Hue to Hoian

Banana benders

After arriving in the ancient city of Hue and exploring the citadel, we were ready to learn a little more
about their cooking style. The markets in this beautiful old city are superb. Locals buy everything here twice a day so all produce is in abundance and so fresh. Cooking utensils, serving bowls herbs and spices, also a bit of jewellery, footwear or sunnies for those who desire.

Starting the day with a little culture

We love the history of Hue and its predominately Chinese influence. Amazing Citadel and Royal Tomb. Food here is slightly different with emphasis on vegetables and seafood. On to the beachside Palm Gardens Resort in Hoian. The wonderful cooking school Morning Glory was our destination for our next class and we also enjoyed the ground floor street market style food.

Expert noodle maker

Fresh as

Birthday girls wear pink

Attention in class

Jardins Carambole for dinner.......... delicious

Birthdays are better in Vietnam, dining at the Les Jardins Carambole.

Dong si dong

Trying to convince us that this is yum........... spicy frog

Very happy with our dishes at Ancient Hue Cooking school

Perfect spring roll ... top of the class

Vietnam Trip Hanoi to Ho Chi MInh 2015

Hanoi Cooking Centre .......... Who said rain puts a dampener on a market tour !!

Happy Chefs at the Hanoi Cooking School

As we began our tour Hanoi greeted us with fine misty rain and cooler temperatures. It didn't deter us one little bit. Our market tour led by the one of the chefs from the cooking school helped make the venture lots of fun. Sensory and visual overload for those who have never visited an Asian food market.
Armed with understanding of the Vietnamese cuisine, together with their wonderful sense of humour,
was the perfect combination to embark on the first cooking class. Just the beginning .............

Lemongrass Pork Vietnamese Style with Papaya Salad

Just getting excited about Want Food Ideas upcoming trip to Vietnam. Fifteen of us jet out on March
5th for what promises to be another informative fun filled adventure.
We begin our adventures in Hanoi and travel south through Hue and Hoian into Ho Chi Minh.
It is interesting to see the influence of the French and the Chinese on their cuisine.
I decided to get in the mood with some Vietnamese cooking on the barby this time.
A very traditional pork dish, but again so easy, with all the ingredients readily available to us.
Being a climate similar to ours the food of Vietnam is so suitable to our lifestyle.
This recipe is for 500 gram pork which is probably enough for 4 depending on what cut you use.
Pork leg steaks or scotch fillet steaks are suitable, something with a little fat so it doesn't dry out on the barbecue. You could also marinate the pork and thread onto skewers before cooking. Purchase from an Asian butcher if you can.
 Serve as part of a barbecue banquet, if entertaining


2 tablespoons minced or finely chopped lemongrass
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons chilli sauce or to taste
2 teaspoons black pepper
2-3 pinches five spice powder
2 tablespoons oil
500 grams pork


Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Add the pork and make sure it is covered. Leave to rest at least 15 minutes but longer is preferable.

Barbecue until the colour is golden brown.

Papaya Salad

1 whole green Papaya
2 red onions finely sliced
2 carrots julienned
Vietnamese or Thai basil
1 red capsicum finely sliced
200 grams finely sliced red cabbage
40 grams fried sliced garlic ( you can purchase at an Asian supermarket pif you don't want to do it yourself)
80 grams fried shallots ( purchase at an Asian supermarket)
80 grams roasted peanuts
Chopped Mint and coriander

Shred the papaya with a vegetable peeler or a Vietnamese peeler( they have a wider cutting edge and you can find them here).
Do the same with the carrots or julienne them in your food processor.
Add all the ingredients together on a decorative plate leaving some of the nuts and herbs until last, after you have applied the dressing

Dressing

8 tablespoons orange juice you may use pineapple or any other citrus. The Vietnamese use cumquat.
8 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoons fish sauce
3 teaspoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons minced red chilli
pinch of salt

This dressing may be more than you need but better to have too much, than not enough !
Mix into a lidded jar and shake until combined. Will keep in the fridge.

Shortcuts to Summer Barbecue Entertaining

As you can see I have been a little lazy with my blogging, but not too lazy with my cooking.
After a wonderful Xmas feast we tend to feel over food and cooking. However the season, the sun and the holidays still beckon one to entertaining, eating and drinking.
This year for our Xmas Day, we or I should say the boys, cooked a suckling pig on a spit.
Purchased from the wonderful people at Feather and Bone in Marrickville.
 It was a fabulous easy way to feed the crowd and of course it was done outside so away from the other hustle and bustle of the kitchen.
Fortunately someone had the spit so that made it a little easier. After 5 hours we took the skin off, salted it and put it in the oven for that extra crackle. Yum ! Not a lot left either.

The holidays were mainly about barbecuing. Whilst I am not a big fan of anything from a packet, I do try things occasionally that spark my interest.
These little beauties from Jamie Oliver, came in very handy and took all the work out of the meal.

