Butter Beef Carpaccio 生牛肉伴蒜油醋 is my version of a very well-known dish from a very well-known restaurant here in Vancouver. Phnom Penh Restaurant is a restaurant famous for its delicious Cambodian and Vietnamese foods. My family has spent many birthdays and celebrations there. We’ve basically made numerous excuses to go for the last 30 years! I’m sure I’m not alone! This restaurant has won countless awards for their extremely tasty food. You know the food is good when there are perpetual line-ups outside the restaurant!
One of my all-time favorite menu items is their Marinated Butter Beef dish. It’s pieces of raw beef that are thinly sliced and half-cooked. It’s topped with crispy garlic and shallots, smothered with a soy vinaigrette that is to die for and then sprinkled with cilantro. My family and I don’t care for cilantro so we usually order without it. But I did get some cilantro especially for this dish to make it authentic.
Since the pandemic, we have ordered take-out from Phnom Penh many times. Over the years, I have tried on and off to make a vinaigrette that’s comparable to the one used in the Marinated Butter Beef dish and have failed more times than I’d like to admit! But recently, my stubbornness is paying off.... I think that I made something just as good as theirs.
I’ve since used this vinaigrette in various other dishes with great results. For those of you who are fortunate enough to have this dish at Phnom Penh, you may not need this recipe. But for those of you who have had this dish and are not able to get to Phnom Penh Restaurant, this recipe can help you curb your cravings! And for those of you who have never had this dish, you really must try….it’s sooooo good!!
If you like Phnom Penh, you’ll also love my Crispy Chili Garlic Chicken Wings! Check out my other copycat recipes too!
Butter Beef Carpaccio 生牛肉伴蒜油醋
Ingredients
- 300 g Thinly sliced beef , suitable for raw consumption
- 5 cloves Garlic , chopped
- 1 Large shallot (or 2 – 3 small)
- 4 sprigs Cilantro , chopped
- 5 tbsp White vinegar
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp Fish sauce
- ¼ tsp Marmite
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 4 tbsp Oil
Instructions
- Chop garlic, slice shallots into small pieces, chop cilantro and set aside
- Heat wok or small pot to medium heat. Add 4 tbsp oil
- Fry garlic and shallots until golden. This may take approx. 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside
- Boil some water in a large pot
- Arrange thinly sliced beef on a plate. Note that more overlapping of the beef will result in more raw portions. Arrange beef accordingly
I used pre-sliced beef packaged for hot pot. They worked well for this dish - Set aside for 15 minutes so that the beef can dry a bit and adhere to the plate. This step is optional but it may help to prevent the beef from slipping off the plate in step 7
- When the water boils, scorch the beef by carefully using a ladle to pour boiling water onto the plate of beef then pour the water back into the pot. You may choose to only scorch the beef on the edge of the plate or all the beef on the plate depending on your desired doneness
You can hold the plate on an angle above the pot so that the water will run off the plate. Be extra careful of the steam from the pot and if you angle the plate too much, the beef may slip off - Continue scorching the beef with the boiling water until you reach your desired doneness. Pour all the water off the plate and set the beef aside
- In a small pot, on low heat, add 2 tbsp white vinegar, ¼ tsp Marmite, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp fish sauce and 2 tbsp sugar. Stir until everything is dissolved and well mixed. Turn off heat
- Add 3 more tbsp of vinegar
this is done after heat is turned off to prevent the vinegar taste from evaporating - Spread the fried garlic and shallots over the beef evenly
- Pour the sauce over the beef
- Sprinkle with cilantro
- Serve
Delicious!! I thought that maybe I had made the sauce wrong since it seemed a little runny and re-read the recipe even. But....TRUST in the recipe! It’s soooo good! I burnt my shallots a tiny bit as I wasn’t paying attention, but they come out really nice and crispy! The sauce seems to “cook” the meat like fish in a ceviche and gives it texture and taste! Another amazing recipe!
Beautiful!!! Thank you so much for the great feedback Tammy! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Happy Cooking!
Oh my gosh. I'm so excited to make this. I've been looking for this recipe for a long time. Can I ask what brand fish sauce and marmite you used?
Hi Neelam! I make this dish on average once a week now because my family loves it so much!! I usually choose sauces with the fewest ingredients. The brand I'm currently using for fish sauce is Cock Brand from Thailand that I got from T&T Supermarket. For the Marmite, I think it's just Marmite brand. I got it from Save On Foods. I hope you'll love this dish as much as we do! I highly recommend the my Luc Lac Beef and deep-fried chicken wings too. Happy cooking!
I've been looking for a recipe for this for so long. Thank you thank you. Can't wait to try!
Hi Eva, my family thinks it's pretty good, they all request that I make it on their birthdays! Let me know how it goes. Happy cooking!
Can you replace the vinegar with lime juice?
Hi Doreen, you can definitely replace the vinegar with lime or lemon juice. Happy cooking!
What type of beef cut do you think Phnom Penh uses, and what alternative to use as they cut it themselves and it seems to be thicker! Sirloin? Striploin?
Hi John, sorry for the late reply! I don't know for sure, but I've seen many authentic Vietnamese recipes using meat from the round or hip. Specifically, you can use eye of round roast, inside round or outside round. These parts are quite lean, a bit tough but much more economical. But if you're going to eat it raw, I think the texture will be fine. If you want to go up a grade, where the meat if not as tough, you could try the sirloin tip roast. I'm in Vancouver and I've seen this at Costco. There's usually a big piece of tendon or something like that that runs through the meat, just make sure you cut it out (use it for a stew or soup). Sirloin and striploin are great choices too but will cost a bit more. Happy cooking!