Bánh Xèo (Hoi An Pancakes)

Huh. It has been way to long. Don't even know where that time has gone. The photos from Vietnam aren't even uploaded yet but it has been already more than two weeks since I left... Ah well. Better late than never! So in a (bad, but well-intentioned) attempt at keeping up my promise, here come some more recipes from my last travel destination: Vietnam.

Since I have already posted a recipe of the famous Pho Bo a while ago (see here), I thought I would introduce a new favourite of mine that I met for the first time on a food tour in Hanoi (yes, a tour where you just eat - fabulous idea if you ask me!). Originally, Bánh Xèo, or pancakes-turned-spring-rolls, are from Hoi An. But you could have guessed that from the title too! So let's get started!

Ingredients (serves about 4):
For the pancake batter:
120g dried rice flour
350 ml cold water
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (or any other yellow spice such as curry or saffron)
Pinch of salt

For the filling:
150g fresh shrimps (or other seafood - you can also add pork, chicken, etc.)
1 spring onion
250g fresh bean sprouts
Vegetable oil for frying

For the topping:
Fresh mint
Fresh coriander
Thai (or Vietnamese) basil
Lettuce
Mango
Banana flower
Cucumber
More beansprouts and spring onions

For the peanut sauce:
1 tsp garlic
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar or honey
Pinch of chilli powder
60 ml water or coconut milk

You will also need rice paper to transform the pancakes into spring rolls. To soften the rice papers, wrap them in banana leave or a wet towel for a couple of hours.

Preparation:
First, prepare the batter by mixing all the ingredients and letting the mix rest at room temperature for 1 hour. In the meantinme, finely cut the shrimp (if not already done, shell and deveine them first) and spring onions. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the shrimp and any other meat you have chosen to add. Mix the meat together with the pancake batter.
Next, prepare the sauce: crush the garlic and then mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat for 10 seconds.
Spread about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan (create a thin layer). Add some spring onions and bean sprouts, then remove the pan from the heat and add the pancake batter. Fry over medium to high heat until the bottom of the pancake is crisp and golden. Pour out the oil into a bowl and flip the pancake over. Once ready, fold the pancake in half and put it on a plate (which you can cover in paper towel to absorb the oil). Repeat with the rest of the batter.
To serve, place the folded pancake on a rice paper and top with some or all the above toppings. Then roll the rice paper and dip the roll into the peanut dipping sauce. 

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Jeow Mak Keua (Aubergine Dip)

Sabaidee!

As it is my last day in Laos, I thought it would be appropriate to catch up on my blog writing and dedicate today's posts to its dishes. After all, that was the initial promise I made for this trip ;-).

So this first dish, Jeow Mak Keua, is a little bit like a Baba Ganoush or Moutabbal, just with an Asian touch of course. The same dish can also be prepared with tomato and then it resembles a lot what you would put on a bruschetta or serve with Mexican tacos... Maybe I am drawing too many parallels here, but I have come across weird similarities in food preparation in these various regions I have visited. Maybe I am just looking for the familiar. Or maybe people across the globe have just had similar light bulbs when it comes to combining ingredients... Well, going off topic here. So let's start with this first, very easy dish, an aubergine (or tomato) dip. It is typically eaten with sticky rice (hence why you'll find the recipe for that one below too), but you can also dip steamed veggies in it!

Ingredients (to serve as an appetizer for 4):

For the sticky rice:

500g sticky rice (not the same as Basmati or jasmine rice!)

Water

For the dip:

4 small (Lebanese or Japanese) aubergines or 1-2 European aubergines

2-3 chillies (Laotians put up to 15 so suit yourself!)

1-2 small shallots

1 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves

1 bundle of fresh coriander (about a cup full)

Dash of fish sauce

Green part of 1 big (or 2-3 small) spring onion

Optional: you can add mushrooms (champignons de Paris) or a green capsicum

If you are preparing the tomato-based dip, use 12 cherry tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves only and add a squeeze of lime juice.

Preparation:

Sticky rice:

First, prepare the sticky rice as the preparation time is quite long. Wash the rice 3-4 times under running water until it runs clear. Then cover the rice with water and allow it to soak for at least 1 hour, better for 3-4. The rice is ready when you can cut it easily with your finger nail. If you can break it with your fingertip only, you have soaked it too long! 

