Wednesday, 27 March 2013

How to make famous Vietnamese dishes: Spring Rolls recipe

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If you are a huge fan of Vietnamese food, I’m sure spring rolls have to be on your favorite list. A lot of people think spring rolls are the same everywhere but today I will introduce a popular and original recipe in order to see how different and fresh Vietnamese spring rolls are

What do you need?
For mixture:
·      1 lb ground pork or chicken
·      1 package glass noodle (vermicelli noodle), soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, drained and cut into 2-inche pieces
·      2 eggs
·      Minced green onion and white onion
·      2 cloves garlic, grounded
·      1.4 cup grated carrot
·      1.4 cup grated potato
·      ½ cup bean sprouts
·      ¼ cup chopped mushroom
·      20 rice papers
·      Oil (for frying)
For dipping sauce:
·      3 table spoons rice wine vinegar
·      ¼ fish sauce
·      ½ teaspoon sugar
·      2 drops lemon
·      Chopped garlic

Now let's do it!
·      Combine all ingredients and oil in a big bowl ( except wrap papers J )
·      On your chopping board, place a rice paper, soak 3 seconds in warm water and fill with a couple of mixture
·      Fold sides in, the start rolling spring roll at the mixture side
·      Heat oil over medium-high heat in a big pan
·      Fry rolls, turning frequently until cooked and turn golden
·      For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl, add more sugar or fish sauce or lemon as your wish

Serve with dipping sauce and rice noodle if you want. Now you can enjoy a healthy and tastety dish with my simple recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls!  


Wednesday, 20 March 2013

How to make famous Vietnamese dishes: Pho recipe



Do you know there are more than 6 millions searches on Google every month all over the world for the key word “Pho”? Today I will introduce you an easy-to-follow Pho _a famous Vietnamese dishes.

All you need:
For the broth:
-       4 lbs Oxtails or ribs
-       3 pieces of ginger, unpeeled
-       1 halved and unpeeled white onion
-       1/3 cup fish sauce
-       5 whole cloves
-       Cinnamon stick
-       1 teaspoon fennel seeds
-       Bay leaves
For the garnish:
-       1 lbs rice noodles
-       2 bunches of sliced thin scallions
-       ½ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
-       Mung bean sprouts
-       3 large limes
-       Chili paste
-       ¾ lbs filet mignon

Directions:
-       Put the oxtails in a big pot with water to cover the bones around 4 inches. Start boiling and lower the heat to a rapid simmer
-       Put ginger and onion halves on a baking sheet and char them under the broiler until they get blackened. Rinse the onion and ginger under water and add them into the simmering broth
-       Add 1 tablespoon salt and fish sauce
-       Put cloves, cinnamon stick and star anise (optional) in a small skillet and toast them on top of a stove with medium heat. Put the toasted spices and fennel seed in a small square of double thick cheesecloth and tie it. Add the spice bundle and the bay leaves to the broth
-       After 4 hours, take the spice bundle, onion, bay leaves and ginger out from the pot. Remove oxtails and put aside. Take the meat from the bones and set aside. You can return the bones to the broth if you want. Wait for another hour.
-       Meanwhile, soak noodle in warm water for 15 minutes and arrange all the herbs. Boil noodle after soaking until tender but firm
-       After 1 hour, taste the broth and add more fish sauce and salt if you wish

Serving:
- Divide the noodles among the bowls as your wish. Arrange all the slices of raw fillet and pieces of cooked oxtail meat over the noodle. Ladle the broth over all. Serve immediately along with the platters of garnish

So here is the Pho recipe for all of food lovers who love to attempt to make home-made Vietnamese Food with the restaurant taste! Good luck to all of you and leave the comments to me!

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine


When people mention Vietnamese Cuisine, they always think about “Pho”. Pho is considered not only the national dish but also the “cuisine ambassador” which helps people all over the world know more about Vietnamese cuisine. Although Pho is so well-known and beloved everywhere, there are much more delicious noodle soups and in this post i am going to introduce everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine.

