Day Four - Into The Vietnamese Kitchen - Shrimp in Spicy Tamarind Sauce & Beef Sitr-Fried with Cauliflower

Another day of Vietnamese! Today I chose to make the Shrimp in Spicy Tamarind Sauce.  It took me awhile to find the courage to make this dish.  Just the sound of Tamarind Sauce put a bit of fear into my soul.  You're probably wondering why.  I had to buy a block of tamarind and create the sauce from the block. I was hoping that the sauce came from a jar or a seed. No chance.  Once I started the recipe for just the sauce, I realized that it was much easier than I expected.  Actually, the complete recipe took a total of 15 minutes to put together.  The end result on this dish.....Fantastic!  The flavors were complex.  The taste was salty, sweet, spicy and tangy.  The heat in the dish kind of sneaks up at the end of the meal and warms your heart.

The Beef Stir-Fried with Cauliflower was straightforward.  The beef is marinated first and the cauliflower is parboiled, then both items are fried together.  The combination was perfect.  The meat melted in my mouth and the cauliflower took on the flavors of the marinated in the meat.  Although it was very tasty, I still have to say the shrimp won me over big time.  The Tamarind Sauce is a good ingredient to add to a sauce to put that extra zing in the dish.

The Cookbook Addict