Drain the water from the rice and rinse it several times. Rinse a bamboo steamer (can be a dumpling basket), add the rice and place it over boiling water. Steam the rice for about 30 minutes. Turn the rice over in the steamer and return it to the heat for a few minutes more. Taste to check that the rice is soft and sticky, but not mushy.

Important: in order for sticky rice to become sticky, you have to prepare a minimum of 500g!

Aubergine dip:

Put the aubergine, onion, garlic and chilli (and/or the mushroom/capsicum/tomatoes if using them) on wood skewers and grill them over open flame or in the oven. If you are using big aubergines and capsicums, you can also just prick them with a fork and place them on the coal directly. Grill the veggies until they are blackened. Allow them to cool and then peel the aubergines/tomatoes/capsicum, onion and garlic. Pound the garlic, onion, chilli and salt in a mortar. Once you have obtained a smooth paste, add the aubergine/tomatoes/capsicum and/or mushrooms and continue pounding until all ingredients have mixed well and the dip is more or less smooth. Chop the fresh coriander and add it to the mix, then season the dip with fish sauce and add the coarsely chopped spring onion. You can add lime juice to the tomato dip, but in the aubergine version, the lime might cover the smokey taste of the former.

To eat the dip, form little sticky rice balls with your fingers and then dip them in the sauce. Bon appétit!

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Laotian Laap

Laap (or larp) is considered the Laotian national dish and as such it is served in pretty much every restaurant you go to. It is refreshing in the heat and adds a zing to your day with the mix of spices and herbs it contains. I have also seen it in Thai cookbooks, but then I guess the cuisines here overlap quite often... 

Laap can be prepared with beef, buffalo (as in the photo above - might be a bit more tricky to find in Europe), chicken, pork or fish and vegetarians may substitute the meet with tofu, mushroom and/or potato. 

As with most dishes in Laos, sticky rice is never very far and you can find the recipe for the latter in the next post!

Ingredients (serves  3-4):

300g ground beef 

1 tsb salt

2 tsb fish sauce

2 garlic cloves

1 small onion

2 lemongrass stalks

1 tsp chicken stock

2 tsp dried chilli powder

2-3 bird's eye chillies (depends on your spice tolerance)

2 tbsp fresh coriander (about 4 stems)

2 tbsp fresh galangal

4 small (or 2 big) spring onions

3 tbsp fresh mint (small bunch)

1 bunch of Thai saw coriander (cilantro)

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 lime

2 snake beans or a handful of French beans

1 fresh banana flower (might be impossible to get at home so just leave it out)

Handful of bean sprouts

2 tbsp sticky rice powder (see below for instructions)

Lettuce leaves and/or watercress for serving

Preparation:

First, prepare the sticky rice powder: roast dry sticky rice (unwashed!) in a pan until it turns brown. Then pulverise it in a mortar.

Lightly sauté the beef in a pan with the salt and 1 tsb of fish sauce. Remove it from the heat, add a squeeze of lime juice and set it aside.

Finely chop the garlic, onions, lemongrass (only the white core), chillies, galangal and kaffir lime leaves. Roughly chop the mint, coriander (both), beans and spring onions. If you have succeeded in procuring a banana flower, peel the outer layers (the pink ones) of the flower and thinly slice the white section into a bowl of cold water. Careful, the sap stains and is impossible to get out of clothes (I speak from experience)! Mix all ingredients together and add the fish sauce and sticky rice powder. Squeeze in some lemon juice if you like and then serve the laap with the lettuce leaves and sticky rice. 

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Amok with Shrimp

Ah, well, it has been a while... This traveling business takes up too much of my time somehow and I have to actually take some time "off" and sit down to type up some more recipes.

Thailand seems a long way away now and hence I decided to skip most of the recipes from there (the best ones will come later, promise) and catch up with a recipe from Cambodia. Undoubtedly the most famous dish from that country is Amok: a paste that can be used for different kinds of meat. Here, I post the version with shrimp, but you can substitute that with fish, tofu, beef or chicken

Ingredients (serves 4):

For the Amok paste:

4 lemongrass stems

4 fresh turmeric roots (you can substitute a root with 1 tbsp of turmeric powder)

2 finger roots (lesser ginger) - use ginger instead if you can't find finger roots, but reduce the amount as ginger is a lot stronger in  taste

2 small shallots

4 garlic cloves

4 Ngor or broccoli leaves

200g white mushrooms

1 onion

300g fresh shrimp

200ml coconut milk

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp chicken stock

Steamed rice

Preparation:

First, finely chop the ingredients for the Amok paste then pound them in a mortar until you obtain a smooth paste. Heat half of the coconut milk in a pan and add the amok paste, sugar, salt and fish sauce. Cook the sauce and add the shrimp, mushroom, onion and ngor leave. Add the rest of the coconut milk and season with chicken stock. Let the sauce thicken a bit and then place it, if available, in a banana leave and serve with steamed rice.

