Saigon fresh summer rolls
This recipe is from Saigon but every region has its own take on fresh summer rolls. Although they are great for special occasions, they are tasty and healthy enough to take to work for lunch – you'll be enjoying a good herb and prawn salad inside rice paper.
Makes 6
rice paper 6 sheets, about 22cm
Filling
pork belly 150g
king prawns 18, shelled and deveined
rice vermicelli 30g
lettuce leaves 6
coriander sprigs 12, stalk on, chopped
garden or hot mint leaves 18, chopped
cockscomb mint sprigs 3 (available from Asian supermarkets)
shiso/perilla leaves 18
garlic chives 6, halved and head removed
Dipping sauce
cooking oil 1 tbsp
garlic clove 1, chopped
hoisin sauce 2 tbsp
white wine vinegar or cider vinegar ½ tbsp
sugar 1 tsp
Sriracha chilli sauce ½ tbsp
roasted salted peanuts 2 tbsp, crushed
Bring a saucepan of water and a few pinches of salt to the boil. Add the pork, cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes or until the juices run clear when you prick it with a knife. Allow to cool, then cut off the skin and very thinly slice the meat. Put the prawns and a pinch of salt in a saucepan of boiling water and poach for 2 minutes, or until opaque. Drain and allow to cool.
Put the rice vermicelli, a pinch of salt and a dash of vinegar in a bowl or pan of boiling water, cover and allow to cook for 5–10 minutes or until soft. Drain and rinse with hot water.
Once the pork, prawns and vermicelli are ready, put them and the remaining filling ingredients in their own individual bowls in front of you. Pour some warm water into a tray deep and large enough to submerge the rice paper sheets. Use a plastic board as a base on which to make the rolls.
Dip a sheet of rice paper into the water and take it out as soon as it is moist all over – do not let it sit in the water. Lay the sheet on the plastic board. Imagine the sheet is a face and now place the filling where the mouth should be: line up a couple of pork slices, 3 prawns, 1 lettuce leaf, and one-sixth of the vermicelli and herbs. Fold the 2 sides inward over the filling, as if making an envelope.
Now fold the bottom corner over the filling. Put 3–4 pieces of garlic chives along the roll with the tips sticking out of one end of the roll. Start to roll up the package tightly, pushing it forward and tucking in the filling in a neat cylinder as you roll it towards the far side of the sheet. Keep in an airtight container or wrap in clingfilm while you assemble the remaining rolls.
For the dipping sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Fry the garlic until it browns slightly. Add the hoisin sauce, vinegar, sugar, chilli sauce and 1 tbsp water and bring to a gentle boil. Pour into dipping bowls and sprinkle the peanuts on top. Serve with the rolls for dipping.
Omelette baguette
I love to eat this greedily on a beautiful sunny morning, quietly and alone to absorb the utter goodness. For an extra dimension, drop the sliced chillies into a bowl of good soy sauce and bruise them with the back of a spoon – this releases the chillies' flavour and heat. Drizzle over the baguette.
Serves 2
Pickle
carrots 2, shredded
daikon/mooli ½, shredded
cider vinegar 5 tbsp
sugar 5 tbsp
Omelette
eggs 2, beaten
spring onions 2, thinly sliced
sugar ½ tsp
salt a pinch
black pepper a pinch
soy sauce 1 tsp
cooking oil 1 tbsp
Asian shallots 2, finely chopped
To fill
Vietnamese baguettes or freshly baked, small French baguettes 2
butter
coriander
bird's eye chillies thinly sliced (deseeded for less heat)
Mix all the pickle ingredients in a bowl and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Drain and wring with your hands.
For the omelette, beat the eggs in a bowl with the spring onions, sugar, salt and pepper, and soy sauce.
Heat the oil on a medium heat in a frying pan and briefly fry the shallots. Pour the egg mixture over the shallots and spread evenly. Cook for a couple of minutes until the underside looks golden brown (lift up one edge and check). Flip the omelette over and cook for a couple of minutes until brown. Remove from the heat and cut into strips.
Slit the baguette lengthways and pull out the soft doughy inside (which can be used for breadcrumbs). Spread with butter and insert the omelette strips, pickle, coriander and chillies.
