Bun rieu ca

Rice noodles in fish broth.

Pan-seared filet of Basa, pickled vegetables in tangy tomato broth, served over rice noodles and fresh dill.
It can be with whatever filet or whole white fish.
Dill and fish go together wonderfully!

Ingredients:
- filet or whole white fish
- pickled vegetables
- vegetable oil
-tomato
-onion
-ginger
-shrimp paste
-tamarind or lime
-chili
-salt, pepper
- fresh dill

Banh Khoai or Sweet potatoes and shrimp cake

The original ingredient for this cake in Viet Nam is made with sweet potatoes mix in a batter of wheat flour, rice flour, turmeric and egg, but l like to add taro, another type of root in this dish to add the crispness to the cake. The sweetest of  potatoes mix with the crunchiness and dryness of the taro give this fry cake an interesting texture. In Viet Nam, the shrimps that we use in this cake are in their shell, which gives the crispy texture when you bite on the cake, but for the westerner palate, shrimp’s shell has to be removed.

Ingredient make 15 cakes

1 sweet potato

½ lb  taro

¼ lb small size shrimp cleaned.

Batter

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup rice flour

1 ½ cup water

1 tsp turmeric

1 egg

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredient of the batter , mix well until obtain a smooth batter.

Let it rest for about 30 min.

Cut the roots in julian.

Mix the root in the batter

Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the mixture to a heated oil. Arrange it into a roughly round shape.

Put a shrimp on the top of the cake.

Fry it for 5 min or until the cake turn brown and crispy.

Tip: This cake is better eaten hot, but you can make them in advance and reheat them in the oven on baking for 400F until it heat up and return to the crispy stade, about 5 min.

Bun Bo Hue

Nguyen lieu
Bap bo
Gio heo
Xuong doi bo
Xuong heo va bo de ham nuoc dung

Gia vi
Xa tuoi: 1 bo khoang 6 nhanh
Muoi: 1 thia canh
Nuoc mam: 2 thia canh
Tieu bot: 2 thia canh
Duong: 2 thia canh
Ot bot kho: 2 thia canh

Dat noi nuoc lanh len bep dun nuoc soi roi cho bap bo, gio heo, xuong heo va xuong duoi bo vao ham. Vot bot cho nuoc dung khong bi duc.

Ot xao lam mau cho nuoc dung
1 cu hanh tay
Vai nhanh toi
1 thia canh ot bot kho
1 thia canh ot bot paprika

Xao hanh va toi trong dau nong cho thom, sau do bo ot vao xao cho ra mau.

Cho ot xao, xa tuoi va gia vi vao noi nuoc dung va ham cho thit mem.


Ot bot xao xa (de cho them vao to bun bo Hue truoc khi an):
Hanh tay
Toi
Xa tuoi, chi lay phan mem, bam nho
Ot bot kho
Paprika

Xao toi, hanh va xa cho thom sau do cho bot ot kho va paprika vao xao cho ra mau. De ra chen nho ben canh. Ot xao xa nay se dung de tang mui thom cho bat bun bo Hue.

Thit luoc ngam nuoc mam dam - Meat picked

Ingredients:

Beef or pork (leg, belly)
Cloves
Anise star
Pepper
Onion
Ginger
Garlic
Sugar
Salt
Vinegar
Fish sauce

This dish is prepared in two phases: cook the meat first and marinate it in the sauce for few days.

Cook the meat in the cold water with: anise star, cloves, ginger, onion, salt, pepper. Once the meat is cooked, cool it down with cold water then slide it.

Sauce for marinade: Put the sugar, vinegar, sugar, ginger in a small saucepan with water, bring it to the boil. Add fish sauce and garlic. Allowing it to cool.

Put the sliced meat in a glass jar and pour the sauce to cover. Keep the jar in the fridge at least one day before to consume.


Serve as appetizer or use it to roll with rice noodle, salad, coriander leaves, cucumber in the rice paper wrap to make a main course.

Cua xao chua ngot- Sweet and sour crabs

Sweet and sour crabs

Ingredients:
- Crabs
- Onion
- Tomatoes
- Garlic
- Fresh ginger
- Tamarind concentrate
- Sugar
- Soy sauce
- Fresh cilantro

Directions:
Heat vegetable oil. Fry crabs until they turn brown (5 min). Take them out and discard half of oil. Add chopped onion and garlic, wait until the onion become soft. Add chopped fresh tomato, ginger, tamarind and sugar. Season with soy sauce.
Add crabs and cook 10 more minutes.
Sparkling with pepper and fresh cilantro.

Beef in holy trinity of italian cooking

Beef in holy trinity of Italian cooking with mashed potatoes and gremolata

I love the meat slowly braised, especially in red wine, garlic and bay leaves.

Ingredients:
- Beef
- Celery
- Carrot
- Tomatoes
- Red wine
- Onion
- Garlic
- Bay leaves
- Thyme

The finest part of a dish is the fresh herb add at the end. For this dish, I used the gremolata.


Gremolata is a chopped herb made of garlic, Italian parsley and lemon zest.

Goi bo - beef salad

Beef salad


Ingredient:

- A piece of tender beef: fried it on a pan and slice it thinly.

Dressing: Blend together:
- Chopped lemongrass
- Shrimp paste
- Fish sauce. Don't use salt because shrimp paste and fish sauce are already salted.
- Sugar
- Lime juice
- Olive oil
- Ground fried rice (make it yourself, very easy: fried rice on a pan and ground it with the pepper mill). Add it just before serving.



The salad: Cut them in 1cm/3cm
- Iceberg or escarole
- Cilantro leaves
- Red onion
- Cucumber (optional)