This Vietnamese shaking beef offers something extra

Nini Nguyen is loudly and proudly embracing her Vietnamese culture now more than ever before. The Vietnamese American chef, who grew up in New Orleans and moved to New York City to further her career, gained national exposure as a contestant on “Top Chef” in 2018.

“I’ve always been inspired by food from all over the place. But when I moved to New York, I think what made me most unique is that I’m Vietnamese and from New Orleans,” Nguyen said on a video call from her home back in New Orleans. She “really tapped into that” as she competed against contestants from all over the country.

After the season aired, Nguyen said, lots of people got in touch wanting her to write a book, but she didn’t want to simply write about her experience on the Bravo cooking competition show. “If I were to put out a book, I wanted it to be something meaningful. And I wanted it to be a driving force toward something.”

More recently, her desire to preserve and share Vietnamese recipes, language and culture and how various aspects came to be has grown even stronger. Even as a first-generation American, it was a lesson that took her a while to learn. “I can only imagine the next generations not understanding as much because they’re not as close to the root.” Now this mission has resulted in her debut cookbook, “Dac Biet,” written with Sarah Zorn.

One way she’s highlighting her culture in “Dac Biet” is through the photos. “There’s going to be a lot of color and, like, a lot of stuff,” Nguyen recalled telling her publisher. There’s the Vietnamese newspaper she “stole from (her) grandma’s house” to highlight how her family would dump bones and herb sprigs on a newspaper-lined table so they could just roll it up and throw it away at the end of a meal. There are the colorful plates with intricate patterns that seemingly everyone in her community had. There’s the random (fake) gold bar in the image of Nguyen’s banana-leaf-wrapped pork-and-mushroom rice dumplings (bánh giò).

And then there are the nails. “My mom and my aunts, and most of the women in my community, were nail technicians,” Nguyen wrote in the book’s introduction. Nguyen wanted to celebrate the work her family and other Vietnamese Americans did to survive. “That was very much important to me,” she said.

Nguyen said the book’s title means “with everything,” and is often seen alongside dishes such as pho or banh mi to indicate that they’re served with all the fixings. But it could also refer to the specialty dishes of a restaurant, something that’s more distinguished or elevated than usual, and people.

“If you’re being extra, you’re being dac biet. And I felt like that was the only word that really described me, my style, the way I like to eat, the way I like to have everything,” Nguyen said. “I’ve always loved to do too much. And in this book, I wanted to make a lot of the recipes very traditional, but I wanted to … zhuzh it up a little.”

Sometimes that could mean simply using a more premium ingredient, such as calling for a cut of meat normally reserved for steak in her recipe for shaking beef (bò lúc lac). But it could also show itself in Nguyen applying her extensive cooking experience to prepare traditional dishes using nontraditional methods.

Nguyen’s shaking beef, a French-inspired Vietnamese dish that features tender cubes of meat in a savory-sweet stir-fry, strays from the typical preparation. “A lot of times, a lot of the recipes will tell you to marinate the meat,” Nguyen said. “You’re not going to get the sear that you want.” Instead, she tosses it with sugar, salt and pepper before searing it in a hot skillet to get the best browning. Only later does she call for adding the sauce to glaze the meat. The result is beautifully browned cubes of steak that are still pink on the inside instead of tough and chewy.

“This is how I make things dac biet,” Nguyen said. “I’m using my food science knowledge to still replicate the same flavor that you really want to achieve but maybe making it a little bit more technical so that it’s easier to get the most deluxe version of that.” After testing her shaking beef with watercress salad, I can confidently say: mission accomplished.

“I love to eat good food,” Nguyen said, and she wants to help people to do the same.

Shaking Beef With Watercress Salad (Bo Luc Lac)

Adapted from “Dac Biet” by Nini Nguyen with Sara Zorn (Knopf, 2024).

Shaking beef (bò lúc lac) is a French-inspired Vietnamese dish that features tender cubes of beef in a savory-sweet stir-fry. This recipe from “Dac Biet” by Nini Nguyen uses a cut of meat normally reserved for steak to make it special, and includes butter, onions, watercress and a shallot vinaigrette. “Sear it quickly over the highest possible heat for good caramelization,” Nguyen writes. “The ideal is to get a crust and color without cooking the meat all the way through.” But doing so can also create a lot of smoke, so open a window or turn on an exhaust fan.

For the salad

1 small shallot, finely diced (3 tablespoons)

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 bunch watercress (5 ounces)

1 medium tomato (9 ounces), sliced ¼-inch thick

2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the beef

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

½ teaspoon fine salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound sirloin steak or rib-eye, trimmed of excess fat, if desired, and cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ medium red onion (4 ounces total), coarsely chopped

Start the salad: In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, combine the shallot, vinegar and salt, and let sit while you make the beef.

Make the beef: In another liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the oyster sauce, water, soy sauce and cornstarch until well combined.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, salt and pepper. Pat dry the beef, add to the sugar mixture and toss to coat.

Heat a cast-iron or stainless steel saute pan or skillet over high heat until hot. Add the oil and swirl the skillet to coat the bottom. Working in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding the pan, add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned in spots, 1 to 2 minutes total. (The high heat and sugar on the beef will create a lot of smoke; you may want to open a window, turn on an exhaust fan and/or use medium-high heat instead.) Transfer the beef to a plate and repeat with the remaining beef, if needed.

Lower the heat to medium-high, add the butter and onion to the pan, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions start to turn translucent, about 2 minutes.

Return the meat to the pan with the onions, add the oyster sauce mixture and deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Continue to cook until the sauce mixture comes to a boil, then remove from the heat.

Spread the watercress on a large plate or platter, followed by the tomato slices and the beef mixture. Whisk the olive oil or canola oil and pepper into the shallot mixture, and drizzle over the top of the salad. Serve immediately.

Yield: 2-4 servings, or about 8 cups

Total time: 25 minutes

Substitutions: No sherry vinegar? Use another vinegar, or lime juice. For the watercress, you can substitute arugula. For red onion, you can use any type of onion or shallot.

Storage: Refrigerate the cooked beef for up to three days.

Where to buy: Oyster sauce can be found at Asian or international markets, well-stocked supermarkets, and online.