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Phad Thai

This might well be the most famous Thai dish of them all... In Bangkok, you can hardly walk a street without encountering a small stand where it is freshly prepared in front of you. Having tasted "the real deal" plenty of times there I did not think it was possible to recreate it yourself. Yet with the recipe below (again from the Blue Elephant), you actually stand a chance of bringing Bangkok into your home!

For the vegetarians among you, just leave out the dried shrimp, fish sauce and fresh shrimp and add more tofu and salt (the fish sauce is however what makes part of the taste...).

Ingredients (serves 4):

10 tiger prawns (raw)

4 eggs

320g dried rice noodles

8 tbsp vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves

4 small (or 1 big) shallots

4 tbsp fresh tofu

4 tbsp ground roasted peanuts

4 tbsp sweet turnips (pickled - skip if not available)

2 tbsp dried shrimp powder (or entire dried shrimp)

8 stems of thin spring onion

120g fresh beansprouts

4 tbsp white sugar

4 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

4 tbsp tamarind juice

1 tsp chilli powder

2 limes

Fresh coriander

Preparation:

First, soak the rice noodles in cold water for 20 minutes.Meanwhile, start preparing the ingredients: quarter the prawns (not mandatory), cut the tofu into small cubes and the spring onion into 4-cm long pieces. Thinly chop the garlic and shallots.

In a wok, heat the oil on low heat and stir fry the garlic and shallots until an aroma develops (careful not to burn them). Then add the prawns and fry them until they start to turn pink. Push the mix to the side and crack open the eggs into the wok. Wait until the egg white starts to cook (i.e. turn white) and then scramble it. Once the egg is all scrambled, mix in the prawns and add the tofu and sweet turnip. When they are well mixed, add in the noodles (without the water!) and turn up the heat while stir frying the mix. Lower the heat again and add the seasoning: fish sauce, vinegar, tamarind sauce and half of the sugar (keep the rest for garnish). Continue to stir gently until all ingredients are well mixed. Add the dry shrimp powder and half of the chilli powder and ground peanuts. Finally, throw in the beansprouts and spring onion and mix with the rest. 

Transfer to a serving dish and add the lime, chilli powder, sugar and peanuts on the side. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. 

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Red Curry with Chicken

Today's recipe comes to you more or less directly from the kitchen of the Blue Elephant Cooking 

School in Bangkok... It's what I prepared for lunch today!

Another classic staple in the Thai kitchen, this red curry with chicken is prepared with homemade red curry paste. Once you have tried the fresh version, I promise you'll never want to use the pre-made one again!! The ingredients are relatively easy to obtain and you can store the paste easily in the fridge (see below). So let's get started!

Ingredients for the red curry paste:

1 coriander root

5 garlic cloves

4 very small shallots (or 2 bigger ones)

1/2 tbsp galangal

1 1/2 tbsp lemongrass (= 1-2 stems)

5 dried big red chillies (Serrano chilli)

1/2 tbsp kaffir lime zest (you can use kaffir lime leaves instead, if you can't find the fruit)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds

1/2 tsp ground roasted coriander seeds

1/2 tsp white pepper powder

1/2 tsp shrimp paste

Preparation:

Soak the dried chilli in water for 15 minutes, then squeeze out the water and chop. 

Peel and crush the garlic cloves and shallots and put them in a mortar. Chop the coriander root and add to the mortar. Start pounding. Slice the galangal and lemongrass finely and cut off the zest of the kaffir lime (the white of the lime is bitter, so don't use it!). Add to the mix together with the chilli and pound. Then add the salt, cumin, coriander and pepper powder and the shrimp paste. Pound until you obtain a smooth paste. You can also use a blender to do this, but the aroma are not the same (and you need to add some water to blend better). You can "refresh" a pre-made curry paste by adding pounded garlic cloves, coriander root and white pepper powder. 

Storage:

The paste can be kept in an airtight container (or plastic bag) in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or one month in the freezer. For longer periods, add more salt.

