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Category: Herbs & Spices

14
Oct
2013

Is Hoi An The Ryan Gosling Of Vietnam?

categories: Cocktail, Ginger, Hoi An, Travel, Vietnam, Vodka

I’ve struggled to write about Hoi An and I only just realised why – I like it just a little bit too much for my normal snarky tone to be used. There’s nothing funny about Hoi An. It’s lovely to look at, a great place to spend time…in fact the only downside is that because everyone else loves it too, it’s in danger of becoming overpublicised and losing everything that made it charming in the first place…Huh…it’s kind of like the Ryan Gosling of Vietnam. (Shut up, I haven’t mentioned him for MONTHS…)

One awesome thing about Hoi An, is that the old town is car free. You still need to beware of crazy bike riders but the old town really is a haven after the hustle and bustle of a city like Saigon. The other lovely thing about Hoi An is that it’s small enough to walk around and see everything on foot. Alternatively most hotels have bikes either, push bikes or motor bikes, either included in the room rate or that you can hire to explore the local countryside (which I recommend – rice paddies, great beaches, it’s really pretty and flat so easy to ride even if, like me you’re not an avid bike rider).

Map of Hoi An

We stayed at the Vinh Hung resort, marked by the number 1 in the above map. This was a great resort and has a boat that takes you into town. Who needs a bike?

If you ask nicely they even let you drive…

The town itself is famed for its silk, and gorgeous coloured lanterns are a popular souvenir.

Silk Lantern Shop - Hoi An — Silk Lantern Shop – Hoi An

And if you think this looks pretty during the day, look at it at night!

Cafe at Night - Hoi An — Cafe at Night – Hoi An

By day the mustardy coloured buildings and the purple flowers are a striking combination…

Hoi An is a great town for tailors. They are everywhere although there is a mass of them along Hoang Dieu, across the road from the cloth market. Also on Hoang Dieu are shoe makers who will hand make shoes for you for fraction of what you would pay for something mass-produced. And you wonder why I love this place!

My favourite tailor and shoe maker below:

cards 001

Hoi An is also a great place for food and a great way to learn more about Vietnamese food is to do a cooking course. I’ve done two, one at the Park Hyatt in Saigon and also one at the Morning Glory Restaurant in Hoi An. Both were excellent. The format for both was similar, a trip to the market to familiarise yourself with the raw ingredients….

Then on to the school for some learning and, better yet, some eating. At the Morning Glory class we made a number of standards of Vietnamese food including:

Rice Paper Rolls:

Bahn Xeo

My favourite – Green Mango Salad

Turmeric Chicken Skewers

And yes, all of this tasted as good as it looks. Maybe even better.

You can find the Yotam Ottolenghi version of Bahn Xeo here.

And Luke Nguyen’s Green Mango Salad with Tiger Prawns here

For the Turmeric Chicken, which was awesome, you’ll need to go to Hoi An.

After some hefty shopping and your cooking class, or just because it’s hot, hot hot, you might be in need of an afternoon libation. And you can do a lot worse than the Q Bar for this..

Q Bar Hoi An

One of the specialties of the Q bar is a Tamarind and Ginger Martini which is awesome!!!

Here is my version:

I based my recipe on the Tamarind Ginger Fizz recipe from Food 52 which you can find here.

Spicy Tamarind Ginger Martini (makes 2)

Spicy Ginger Sugar Syrup

1 knob of ginger about as big as your thumb, sliced

2 small birdseye chillies

1 length of lemongrass about 10cm long, chopped

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

Combine in a saucepan. Boil until the sugar has dissolved then take off heat and allow to steep. Transfer to a container and refrigerate. Can be kept in the fridge for 3 weeks.

Orange Chilli Salt

Zest of 1 orange

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp salt

1 tbsp dried chilli, ground to same size as the salt (I kept mine a bit chunky)

Mix ingredients together and place on a plate.

Tamarind Ginger Martini

1/4 cup Tamarind pulp

1/4 cup Vodka

1/4 cup lime juice

6 springs of mint, preferably Vietnamese mint, plus more for garnish

Soda / Seltzer water to top up

Strain ginger syrup and reserve the chillies.

