up! The food looked and smelt fantastic, I was looking forward to eating it!
Time to Eat:
Simple steamed rice with the Asian Coleslaw and some of the Grilled Beef in Grape Leaves.
SUMMARY:
This was quite an easy dish to prepare and cook but tasted fantastic. The beef had a lovely taste from the combination of ingredients, always a fan of fish sauce too and it worked well here without being overpowering.
The Asian Coleslaw doesn’t look like much but was really tasty and had a good cook from the chillies. Not sure why the dipping sauce isn’t in the photo but that also worked well with the beef and I poured some on the rice.
Overall, a really nice dish. Good to have something a bit different.
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Quick: 1/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Kamado Joe Big Joe |
| Cook Method: | Direct |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Oak |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | 200c |
| Cook time: | 16 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 70c (Thermapen) |
| Notes: | No major changes |
THE BOOK:
If you like the look of this recipe you can buy the book 2nd hand from Amazon for around £5 by clicking the picture below:
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