Vietnamese food boasts a huge variety of noodle soups; each has a distinct flavor and influences. The noodles are available in both term of fresh and dry form. From different kind of rice and cooking method, Vietnamese have created a wide range of noodles:
1.    Bánh phở: fresh flat rice noodles which is used to make well-known dish: Pho
2.    Bún: thin rice vermicelli nooldes
3.    Bánh canh: thick noodles made from the mixture of rice flour and tapioca flour ( quite similar to Udon)
4.    Cellophane noodles: thin glass noodles
5.    Mì: wheat flour noodles, can be either yellow or white
6.    Bánh đa đỏ: red noodles, very popular in Hai Phong province, mixed with crab
7.    Bánh đa: rice cracker






From these different noodles, Vietnamese people have created delicious food in both hot noodles soups and dry noodle dishes

Hot Noodles Soups:

 
-    Bun Bo Hue: this is also called spicy noodle soup which was originated from the royal city of hue in central Vietnam. The dish contains beef bones, shrimp paste, lemongrass and dried chilies which give the broth a tasty and distinctive flavor. It usually is served with mint leaves, bean spourts, and lime wedges.
-    Banh canh: as mentioned before, banh canh is the tapioca noodle soup with very simple broth. It often includes pork, crab, chicken, shrimp and onions sprinkled on top
-    Bun rieu: a very famous dish in HaNoi_the capital of Vietnam. The noodle is made of thin rice noodles and topped with crab and shrimp paste, served in tomato soup with bean sprouts, prawn paste, herbs and chunks of tomato.
-    Hu Tieu: a noodle soup which was brought to Vietnam by way of Chinese immigrants. The noodles usually contains egg noodles with BBQ pork, shrimp and eggs.
-    Bun Thang: thin rice vermicelli noodles with shredded chicken meat, fried egg, steam prok cake and sliced sausages.

Dry Noodles Dishes:



 
-    Bánh hỏi: extremely thin rice vermicelli woven into intricate bundles, it is topped with chopped scallions and meat
-    Bún đậu mắm tôm: delicious dish contain fried tofu served with shrimp paste
-    Bún thịt nướng: a cold noodle dish with grilled pork and lots of vegetables and herbs
-    Bánh cuốn: steamed rice noodle rolls, served with minced pork and wood ear mushroom and Vietnamese pork sausage




After getting through everything about noodles in Vietnamese Cuisine, we understand why traditional Vietnamese cooking is greatly admired for its creativity, fresh ingredients, minimal use of oil, and reliance on variety of herbs and vegetables. With the balance between fresh herbs, meats and noodles, Vietnamese food is considered one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide.

Friday, 8 March 2013

Famous Vietnamese Chefs


1. Christine Ha



Christine Ha, a Vietnamese-American chef and writer from Houston Texas is the first blind winner of the third season of MasterChef in 2012. In 1999, she started losing her vision and became almost blind by 2007.
Ha is as known as a famous chef but in fact she finished her business degree from University of Texas and Master of fine art degree for creative fiction in the creative writing program in 2012.  She reveived the poetry prize from the Scissor Tale Review and was the finalist in Creative Nonfiction MFA contest in 2010.
Ha has never been to any cooking course but she have had a large followers on her food blog. In Master Chef 2012, Ha won 7 times in 19 episodes of the competition in term of individual and team challenges. Finally, Ha was pronounced the winner of the competition with the prizes including $250,000 and the MasterChef trophy. She is the first blind winner of this competition.

2. Luke Nguyen

Luke Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Australian chef, is famous for being the host of well-known television series “Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam”. This is the series about food documentary along Vietnam. Also, he is known as the owner of a restaurant in Sydney named Red Lantern and author of lots of cooking books.
Luke Nguyen was invited as a guess chef in MasterChef Australia and currently is considered MasterChef Vietnam.



3. Hung Huynh



Hung Huynh is the winner of 2007 Top Chef. He was born in Vietnam and raised in Massachusetts. His career started in a Vietnamese restaurant belong to his immigrant parent. Hung completed his degree in Culinary Institute of America. In the moment, he has opened an Asian restaurant with the EMM Group in America.