We had a beautiful fillet of beef from The Meat Emporium in Alexandria, that we cut into steaks. Spread the Spicy Cowboy Rub over them and left them at room temp for 2 hours prior to cooking. Tender and so tasty.
Also a rack of veal and some fish for the Fiery Jerk Rub. Fish you don't need to leave as long before cooking.

The Korean BBQ marinade I used on finely sliced beef, similar to sir fry. Throw it onto a hot plate , cook  very quickly and serve in a wrap with some lettuce as finger food. Use 2 packets.

 My other all time favourite is Tandoori Chicken.
A jar of Pataks Tandoori paste, and some yoghurt. A couple of spoons of the paste mixed with plain yoghurt. Spread all over the chicken. Thigh pieces I find the best for barbecuing.  Leave covered in the marinade in the fridge for a couple of hours. Serve with a mango salsa, some steamed rice and a salad.

All of these items are readily available at your supermarket. 

Baked Glazed Ham

Many people find it unnecessary to glaze a ham, but nothing looks more appetising I think.
It looks so festive on the table and doesn't take long at all.
Go the extra mile and do it, you will be very happy with the result.
Buy yourself one of those foil baking dishes, so no excuse about the washing up.
It takes 1 1/2  hour to create the centrepiece of your dining table, with the turkey of course.


My favourite Glaze

Cooked ham

1 cup pineapple or orange Juice
1/4 cup sherry
500 grams brown sugar
 prepared hot english or dijon mustard
cherries, cloves or orange slices


Turn oven to 160 C.

Strip the ham of the skin. You can slide your hands under an end and remove the whole skin quite easily. Just slowly lift it from the fat. If you do it with a knife you will have uneven fat left and it doesn't look as nice.
Rub the fat with the mustard.
Lightly score the fat into a diamond shape.
Stand the ham in the foil dish. You can prop it up with skewers to raise it slightly from the bottom
if you can be bothered. This helps the glaze to run further around the underneath of the ham.
Put the juice, sherry and sugar in a saucepan on the stovetop and simmer until the sugar is melted .
Pour around the ham and cook for 30 minutes on the second bottom shelf. Then begin basting every 20 minutes. Turn the ham around in the oven to brown evenly.
Remove and score again if needed and decorate with cherries cloves or orange. Skim the fat from the sauce and serve drizzled over the cut ham.


This second glaze isn't as sweet you can taste the stout and its spicier.

1 1/2 cups stout
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons cardamon

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan on top of the stove and simmer until sugar has melted.
Proceed with the same method as above.

Asian Style Salad of Red Cabbage, Asparagus, Capsicum with Mango

We have had so many humid days with wild storms, followed my even greater humidity. Crazy shopping days and lots of festive Xmas get togethers.
You don't tend to want to eat much, when you have a night off, and certainly it needs to be light and fresh, for me.
This salad is just that and is beautiful served over chicken breast, veal or pork cutlets or yummy just by itself.
Would be lovely with left over turkey on boxing day. You could use nectarine instead of mango
The dressing really adds to the flavour.


1/4 red cabbage finely shredded
1/4 white cabbage finely shredded
1 red capsicum finely sliced
bunch of asparagus steamed and cut into 4
1 cucumber peeled and seeded
1 mango peeled and cut into large dice
spring onions aprrox 6 chopped finely
cashews 120 grams roasted
1cup chopped  parsley
1/2  cup coriander
1/2 cup chopped mint

Dressing

2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown if you don't have this
2 tablespoons lime juice

You may add a small diced chilli if you would like it hot.

All the ingredients go into a saucepan on the top of the stove. Stir and heat until the sugar is melted.
Set aside.
Mix the red and white cabbage together with the asparagus, capsicum and cucumber. Toss half the parsley and coriander through.
All the ingredients for the salad can be prepared ahead and plated up and dressed at the time of serving.
When ready to plate pile the ingredients together that  you have prepared and lastly cover with the roasted nuts, mango and the remaining chopped herbs.
Spoon the dressing over making sure you get some on the meat if serving it on top. Delicious!

Quinoa, Rice and Coconut Salad

I just love the sweetness of this salad. Black quinoa is slightly bitter with an earthy sort of taste but takes on a totally different dimension with the dressing and coconut. It is substantial enough to have on its own, well, maybe if you are female or not feeling very hungry. It can be made well ahead and I feel it is better to do this as the grains have more time to absorb the flavours. You can play around with the ingredients. Add more nuts, toast them or use less coconut, add some sultanas or cranberries.
I had no time to photograph the dish. It was eaten in a flash !