Ingredients for the chicken curry (serves 4):

8 tbsp red curry paste

8 tbsp vegetable oil (don't use olive oil for Thai cooking)

350g chicken breast

300g (fresh) bamboo shots

600 ml coconut milk

200 ml water

8 kaffir lime leaves (fresh if possible, otherwise soak dry ones in water)

1 bundle of Thai basil

6 big red chillies (Serrano chillies) - cut out the seeds to make it less spicy

2 tbsp palm sugar

4 tbsp fish sauce

Jasmine rice

Preparation:

Cut the chicken breast into thin pieces and the bamboo shots (if fresh) into slices. Tear the kaffir lime leaves into small pieces (first remove the stem by folding them in half). Slice the Serrano chilli (use only 4 and keep the rest for decoration).

Heat the oil in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the curry paste and stir fry until an aroma develops. Laddle in a spoonful of coconut milk. Stir continuously until the oil separates from the liquid. Add another laddle and repeat. Add a third laddle and once the coconut milk is boiling, add the sliced chicken and simmer until it is half cooked. Add the bamboo shots and then the seasoning (palm sugar and fish sauce) and kaffir lime leaves. Stir until the palm sugar is dissolved. Pour in the rest of the coconut milk and later the water. Add the chilli and sweet basil leaves. Continue cooking for about a mnute, then pour the curry into a serving bowl. Decorate with basil leaves and thinly chopped chilli and serve with rice.

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Tom Kha Kai

The first of a series of recipes directly imported from their country of origin has to be a good one.

So this is it - the soup of all soups ;-). Tom Kha Kai or the coconut soup with chicken. At least for me, a definite favourite (until I met its cousin, the Tom Yum Kung... more about that later). Hence it was obvious that I would pick a cooking class where this creamy coconut soup featured in the menu. And I haven't stopped tasting it everywhere I go here in Thailand. The good news is that it's easy to make at home - the bad news: the ingredients might be a bit tricky to get (at least where the wind blows me...). But I will just start an import business for galangal then. And seaweed on the side. Never forget about sushi ;-).

So here comes the recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients (for 1):

100ml coconut milk

80ml chicken stock (best made yourself by boiling chicken bones)

60g chicken breast

20g young coconut meat (see my point about the ingredients?) - or alternatively any kind of mushroom

1 coriander root (or 3-4 coriander stems) - save the leaves for decoration

2 small shallots

5 bird's eye chillies

1 lemongrass stem

3 cm galangal (5 slices)

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp white sugar

1/2 tbsp tamarind juice

1/2 tsp lime juice

Chilli oil ("nam prik phaow")

Preparation:

First, prepare the ingredients: slice the chicken breast thinly, crush the coriander root, onion, chillies, lemongrass and galangal and tear the kaffir lime leave (fold it in half to remove the stem, then tear it into smaller pieces). Then bring the chicken stock to the boil (at medium heat) in a saucepan. Add the herbs (coriander root, kaffir lime leaves, galangal and onion) and continue boiling until an aroma develops. Add the coconut milk and bring the soup to the boil, but don't boil it for too long as it will separate. Add the chicken breast and, once the chicken is half cooked, the coconut meat. Simmer for a few minutes until the chicken is cooked. Add the fish sauce, sugar and tamarind juice (not all at once as you might find it too sweet/sour). Mix well and season to your taste. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice and crushed chilli. If you wish, remove the herbs before serving the soup. Pour the soup into a serving bowl and add some chilli oil and coriander leaves for decoration. Serve hot. Voilà - that's the secret. 

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The Asia adventure...

... aka "a foodie's trip to paradise".

Finally. I am here. I have arrived on the continent of my (foodie) dreams. Following my heart and giving this obsession with Asian food a reality check, I have decided to embark on a 3 months long trip to the food heavens in the far east. Stops are foreseen in Thailand (from where I currently write), Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, South Korea and last, but certainly not least, Japan.

I think it's needless to say that I have not been disillusioned with the food here. Quite on the contrary - as you may have guessed (or already know from personal experience). If Thailand is not a foodie paradise, then I really don't know. The millions of food stands that just pop up wherever you go, the freshest and exotic ingredients, the Thai traditional tea... I could go on and fill pages with the impressions. But rather than do that, I will follow up on the promise that I have made to plenty of people: share my experience with you through recipes that I am gatherirng here - be it through cooking classes or just sitting next to the cook and watching. I hope that it will bring some fresh spices to your kitchen and encourage some of you to replace that take away order with the real deal...!

Enjoy!

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