Lẩu dê nấu chao is our Vietnamese/Chinese herbal goat hot pot, marinated in fermented bean curd. This special delicacy is not a quick and easy dish to make. Goat itself is especially hard cook and prepare. Not to scare you away before you attempt to make this complicated dish.
3 Steps To Get Rid of Goat Smell
The goat smell is why most Vietnamese don’t particularly eat goat. Here are a few steps to get rid of the goat smell.
Step #1: Pick a good goat meat. If you can source your goat meat from a trusted local butcher, then they should know how to handle and pick the right goat for eating. I find that fresh goat meat has a strong smell as compared to already frozen goat meat. So if you want fresh goat meat, make sure your local butcher knows his meat. Some mid easter market even have fresh goat meat that have been torched to rid the hair and smell.
Step #2: Even if you have a good piece of goat meat, you will need to use certain technique to overwhelm the goat stench. Wash your meat in hot boiling water with spices and wine. In a pot of water, bring to boil and add in salt, ginger root, galangal skin (the root will be grated for marinate), bay leaf, or any other spices that have a strong fragrance, and chinese cooking wine. Add in your goat and boil/blanch for 10 min. Take out and wash under cold water.
Another technique is to wash your goat in chinese cooking wine and salt for 15 min, and then searing the meat over charcoal. But this technique is more time consuming.
Step #3: Marinate your meat with grated galangal root, lemongrass, 5 spice powder etc. Any spice with strong overwhelming smell to cover up the goat smell.
What Vietnamese Dish Use Goat
The Vietnamese cuisine is ever changing and adapting. There are new and improve dishes every day! But goat is a rare meat that Vietnamese people don’t often eat as much. For one, it is expensive, and two the hard labor that goes into preparing the dish.
Vietnamese open supermarkets don’t often have fridges and/or freezers to keep their meat fresh. Meats that are sold are processed within the same day. The restaurants in Vietnam that serves up goats, are specialized restaurants. They have connection straight from the farm. The goat farmers mainly sell to these specialized restaurants because they know the number of goats they need to provide to process each day.
In these specialized restaurants that serves up goat, I usually see these:
-Lẩu dê nấu chao: Goat bean curd hot pot.
-Dê hấp sả: Steam goat with lemongrass.
-Dê hấp tía tô: Stem goat with shiso.
-Dê xào lăn: Stir fry goat in lemongrass curry.
-Dê nướng sả ớt: Grill goat with lemongrass chili pepper.
-Vú dê nướng: Grilled goat breasts.
-Tiết canh dê: Goat coagulated blood.
etc….
How to Make Lẩu dê
While it is pretty hard to make this dish at home, it is a lot easier for us to make Lẩu dê at home now because of modernized supermarket convenience. The butcher cuts up your goat for you. You can even buy pre cut taro root. Pre peeled garlic (even minced). Pre made pork broth, chicken broth, vegetable broth… etc. There are lots of convenience nowadays to put together a complicated dish as Lẩu dê nấu chao.
These ingredients are all made from scratch. Feel free to sub and convenience step to ease your cooking. Such as making the pork broth can sub for using pre made cans or concentrate. Or even pre seasoned Lẩu dê seasoning? It’s up to you. However, I do want you to follow the exact recipe here just so you know how ChefQ’s Recipe live up to my own name. Let me know how it goes for you in the comments below or follow me on my social media platforms below!
Happy Cooking!
ChefQ
Lẩu Dê Nấu Chao
Equipment
- big pot
Ingredients
Goat Marinade
- 5-6 lbs Skin on goat meat cut to chunks & tenderize the skin with knife or tenderizer.
- 1 each ginger root sliced
- 4 oz galanga root peeled (save skin) & grated or finely minced
- 4 each lemongrass smashed and cut to chunks
- 1 clove Garlic finely mince
- 1 each large shallot finely minced
- 3/4 jar fermented bean curd remove water
- 3 tbsp chicken granulated seasoning or 1 tbsp MSG
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp chili oil
- 2 tbsp salt to season
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 each chinese cooking wine
Broth Base
- 4 lbs Pork back/neck bones boil in salted water for 10 min and rinse clean with cold water.
- 2 each large yellow onions peeled and leave whole
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 each ginger root sliced
- 4 oz rock sugar
- 1 can vegetable broth
- 1 can chicken broth
Other Ingredients & Side Dishes
- 1 pkg Chinese herbal Lau De mix toast these up in a pan until fragrant and put in filter bag they provided.
- 1 lb dried shiitake mushrooms rinse & soak in cold water overnight. sliced in half the next day when it is soft. Throw away any hard stem.
- 8 oz dried jubilee soak in cold water overnight.
- 16 oz lotus root peeled, sliced, & soak in salted cold water until use.
- 2 lb taro root peeled, cut to chunks, and deep fried for crisp outside.
- 8 oz fried puffed tofu
- 8 oz dried bean curd deep fried for a quick puff (5 seconds)
- mixed hot pot veggies chrysanthemum greens, napa cabbage, etc.
- dried egg noodles for hot pot or fresh egg noodles (a bit more work)
Bean Curd Dipping Sauce (Sốt Chao)
- 1 jar fermented bean curd
- 1/2 clove garlic
- 1-2 each red thai chili
- 1 each lime
- 4-5 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
Marinade the Goat
- Tenderizing the goat skin & cut into chunks
- In large pot of water, add: sliced ginger root, pounded lemongrass chunks, galangal skin, 2 tbsp salt, 1/2 cup of chinese cooking wine.Add goat and let boil for 5 min. Rinse and wash goat under cold water and let dry and cool in strainer.
- After goat is cooled and dried, marinade with: grated galangal, fermented bean curd, sugar, chicken granulated seasoning/MSG, minced garlic, minced shallots, chili oil, 4 tbsp chinese cooking wine.Mix well & add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Mix well again, cover and leave at room temperature for 1-2 hr before put in fridge for next day.
Broth Base
- Put pork bones (boiled and rinsed) in large pot of water (35 – 45 qrt).Add yellow onions, salt, ginger root, and rock sugar.
- let simmer on medium heat for 1.5 hr to extract the bone flavor. Skim off any foam/fat that floats to top.
- add in chicken broth and vegetable broth cans after 1 hr.
- remove all and filter out broth.
Put It Together
- In a big pot (35 -45 qrt), add some oil, minced garlic and shallots. Fried till fragrant.Add in your marinated goat meat and stir fry till meat is evenly seared.
- Add in your filtered broth base. Add in smashed lemongrass and simmer for 1 hr.
- add in your shiitake mushrooms, lotus root, dried jubilee, and chinese herbal mix. simmer on low heat for 45 min – 1 hr. (check your meat to see if it is desired tenderness.)Taste your broth and adjust to your taste by adding fish sauce or chicken granulated seasoning/msg.
- scoop over to hot pot & serve at table!put in taro and other condiments as you like.dip in fermented bean curd dipping sauce.
Fermented Bean Curd Dipping Sauce (Sốt Chao)
- Add sugar, garlic, and chilli in mortar and smash into paste.squeeze in lime.
- scoop to bowl, add fermented bean curd, soy sauce, & mix wellTaste and adjust to your liking.
