Bloggers Around the World January Round-Up: Vietnam

Now what? Of course, you know what this means. We already have used up the first month of 2014. How was it?
Well, for me, apart from the moving thingy, things pretty much continue as last year. Alright, theoretically I have more time, but then again, I always find a way to use up my time ... like for example write up a round-up. Fine, it seems like, I don't really have time for this, because it's already a time of the day, where I could be in bed and don't have to tell myself "You are getting old!"
Anyway, why am I wasting time, I should rather start with the round-up now. There was a lot of lovely food available. Vietnam really was a nice and flavoursome place to visit.

Therefore ... let us us start with the real thing, the food in all those delicious posts ... or was it the post with all those delicious food. Ah, anyway, here it comes ...

To Taste with Tofu - Fried Tofu in Spicy Tomato Sauce

Everyone loves tofu. Right?

...

...

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... eh ... eh ... au contraire? Rather the opposite? Oh! Well, there is a rumour tofu is bland and tasteless and you can live very much without it. At least that is what some feel.
I say, you can eat everything with the right sauce ... eh ... almost everything. Before we go on now, I don't have a problem with or without tofu. In fact I like to have it from time to time, but ... now to the right sauce ...

Bloggers Around the World: Vietnam

Are you up already? Well, why wouldn't you be. How else could you read these lines or ... are you up and ready to go for new adventures, to boldly go, where you have never gone before? Then you are absolutely right here. Bloggers Around the World is an encouragement to leave your comfort zone and try new things from other places around the world. Of course, if you are from the featured country or cook regularly from that cuisine anyway, then it's also a good reason for the rest of us to appreciate it, too.
Are you ready for a new year of ...

... ? Of course you are right after I tell you, where it is we will be going this month ...

Clueless ... Bánh Mì? ... Asian Baguette with Omelette

I have no clue ... therefore I must be clueless so to speak. One of my teachers once said: "You can be stupid, you only need to find a way." Easier said than done, though ... if you are clueless. I would need some kind of a plan. Should I not manage, things will simply keep flowing in uncertain ways. Do you have a clue what I am talking about?
How, if I'm already clueless. Anyway, I found some photos on my computer. I took them a few weeks ago. Now I need to figure out what they were for or how I did things in order to present you something worthwhile.
Here we are then ...

Now that you could call Bánh Mì, a Vietnamese sandwich or baguette. Right away, I have to be honest that I never had a real Bánh Mì so I have no clue what it is supposed to be like. When I was in London, I went to City Càphê to had a try.
Unfortunately, I came to late and they had ran out on Bánh Mì. I had to eat something differently and still went on without any practical knowledge about Bánh Mì. Then I had no further chances to have a try.
If you start digging for information you will find out that Báhn Mì, the Vietnamese baguette was influenced by the French colonial time.
Well ... "You can be stupid, you only need to find a way."
I had rice the day before or even the day before that day. There were leftovers. So here comes the stupid idea ...
Why not have rice in the dough of the bread.

Ingredients:
350 g strong baking flour
100 g cooked rice
1,5 tsp salt
4,5 tsp yeast
200 - 300 ml lukewarm water

Method (if ... that is a big IF you want to call it so in this clueless case):
The flour goes into a large bowl.
Our attention moves right away to the cooked rice. It was in the fridge before that a day or two. Ah ... toss it  into the blender with a bit of water and then ... go. Try to blend it as good as it gets.
Add the salt and yeast to the flour.
Our attention moves back to the rice. It has to join the flour as well. Additionally we add as much water as it needs to do the job. Use your fine hands to knead the dough and form it into a ball. Let it rest for ten minutes and then knead it for 15 minutes, knowing you save the money for going to the gym, too.
Let the dough rise for 45 minutes. Then separate the dough into four party and form some flat longish objects, which will be left alone and covered with a wet towel for 20 minutes.
Now fold the four objects together to make them look more roundish. Maybe you can extend them lengthwise a bit, too.
Place them back to rest for another 35 minutes in a way where the folding edge is at the bottom side ... just use your imagination.
Transfer the baguettes to a baking tray. Slash them at the top a few times with a sharp knife and bake them for 20 minutes at 230 °C. At the beginning spray the oven with a bit of water for the crust.