2 cups black Quinoa
2 cups brown rice
1 cup shredded coconut
3 carrots finely shredded
1 cup slivered almonds
grated rind of an orange
1 cup finely chopped parsley
2 cup finely chopped spring onion

Dressing

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup sherry vinegar or you can use mirin



The quinoa needs to be soaked for 15 mins just covered in water. If you have a rice cooker use that to cook it, otherwise I cook it in the microwave uncovered for 10-15 mins. The water ratio should be 1 cup quinoa to 1 1/2 cups water. Set aside to cool.
Cook the brown rice and set aside to cool.
The carrots I shred in a food processor to quite fine.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix. Add the dressing and serve.

Indian Spiced Chicken

Another old family favourite. Great for a do ahead and can be increased. This dish is not hard although it looks time consuming because of the spices, but it isn't. A real crowd pleaser !

You could cook them on the barbecue but the marinade will burn. So place them in  a foil tray and roast them in the barb with the lid closed.

2 whole chickens approx Size 12 or cut up or 2 kilos thigh cutlets
200 gram natural Yoghurt
2 medium onions
4 cloves Garlic crushed
3cm piece of Fresh ginger grated
1 teaspoon ground Cumin
2 teaspoons ground Coriander
2 teaspoons ground Paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground Turmeric
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper


Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Fry the onions until golden, add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and add all the spices and cook for a further minute, continuing to stir.
Remove from the heat and cool.
When cooled mix into the yoghurt.
This is the marinade.
Spread over the chicken and leave overnight.
If you have chicken pieces you can place them into a plastic bag with the yoghurt mixture, its very easy to mix and cover all the chicken pieces that way.
Roast on a medium heat.
Serve with basmati rice, yoghurt and spicy red lentils or a coriander and cashew nut pesto would make it really special.
Or a coriander and tomato salsa.
1 red onion
2 chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves

Hue to Hoian and Ho Chi Minh

A great spot on the Mekong for lunch

A couple of days in Hue became a historical awareness . These beautiful gentle people with a wonderful sense of humour, have endured thousands of years of battles and  two major wars in recent history.  The  ancient capitol of Vietnam, the city was under Chinese rule from 111 BC and the history is prevalent. Lots of Chinese influence in their architecture. The French also had control  and there are many French restaurants to be found. I feel though they are finally establishing their own "modern" Vietnamese identity and are very proud of it.
As we travel south, the food becomes spicier and each city claims to have the best pho or noodle soup.
Our cooking class in Hue was in a beautiful garden setting. The markets in Hue and Hoian, also an ancient town were similar, but each offered slightly different produce. Each of the markets are frequented every day by locals so there are also many cooking utensils on offer.
Unfortunately I don't have enough luggage space to bring it all back !
Sophistication is far from every day life, yet these softly spoken humorous people  bring service to a whole new level. Proud and eager to please every dining experience puts western service to shame.
We loved the glamorous, Ly Club and Nam Pham for the food, ambience and architecture.
The Ho Chi Minh cooking school took us to a whole new level. We drove for an hour to the outskirts of the city to a rural farm owned and operated by a Vietnamese chef who also owns a restaurant in Melbourne. We were given a guided tour of the farm and picked our herbs and vegetables for the class. The chef who is also a doctor regaled us with many medicinal remedies, for very herb we collected. All stories were told with a great command of the english language. The lake on the farm is thanks to the Americans who bombed the area in the war and now full of water, the crater provides them with fish.
So they say thank you America !
We ate, we drank,  we shopped,we laughed and learnt.
I am very excited about the next culinary adventure to Vietnam in March 2015

 

Market ladies with their fresh produce

The beautiful handmade ceramic artwork on the wall leading into our cooking class at Ancient Hue

The garden setting for our cooking class

Ancient woman with her produce

Happy students

Making rice paper sheets for fresh spring rolls

Japanese bridge in Hoian

Picking our produce for Ho Chi Minh cooking class

A final row down the canals of the Mekong

Hanoi Cooking Centre and Street Food Tour

Hanoi is the first stop on the reconnaissance for my Want Food Tours to Vietnam in 2015.

Wonderful food and gorgeous gentle people, with a curiously Western sense of humour all help to make it a memorable experience. The street food tour with one of the chefs from Hanoi Cooking Centre was so informative and amazing. The cooking class also professional, but lots of fun.

An hour in one street, was all the time we needed to find some beautiful embroidered sheets, linen, 

silk shirts. Off to Hue next the Ancient capitol of Vietnam.

Site inspection of our accommodation L'Opera hotel...... perfect spot for afternoon drinks

Don't have a car , not a problem load up your motorbike

Roast dog anyone ? 

Street food delicious pillow cakes for 60 cents

Original homes in the old quarter

Happy chickens lay white eggs, unhappy brown eggs !!!!

Dried mushrooms

Vast array of beautiful kidney beans, mung beans, chick pea, lentils.......... love their display

Fresh produce delivered to your door

Some of the lads having a  local Hanoi beer in a popular beer garden

Chicken anyone ?