Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bò Kho with Red Wine)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef stew meat, cut roughly into 1.5 inch cubes
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 stalk lemongrass, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• ½ cinnamon stick
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup red wine
• 2–3 cups water
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Pat the stew meat dry with paper towels and season generously with salt and pepper. In a large pot over medium high heat, brown the beef in small batches. Remove from pot and set aside.

In the same pan, sauté the onion, carrot, garlic, lemongrass, paprika, and five spice powder. Once the mixture is fragrant and the onion is translucent, add the sugar and fish sauce, stirring to combine and caramelize the sugar.

Add wine and cinnamon stick. Stir to combine, then return the beef to pot and add water. Bring the pot to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the soup is bowling, lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 1.5 hours.

Season to taste. Serve warm with crusty bread or over rice.