In my humble opinion, the baguettes looked and tasted nice afterwards.
The rice didn't do any harm. But did it do any good? Well, I can say they tasted a bit different from the ones without rice. I was satisfied, although still clueless.
Now we still need something to fill the baguette.
A simple omelette will do. For that we just use three eggs, a bit of salt, one or two finely chopped red chillies and a hand full of coriander. After all we don't want to complicate things. Therefore mix the egg with the salt and the chilli and do your omelette in the pan as you are accustomed to do, if you are.
Obviously you have to cut the baguette open, fill it with the omelette and add the coriander to give it the final touch.
And then?
I reckon, you have to eat it. 
Taste?
I liked it. I might be clueless, but I still know what I like taste wise. Apart from that I know something else. Once more, I managed my leftovers not go to wate. With that in mind I like to add this post to Credit Crunch Munch by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours & Camilla from Fab Food 4 All. The trick, though, this time it is hosted by the wonderful Anneli from délicieux. Go, have a look and start having fun with some lovely entries there.

That's it! I'm through, done and at my wits' end. There is nothing much left to say.
Now I need to continue looking for a plan in order to get back on what track I'm supposed to be ...

Ga xao dau phong - Stir-fried Chicken & Peanuts

In my last post I wrote you about a cheesecake with lemongrass and carrots and ginger and things. I have to tell you something ...
... I ate it all up and I enjoyed it. Might need to think about some exercise, though. I guess taking the rubbish outside will not suffice.
However, that was not my original intention. No, I'm not talking about taking out the rubbish, nor was I talking about eating the cake. Whatsoever, you can't know what's on my mind unless I tell you clearly. I on the other hand can't tell you clearly, if I didn't arrange things clearly in my mind.
Ahhhh, forget about the last few sentences. I try again!
Originally I bought ginger and lemongrass for some Asian cooking. I go myself a Vietnamese cookbook called Vietnamese Bible by Jacki Passmore. I thought I could try a few recipes. So when I was out shopping I brought home some lemongrass and ginger ... that might come in handy ... or not ... or whatever.
Here is what I tried from the book.

That's called 'Ga xao dau phong' or in English 'Stir-fried Chicken & Peanuts'.
I have a lovely rice cooker at home. So I don't have to worry so much about the rice. Just wash and rinse it and then put it on cooking. When it's finished, it switches automatically to 'keeping warm'.
The rest you could just call fresh fast food. Apart from cutting the chicken breast into pieces and the spring onions into rings, the rest goes faster then you could warm up an instant meal in the microwave.
Once your pan or wok is heated up to high heat, you add some peanut oil and then stir-fry your pieces of chicken for four minutes. Then you add some fish sauce, the spring onions, some roasted peanuts and a few red chillies (which you have cut in rings as well ... sorry, I forgot to mention). Maybe some salt and pepper and ...

... eat! Right, you could of course add also some fresh coriander leaves, which I obviously did, although it was not mentioned in the original recipe.
On top of it, if you make more rice, you still have some left to experiment a bit ... I did some sushi rolls afterwards to get the opportunity to let some wasabi climb up my nose. That is very ... nice.
I only remember still when I tried wasabi the first time. "You have to use a fair good portion on your Sushi!" ... I'm glad I survived. Since then I use it only in moderation. 

City Càphê, phở and trouble in the kitchen

With many things in life you have many choices – usually. Let’s imagine you want to go to the supermarket and buy some strawberry jam. Do you get the one with fruity bits or the smooth one? The standard one or the organic? Reduced sugar? With 70% fruit or more or less? Premium? Special brand or brand of the house? … Sometimes, having too much choice can bring you to the point of not wanting to choose anymore.

This, however, has nothing to do with the now following, has it?

If you would like to have some Vietnamese food (well if you live in Vietnam, this of course is no point) you can either go to a restaurant or do it yourself.

If you happen to be around London you could try the City Càphê at Ironmonger Lane near the Bank of England.

I don’t want to use the term fast food in this connection, but I got my food quite fast, although when I went there at lunch time, there was already a long queue that reached even outside of the restaurant. However, it was worth waiting for it.

The original plan was to get a Báhn Mì, a filled Vietnamese baguette. However, I didn’t succeed. I came to late, all the baguettes were already gone. So I went for some phở.