Fried tilapia with green mango
The traditional Vietnamese diet is healthy. Meals revolve around rice, vegetables and fish. The fish here has a crunchy, crispy skin and soft flesh, complemented by crunchy and sour unripe mango. The mango must be green and unripe as the sour flavour balances perfectly with the sweet nuoc cham dressing. This is a meal that leaves you wanting more and more.
Serves 2
vegetable oil 1 tbsp
whole red tilapia (or lemon sole, dab, brill, black tilapia, red snapper or pomfret) 1, scaled and gutted
unripened green mango ¼, julienned
cooked rice to serve
Dressing
cider vinegar 2 tbsp
sugar 2 tbsp
fish sauce 2 tbsp
garlic cloves 2, finely chopped
bird's eye chillies 2, finely chopped
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over low–medium heat, then put the whole tilapia in the pan. Fry for 10 minutes on each side, or until golden, crispy and cooked through. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Lay out the mango on a serving dish. Place the tilapia on top and drizzle with dressing. Serve with cooked rice.
Caramelised sardines in coconut water
I have lived in Hackney, London, since I was five but my mother brought me and my brother up on a strict Vietnamese diet. We loved school dinners because it was different and exotic compared to what we had at home. However, nobody at school liked school dinners very much and they decided to go on strike! My brother and I bowed to peer pressure, joined the strike and told my mum to make us some packed lunches. She made us each a tiffin box with rice, soup and sardines caramelised in fish sauce and coconut water. Today I jump for joy at the prospect of this meal, but then, I was 10 years old! My friends hadn't even heard of Vietnam and you can imagine what they thought of the sardine smell from our rucksacks.
Serves 2
cooking oil 1 tbsp
red onion ½, finely chopped
whole sardines 350g, scaled and gutted
coconut water 150ml (or use fresh water plus 1 tsp sugar)
bird's eye chilli 1
black pepper a pinch
coconut caramel 1 tsp
sugar 1 tsp
fish sauce 1 tbsp
vegetable oil 1 tsp
cooked rice to serve
Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion until browned. Add the sardines to the pan and fry for about 2 minutes on each side. Add the coconut water, chilli, pepper, coconut caramel, sugar, fish sauce and vegetable oil. Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
Serve with cooked rice, or a palate-cleansing soup and fried greens.
If you cannot find coconut caramel, melt and caramelise some palm sugar or raw cane sugar to colour the dish.
Duck congee
Cháo is the transformation of small amounts of rice: after prolonged simmering in broth, it turns into a thick porridge soup. This is a great way to use up leftover cooked rice or to make it go a long way. However, this basic dish can be lifted into something much more luxurious by cooking the cháo with duck. It is then served with slices of duck next to the congee and alongside a ginger-based nuoc cham dipping sauce. If you prefer, you can use a whole chicken instead of duck. To make life easier, ask the butcher to joint the duck and poach it in pieces instead of whole. Or use chicken stock instead of water and poach pre-cut chicken or duck breast for 30 minutes in the congee broth.
Serves 6–8
whole duck 1.5kg
salt 1 big tbsp
basmati rice 200g, rinsed
sugar 1 tsp
fresh ginger 1 thumb's worth of, finely chopped
pork bouillon 1 tsp (optional)
black pepper a pinch
Onion pickle
red onion 1, thinly sliced
cider vinegar 3 tbsp
black pepper ½ tsp
sugar 1 tbsp
Dipping sauce
garlic cloves 2, crushed
fresh ginger 1 thumb's worth, finely chopped
bird's eye chillies 2, thinly sliced
cider vinegar 3 tbsp
sugar 3 tbsp
fish sauce 4 tbsp
Garnishes (all chopped)
garden or hot mint
coriander
Thai sweet basil
spring onions
limes
fresh ginger
Bring 2 litres of water to the boil in a very large saucepan over medium heat. Add the whole duck and the salt and bring back to the boil. Add the rice, sugar, ginger, bouillon and pepper. Cover the pan with the lid and simmer for 75–90 minutes over low heat.
Combine the onion pickle ingredients and leave for at least 1 hour.
For the dipping sauce, combine the garlic, ginger, chillies and vinegar and leave for about 5 minutes – the vinegar will slightly "cook" the ingredients. Add the sugar and fish sauce. Divide between individual dipping bowls and leave for at least 1 hour.
