Challenge: Beets

At Black Pepper Pho, the focus is very much on the traditional. “The spring rolls don’t even come with peanut sauce because it’s not traditional,” owner Huong Dang said. “We use tamarind sauce.” But they were game when we told them their secret ingredient for the challenge would be beets, which are not a huge component in Vietnamese food.

Dang learned her craft from her grandmother, who opened the first restaurant in their small Vietnam village. The village was known for growing gourmet peppercorns, and even today, Dang and partner Chris John import their peppercorns from Vietnam for authentic flavor. Her chef has 40 years experience cooking Vietnamese cuisine, and our challenge ingredient properly stumped him.
“Our chef said, ‘They’re smart. This is hard,’” Dang told us.

Hard is kind of the point of the challenge, but Black Pepper Pho stepped up to the plate—or in this case, bowl—with a beet bo kho, a stew-like dish with braised beets and beef short rib topped with sautéed beet greens and fresh garlic chives from the owners’ garden. The dish was served traditionally with French bread, but Dang said it could also be served with rice or rice noodles.

The tender beef and beets were braised for hours with star anise, ginger and bay leaves for a very distinct flavor that you find often on the palate at Black Pepper Pho. The thick, rich broth was just right for sopping up with the bread and the beets were perfectly cooked, their slight sweetness playing off the salty/bitter flavor of the greens.

Dang also prepared a gorgeously pink beet rice pudding made with a beet juice reduction and coconut milk and infused with star anise. The pudding was almost too pretty to eat, plated with dollops of the dark red beet reduction and coconut milk artfully dropped into them to create little flowers. Beet greens even made a second appearance as garnish.

With a light décor and a thoughtful menu, even something as unusual for the cuisine as beets seems to work in this restaurant that manages to blend the traditional and the modern. Their menu is MSG and nut-free and mostly gluten-free as well, not so much by design, but by the fact that they use only traditional methods and ingredients in their food. “A lot of other places do what’s convenient,” Dang said. “We wanted a healthier and more balanced menu.”

Beet Bo Kho will be available at Black Pepper Pho through mid-September. Visit blackpepperpho.com or call 303.440.1948 for more information.