Vietnamese Smoked French Dip

The most American I ever felt as an immigrant kid growing up in America was when I was 18 and I ordered my first French dip at Applebee’s. Nothing felt as far removed from home-cooked Vietnamese food than, to me, a decadent meat filled sandwich where you dip the whole contraption into its own juices. In those few moments of enjoying the sandwich, the feeling of being included and accepted as just another American kid, and not an immigrant kid with strange cultural traditions and stinky food, was incredibly powerful.

Looking back, everything I thought of back then was a bit ass-backwards. I should’ve been proud of my mom’s proud home cooking of my culture. I thought I was being transported to far away places by ordering something named “French”. But in reality, the sandwich is nothing more than another American invention. The only thing French was the use of French bread.

As I’ve gained in age, appreciation for my own culture, and educated myself on origins of certain dishes, my love for the French dip never faded. One of my absolute favorites is from Rutherford Grill in the infamous Napa Valley of northern California.

Having many french dips under my belt, I decided it was high time to combine my love for the balanced nuances of Vietnamese food and the great American sandwich.

This is isn’t a long smoke session with your pellet grill. The smoke is just there as a subtle kiss at the end —just enough where it won’t overpower everything else. Vietnamese flavors is all about textures and balance. Nothing should overpower another flavor. But the beef’s unctuousness is more than enough to have you salivate between bites.

Directions:

Preheat your pellet grill to 450F and place in an oven safe roasting pan. I used the Camp Chef Woodwind WIFI 24. Once your grill is to temp, add a few swigs of vegetable oil onto the roasting pan to sear the meat. You want to sear all sides of the beef with a nice golden crust —about 1 1/2 minutes a side.

When you have the beef nice all beautiful, crusty, and brown, pull it off the heat, and set the grill to 250F. Let’s move onto the marinade. Finely chop the garlic and place it into a medium sized bowl. This bowl will be your combine-all-the-things bowl for the marinade. Combine the dry ingredients into the bowl first: sugar, lemon grass, salt, pepper, cayenne, chili powder, and paprika. Next comes the wet ingredients: fish sauce and vegetable oil. Mix together to form a nice paste. Set aside and let the flavors mingle.

Next, you’ll chop the mirepoix. Nothing too precise or fancy. You’re just roughly chopping them to flavor the both as the meat cooks. The rustic chop if you will.

Toss in the mirepoix into the roasting pan along with bay leaves and the beef broth. Close the lid to keep the temp from dropping too much. Slather the marinade paste over the meat and place on top of the veggies and broth. If you have extra marinade, throw it all into the roasting tray. Can’t waste all that flavor!

Stab in the temperature probe into the beef. If you have app for your probe, set it to 125F. It should take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. You’re cooking to temperature and not to time here. This isn’t a long smoke to break down the fibers to make the meat tender. Beef tenderloin is tender enough already as its a very lean cut. We’re looking for a nice medium rare post-resting.

While the beef is in the grill, it’s time to prepare the Vietnamese pickled carrots. Start by julienning your carrots into thin strips. If you have a mandoline slicer, use that. It’ll make for a more uniform and even cut. I prefer to hand chop carrots as the slicer sometimes might not be able to slice the whole carrot. Mix together the sugar, water, and vinegar until the sugar is dissolved. Place in carrots. Stir to evenly incorporate the carrots. Set aside. The pickles will be nice and pickle-y by the time the meat is done.

Once the internal temperature of the beef reaches 125F pull it out and let it rest for 20 minutes. Strain the broth mixture into a pot, bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat to low to a very gentle simmer. Season the broth with the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar. Stir until everything is dissolved and incorporated. Taste and adjust seasoning at the end if you feel it needs additional salt. Ladle the dip into small dipping bowls to serve. Adding horseradish is optional. I recommend it.

Spread some butter to the bottoms of brioche buns and toast just the buttered side. I prefer brioche bread in this instance because the bread becomes non-existent after the first few dips. The bread is just there to make sure your fingers stay relatively clean in the very messy eating process. Squeeze on the Japanese mayo onto the bottom slice of bread. Top with the sliced beef, then pickled carrots, then a fresh sprig of cilantro, then the cheese.

Dip. Eat. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

SERVES 4

• brioche bun

• Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise

• Swiss or provolone cheese

• cilantro

Beef Marinade:

• beef eye of round/roast/tenderloin

• 8-10 cloves of garlic

• 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil

• 3 Tbsp of fish sauce

• 4 Tbsp of sugar

• 1 Tbsp of salt

• 1 Tbsp of pepper

• 2 Tbsp of lemon grass

• A few of shakes of cayenne

• 1 tsp of chili powder

• 1 tsp of paprika

Au Jus Broth:

• 2 cups of carrots

• 2 cups of celery

• 2 cups of onions

• 1 liter of beef broth

• 3 bay leaves

Pickled Vietnamese Carrots

• 2 large carrots —julienned

• 6 Tbsp of sugar

• 6 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

• 1 cup water

Seasoning Au Jus:

• 1/4 cup of dark soy sauce

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce

• 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar

• 4 Tbsp of brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp of fish sauce

• Salt to taste

• horseradish (optional)