Bean sprout
Used in 2 recipes on RecipeWiki.
Bean sprouts are the young shoots of sprouted beans, most often mung beans, sold as pale stems with a small yellow tip. They taste clean and faintly sweet, and their value is the crunch: a watery snap that should survive into the bowl. In Beef Chow Mein they go into the wok for the last minute only, and in Pho Bo they arrive raw on a side plate with Thai basil, lime wedges and sliced chilli, which this page also covers. Buy them bright and dry, with no browning or sour smell, and use them within a day or two, since they spoil quickly.
Most often cooked with
Beef sirloin
GingerRecipes with bean sprout
Beef Chow Mein
Beef coated in cornflour and seared in batches in a pan hot enough to smoke, with the sauce going in only at the very end.
Beef
Chinese
Leafy greens
Pho Bo
Charring the onion and ginger before they go near water is what makes the broth smell like pho rather than beef soup. Everything else is patience.
Vietnamese
Dinner