It brought quite some heat (OK, you can’t see the chillies on the photo, but they were there). Judging from the weather, though, this was not necessary, since the sun had already decided to bring some heat to London (it didn’t last too long).

Well, if you happen to be around London, near the Bank of England and you fancy some Vietnamese food, you can try the City Càphê. I liked it. If you manage to come at the right time, you may even be able to taste a Báhn Mì.

Now you could also go and do some cooking for yourself. This is always good. As I mentioned in a post earlier, I had a taste of Vietnamese food before at a Vietnamese lunch with Uyen at the Fifteen in London. She also taught us to make Vietnamese summer rolls.

It also happens to be the case, that Uyen has a recipe for phở on her blog.

 

First of all you have to get the ingredients, and here again it applies, depending on where you live, you will get things quite easy or have some trouble. I had to do some driving around to get at least most of the required items. I thought I could omit the few things I couldn’t get (yes, it was no problem).

The other thing is, you need some time to put all the things together. There is absolutely no need to get hectic though. I wonder, when I will learn this myself. So I managed to pour some boiling water over my hand (I survived – it wasn’t that bad).

Then I was ready for simmering – two hours (the stock of course was simmering, not I myself). 

It could be a problem, when you are already hungry at this stage. However, while shopping for the needed ingredients I got myself also some rice paper to prepare summer rolls. So, I thought, why not have some summer rolls in between.

I must admit the they were a bit short, stubby looking. Well, the rice paper was too small. Next time I use bigger ones or more than just one.

Finally, though after more then four hours, nearly five, I was ready to have my own phở. 

 

First go the noodles, meat, coriander, onion, spring onion and then pouring the hot stock over it. Then finish it off with some Vietnamese basil, beansprouts, chili, and juice from a lime wedge.

Summing things up (blog-post-recipe-tester), I was very much pleased with the results. The recipe was good to follow and everything worked out as expected. Where was the trouble then? There only will be trouble, if you start it yourself (like not concentrating or being hectic).

If you are not having some visitors, by following this recipe, you end up with quite a good supply of stock for phở. Well, I will have some of it today again, another day this week again and there is also a lot stored in the freezer. I had a look at Wikipedia as well. There it says that phở is traditionally something for breakfast. So ... why not!

What’s next? Who knows … there are always so many options.

Still Food Revolution Day - Vietnamese Cooking

By now Food Revolution Day is over, but not the Food Revolution. Hopefully this all made some people think about their eating habits.
At least I learned a lot and you know there is forever and always the chance to learn something new. That is if you are willing to. So again I had attended an event in connection with Food Revolution Day to broaden my view - this time it was about Vietnamese food.
Thinking about Vietnamese food,I have no clue, although there are living a lot of people around me, That are from Vietnam. They even have restaurants, but most of them do Chinese food (maybe not even real Chinese food, but only what people want).
Let us now go on with the event.

The table is set and it can begin. On the table some garnishing is waiting for the things to come. Did I say garnishing? Well, of course, it's for flavour as well.

To start with, a lovely soup, so full of fresh flavours - oh, how ignorant of me - of course it was phở, traditional Vietnamese soup. The red parts you see are far from being just garnishing. The chillies were actually quite hot.
After this soup we could proceed with the main part.

The next part included some work or rather participation. We were about to learn how to make Vietnamese summer rolls with rice paper. The ingredients were set out on the table.

You can do them with different things, but these were the ones we had. Just make sure you put some lovely herbs in it.

The rice paper is briefly dipped into water. Then it is ready for the filling.

Putting all the delicious ingredients on it, only making sure, it is not overcrowded. When you have a big mouth, though, you can make bigger rolls.

Then serve it with a soy based dipping sauce and enjoy it. Well, the roll doesn't look to good on the picture, but well, it was my first try.

A few rolls later, only a small dessert could still fit in. As you can see it is with strawberries and ... what do you think is the green bit? It contains avocado. Very nice, not too sweet and very delicious.
If you want to make Vietnamese summer rolls for yourself, have a look at Uyen Leluu's blog: Leluu. There you will find the recipe. She is also doing Vietnamese cooking classes and supper clubs.
Well, it's time for me to go home soon and for sure I will try some more Vietnamese cooking.