Remove the pan from the heat, and set the duck aside to rest and cool slightly. Now joint the duck, slice the flesh and arrange it on a serving dish. Divide the hot congee between 6–8 soup bowls. Serve with the duck, onion pickle, dipping sauce and garnishes.
Chicken salad with hot mint
My mother never follows recipes; she throws in a bit of this and that and relies on her taste buds to get the right balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot. Every time she makes this, my brother and I eat every last grain and morsel.
Serves 2–3
Onion pickle
red onion 1, thinly sliced
cider vinegar 3 tbsp
sugar 1 tbsp
sea salt a pinch
black pepper a pinch
Chicken salad
chicken thighs 3, skin on and bone in
chicken stock 1 cube
basmati rice 200g
butter 1 knob
garlic clove 1, finely chopped
hot mint sprigs (or Thai sweet basil) 10, chopped
coriander a small handful, stalk on, chopped
black pepper a pinch
Dipping sauce
fish sauce 2 tbsp
sugar 2 tsp
fresh ginger 2cm piece, finely chopped
bird's eye chilli 1, finely chopped
garlic 1 clove , finely chopped
cider vinegar 1 tbsp
Set aside about one-fifth of the onion slices. Combine the remainder with the other pickle ingredients and leave for at least 1 hour.
Put 1.2 litres of cold water and the chicken thighs in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then skim off the scum with a spoon. Add the stock cube and cook for 25–30 minutes (you will need to extract some of the stock after 20 minutes – see below).
Wash and drain the rice. Finely chop the reserved portion of red onion. Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan over low heat and fry the onion and garlic. Add the rice and stir it to coat it in the flavours. Once the chicken has been poaching in the other pan for 20 minutes, take out 350ml of the poaching stock and pour it into the pan of rice with a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and raise the heat to medium; this technique will cook the rice beautifully by steaming it. When the liquid comes to the boil, turn the heat back down to low and continue to cook for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Mix the dipping sauce ingredients in a bowl with 2 tbsp of the leftover chicken poaching stock. When the chicken has finished poaching, remove it from the pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes while the rice is still cooking. Tear the meat from the chicken bones using your fingers or 2 forks. Discard the skin. Mix the chicken with the pickle (discarding the pickling juices), mint, coriander and pepper.
Serve the salad at room temperature with the rice and dipping sauce.
Sizzling crepes with pork and prawns
This is a street-food favourite when the sun sets – it is a light savoury crêpe, to be eaten as it's being cooked. It is served with salad leaves and herbs. A slice of crêpe is placed on a lettuce leaf in the palm of your hand, then rolled up with lots of herbs and dipped into a dipping sauce.
Makes about 12
Dipping sauce
garlic cloves 2, finely chopped
bird's eye chillies 2, finely chopped
cider vinegar 2 tbsp
fish sauce 5 tbsp
sugar 3 tbsp
Crêpes
rice flour 200g
ground turmeric 2 tsp
coconut milk 400ml
spring onions 2, thinly sliced
sea salt a pinch
sugar a pinch
cooking oil for frying
shallots 4, chopped
pork belly 200g, thinly sliced
king prawns 400g, shelled and deveined
beansprouts 200g
Garnishes
lettuce leaves
spring onions cut into short lengths
coriander
Thai sweet basil
garden or hot mint
You will need a 20cm non-stick frying pan with a lid.
Mix together the garlic, chillies and vinegar in a bowl. Set aside for 2 minutes to "cook" the garlic. Now add the fish sauce, sugar and 400ml water.
Mix together the flour, turmeric, coconut milk, 400ml water, spring onions, salt and sugar in a bowl, making sure it is free of lumps.
Heat 1 tsp oil in the frying pan over medium heat and fry 1 tsp of the chopped shallots until browned. Season the pork belly and prawns and add a few pieces to the pan until cooked through. Using a shallow ladle, pour in a thin layer of the crêpe batter, add a handful of beansprouts and cover the pan with the lid. Cook for 2 minutes on a high heat. Remove the lid and cook for a further minute, making sure the crêpe is crispy and brown. Fold the crêpe in half and set aside. Repeat this process with the remaining ingredients to make more crêpes.
Extracted from My Vietnamese Kitchen (Ryland Peters & Small, £16.99). To order for £13.59 incl UK p&p visit guardianbookshop.co.uk
