Beef with bamboo and oyster sauce

I rescued a typical recipe of Vietnam called Bo Xao Mang. It uses several very exotic ingredients like tender bamboo and oyster sauce . Both can be found in specialized stores, Asian shops or exotic food sections of supermarkets. Everyone knows what bamboo is. In the East the tender stalks are used like any other vegetables. If you can not find bamboo you can use green asparagus . The oyster sauce is not a seasoning for this mollusk, but is obtained by boiling oysters in brine. It is used widely in Far East cuisine as a flavor enhancer.

Ingredients ( 4 people):

400 grams / 0.88 Lb beef cut into thin slices (almost like carpaccio ) but if you have no wok use meat cut into cubes like cut for stew
250 grams / 0.55 Lb of tender bamboo stalks ( asparagus or green )
2 spring onions
100 grams / 3.53 oz of sesame seeds ( best toast)
3 cloves of garlic
Oyster Sauce
salt
pepper
Vegertal oil. The original oil is palm or sesame , but it is preferable to employ one more healthy.

If you do not have toast sesame seeds you have to toast it by yourselves. To do this you put a frying pan on fire and pour the seeds , stirring them continually . Be watchful because it is easy to burn. Then you pass through the rolling pin to loosen the oil they contain. Just reserve both the seeds and the oil.

If you have a wok you add a couple of tablespoons of oil and you pass the spiced meat until it is done. It takes little - a minute or two - cause beef carpaccio is very thin . If you do not have wok employ a pan with a splash of oil  and pass the meat , cut in cubes , until it is done.

Withdraw meat once it is made ​​. In the same wok / skillet sauté finely chopped garlic , julienned onions and bamboo. Vegetables will remain in the pan or wok until they are tender. Season with salt , pepper and oyster sauce ( with a spoonful of the latter is more than enough) .

Now add the meat back to the wok with the sesame seeds . Stir well for about three minutes and go.

If you go to Vietnam (one beautiful country which I recommend ) or you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, the name of this recipe is BO XAO MANG . Remember it !