Giant Vietnamese Beef Stew Vol-Au-Vent

by Jessica Nguyen

I’ve taken a 70’s classic, the vol-au-vent, made a giant version and filled it with my Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bò Kho). I've shared my Vietnamese Beef Stew recipe before, but this version has been made in an Instant Pot/ pressure cooker as it significantly reduces the total cooking time (from over an hour down to 30 minutes), which means your stew will be ready by the time the vol-au-vent has finished baking. I highly recommend following the below if you happen to have a pressure cooker, otherwise follow my original recipe for my traditional over the stove method of cooking it.

I’ve also paired this dish with a glass of Orlando Wines Cellar 13 Barossa Grenache. The beef stew has lots of aromatics like lemongrass, curry powder and hoi sin sauce in it that pairs really well with this dry and medium bodied grenache. The combo of a spicy stew, flaky puff pastry and a bold red is what I’d serve for a winter dinner party. 

Serves: 4  

Ingredients: 17

Skill Level: Medium

Cooking time: 60 minutes (20 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking)


Ingredients

Marinade

  • 1kg of gravy of chuck beef, cut into 5cm thick chunks

  • 1 red onion, finely chopped (half for marinade and half for stock)

  • 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped(half for marinade and half for stock)

  • 1.5 tablespoons of five spice powder

  • 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce

  • 1 tablespoon of sugar

  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt

  • 1/2 tablespoon of curry powder

  • 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil

  • 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce


Stew

  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste

  • 1 can (400ml) of coconut juice or water

  • 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 4cm lengths

  • 3-4 tablespoons of tapioca powder or cornflour

  • 4 stalks of lemongrass, peeled and cut into 8cm lengths


Vol-au-Vent

  • 2 square sheets of frozen puff pastry, thawed

  • 1 egg, lightly beaten



Method

  1. Marinate the beef by combining the five spice powder, hoisin sauce, curry powder, sugar, salt, pepper, sesame oil and fish sauce in a large tray. Add half of your garlic and onions and then add mix in the beef. Allow to marinate for at least an hour or ideally overnight in the fridge.

  2. Heat the Instant Pot to ‘Saute’ mode and once hot, add in a tablespoon of vegetable oil and begin browning the beef in batches, ensuring there is enough space between the pieces so they don’t steam. Once all the beef has browned, remove and set aside.  Add in the onions and allow to sweat for 3 minutes until soft and translucent. Then add in the garlic and lemongrass and cook for a further 2 minutes until golden and fragrant. Add in the tomato paste and cook until a deep orange colour. 

  3. Add the beef back into the Instant Pot and add the carrots and coconut juice. Add extra water if needed to ensure the beef and carrots are submerged.

  4. Turn the Instant Pot to ‘Pressure Cook’ mode on ‘High Pressure’ for 15 minutes.

  5. Close the lid and begin prepping the vol-au-vent pastry shell.

  6. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. Find a dinner plate as wide as your sheet of pastry to create a circle template. Cut out two identically sized circles from the plate. Place one circle onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. This will become the base of your vol-au-vent. For the remaining circle, find another plate about 3cm diameter smaller, place it evenly on top and cut a circle from that. This will become the vol-au-vent edge. Gently peel the ring that you have cut and place it on top of the full circle. Also for a better visual explanation, watch my recipe video below.

  7. Brush with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until fully risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool.

  8. By now, the stew would have finished pressure cooking and de-pressurised. Open the Instant Pot and gently stir to check that the meat is tender. Season with sugar and fish sauce to taste.

  9. Add a tablespoon of cold water to a small bowl with the tapioca powder or corn flour and stir into a slurry. Add to the casserole and combine until it has thickened the stew. I have intentionally made the stew thicker than usual so it can sit inside the vol-au-vent better, more like a gravy, but feel free to make the stew thicker or thinner to your liking.

  10. Ladle out the stew in a large bowl for serving. I also like to place some of the stew sauce into a gravy jug to pour extra at the table. Bring the stew, gravy jug and vol-au-vent to the table to assemble and serve.

  11. Use a knife and gently cut the ‘lid’ of the vol-au-vent, to reveal a giant pastry shell.

  12. Ladle in the beef stew into the vol-au-vent. Garnish with pepper and fresh coriander.

  13. Cut into slices like a pie for each person and enjoy!

Watch the Process

 

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