Vietnamese Stir-fried Beef with Tonkin Flowers
Stir-fried beef with Tonkin flowers is a distinctive and savory dish in Vietnamese cuisine. This quick and easy dish features tender beef slices tossed with the unique edible flowers of Indo-China.
If you have traveled to Vietnam, it’s likely you have come across this dish on the menu of quite a few restaurants. The dish is called “bò xào hoa thiên lý” in Vietnamese, with “hoa thiên lý” being the Vietnamese name of Tonkin flowers. I want to share this recipe since it is one of the many delicious beef stir-fries we grew up with and it is super easy to make for family dinners.
What are Tonkin Flowers?
Tonkin flowers refer to the flowers of the plant telosma cordata, also known as Tonkin jasmine, cowslip creeper, or Tonkin creeper. The flowers are greenish-yellow and edible.
In Vietnam, hoa thien ly can be found in stir-fries and soups, where they impart a mild aroma and flavor. The flowers can be simply stir-fried with just garlic, or with beef for a more substantial meal.
Main Ingredients
To make this Vietnamese beef stir-fry, you will need the following ingredients:
- Tonkin flowers
- Beef: you can use flank steak, sirloin, or your favorite cuts for stir-fries. Just make sure to slice it thinly against the grain.
- Aromatics: use as many garlic cloves as you want. You can mince them, or just simply smash them if you feel lazy.
- Seasonings: I use salt, pepper, and oyster sauce. Near the end of the cooking process, I like to add a dash of fish sauce. Some people use soy sauce instead, and it is fine too.
I like to marinate the beef briefly with some cornstarch and water, which will help retain the juice and make the meat very tender like this black pepper beef. Don’t marinate beef with fish sauce since it will make the meat tough and have a sour taste.
Cooking Tips
As with any stir-fries that contain both proteins and vegetables (such as this beef and potato stir-fry, squid stir-fry, or sautéed shrimp with zucchini), you will need to cook them separately for the best results. For this particular recipe, I recommend an additional step: blanching the Tonkin flowers.
If you don’t blanch the flowers, it will take longer to stir-frying them, causing them to lose the vibrant green color. Unless you have a wok and a high-powered stove like in commercial kitchens, it’s best not to skip the blanching step.
Other cooking steps will be stir-frying the beef and the flowers separately. After that, toss them together at the end. The cooking method for this Vietnamese stir-fried beef with Tonkin flowers can also be used to cook beef with broccoli or water spinach.
If you are an experienced cook in the kitchen, you can even blanch the flowers at the same time as you sauté the beef. Then, once the beef is still slightly pink, transfer the blanched flowers to the stir-fry pan, and toss everything together.
⭐️ I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment and a rating if you have tried it. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates. You can find my collection of Vietnamese recipes here.
Vietnamese Stir-fried Beef with Tonkin Flowers
Ingredients
- 10 oz beef, thinly sliced against the grain
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic, divided
- 1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper (plus more for serving)
- 3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cooking oil (plus more for stir-frying)
- 8 oz Tonkin flowers
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon fish sauce (or soy sauce)
Instructions
- Place beef in a mixing bowl. Add 1 teaspoon minced garlic, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon black pepper, cornstarch and water. Toss to combine, then mix in 1½ teaspoons cooking oil. Set aside to marinate for 10-15 minutes.
- Place a large pot filled with water over medium-high heat. Bring it to a boil, and then add the Tonkin flowers. Blanch the flowers for a minute or slightly more. Remove them from the pot and give them a rinse under cold water. Set aside to drain.
- Place a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add cooking oil to coat the bottom. Add the beef in a single layer and let them cook undisturbed briefly for about 20-30 seconds. Then add the oyster sauce, and stir-fry for a few more seconds and transfer to a plate while the beef is still slightly pink.
- Add more cooking oil to the pan if needed. Adjust the heat to medium and add the remaining garlic. Sauté briefly until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the blanched Tonkin flowers. Stir and toss to cook for about 1-2 minutes until the doneness is almost to your liking. Season with ⅛ teaspoon salt.
- Return the beef to the pan. Stir and toss until both the beef and flowers are cooked through. Add the fish sauce (or soy sauce) and give everything a final stir. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with more black pepper before serving.
