Gan Bo Ngam Giam (Sweet and Sour Pickled Beef Tendon), Made with Monk Fruit Sweetener
Vietnamese dishesPickles and PreservesNationwide1 hour simmering, 2 days pickling in the fridge
This turns out as a snappy snack, with sweet, sour and hot flavors soaked right into pieces of tendon that come out clear. The difficulty is judging the texture, since undercooked tendon stays tough and overcooked tendon turns mushy.
Straight out of the pot, the tendon goes into ice water for 5 minutes, and that is the step that decides the snap. Before that it simmers over medium heat for exactly one hour with crushed lemongrass and quartered onion, long enough to soften without going soft.
This batch weighs about 1.3kg, at roughly 74 calories per 100g.
Method
Rub 600g beef tendon with coarse salt and a little lime to clear the odor and any remaining blood, then rinse it thoroughly.
Trim away any tough fat still clinging to the tendon with a knife, since that fat turns chewy after pickling.
Put the tendon in a pot, cover it with water and add 3 crushed stalks of lemongrass and 1 onion cut into quarters. Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour.
Once the tendon is tender, lift it straight into ice water for 5 minutes so it turns snappy, then drain it.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic, cut the chili into small pieces, and cut the tendon into bite sized chunks.
Mix the pickling liquid: put 99g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 120ml water and 200ml vinegar in a bowl, stir until fully dissolved, then add the garlic and chili.
Add the tendon to the bowl, cover it with cling film and keep it in the fridge for 2 days before eating.
Tips
Tendon lifted straight from the pot into ice water comes out snappy rather than mushy.
Besides salted lime, 5 minutes of rubbing with white rice wine also clears the odor.
Trimming away the tough fat around the tendon before simmering leaves the pieces clear and handsome.
One hour of simmering is right, as tendon cooked any softer loses its snap in the pickle.
Give it a full 2 days in the fridge, since eating it early leaves the outside seasoned and the center plain.
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The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.