Combine tamarind pulp, ginger syrup, vodka, lime mint and vodka in a shaker with some ice.

Shake.

Slide an orange or lime wedge around the rim of the glass and dip in the chilli salt.

Pour the vodka mix into the glasses about 3 /4 of the way, topping with the soda water.

Garnish

Orange & Lime Wedges

Chilli from Syrup mix

Piece of Crystallised Ginger

Mint Sprigs

Garnish the drink with the orange and wine wedges, the chillies, the sprigs of mint and a piece of crystallised ginger.

Enjoy!

There’s so much more to say about Hoi An…but you know what? I’m not going to…just go there, you won’t be disappointed.

Actually, I’ve changed my mind, whatever you do, don’t go there. It’s awful. And while you’re at it, leave Gosling alone too. There are some things in this world that should be just for me!

I’ll be spending my week absolutely, definitely, 100% not booking my next trip to Hoi An…have a fab one whatever you get up to.

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10
Jan
2013

Strawberry Fields Forever Part 2 aka Strawberries Gangland Style

categories: Desserts, Salad, SemiFreddo, Strawberries, Tarragon

I have some weird little strips of paper in my “recipes to be made” folder. They are not so much recipes as hints, maybe even whispers of things to make. I have no idea where they came from – they are numbered and printed so I presume from a list of some sort. Anyway, each of these is an absolute gem, if a little vague.

Take for instance, strip #58.

“Hull and quarter some strawberries; at the last minute, combine with a little chopped tarragon, black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Goat’s cheese is good too”

That’s all folks.

I had strawberries galore (huh, sounds a bit like the name of a Bond girl), I had tarragon, black pepper and balsamic…

Ingredients for Strawberry Tarragon Salad

I know it’s only just over a week into the year but I strongly believe this salad will be one of my top ten finds of the year.

This was soooooo good. The sweet strawberries, the aniseedy tarragon, the sticky sweet sour balsamic and the warming zing of pepper are…mindblowingly awesome!

I neither hulled nor quartered my strawberries…who can be bothered following so many steps in a recipe…

Strawberry, Tarragon, Black Pepper, Balsamic Salad

The recipe suggests that goat’s cheese would not go astray here. I didn’t have any (why would I? I didn’t have sugar. Why on earth would I have goat’s cheese?) but I mixed up some sour cream and mascarpone and dobbed that on and it was delicious. Goat’s cheese would be amazing. I also would like to try blue cheese.

The vinegar that the strawberries soaked in went all thick and syrupy and took on a pinkish tinge from the strawberry juice. I siphoned this back into a small bottle for later use as it seemed too good to throw out.

And speaking of awesome, my White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Semifreddo for Mark’s birthday? Amazing!!! Another good contender for top ten for the year. I hope I haven’t peaked early!

I used this recipe from a Delicious Magazine:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6801/strawberry+cheesecake+semifreddo

with the addition of White Chocolate into both the base and the filling.

Why white chocolate?

I was leafing through one of my favourite food books, Niki Sengit’s Flavour Thesaurus to see if she had anything to say about strawberries and tarragon (she doesn’t, although there is a section on strawberries and anise). This book is a must have for any serious foodie and even the not so serious ones as some of the entires are hilarious!

Niki has the following to say about strawberries and white chocolate:

“In fancy chocolate shops, I sometimes see slabs of white chocolate spattered with clots of freeze dried strawberry, like stucco after a shoot out. White chocolate makes for a better combination with strawberry than milk or dark because, like strawberry and gangland comparisons, it’s a little cheesy”

I couldn’t resist. So I bought a family block of white chocolate and melted half into the biscuit base and half into the filling. It was sensational. And just right for a birthday celebration on a hot night. We had dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant then came home for some bubbly and the semifreddo. It was a delightful way to end a lovely day!

And in honour of Niki, and with a slight nod to the K-pops, but mostly because White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Semifreddo is too much of a mouthful, from now on, in this house at least, it will be known as Semifreddo Gangland Style.

08
Jan
2013

Retro Food for Modern Times – Strawberry Fields Forever, Part 1

categories: Mango, Strawberries, Tarragon, Vodka

Let me take you down ‘cos I’m going to...

…my local green grocer where they are currently selling trays of strawberries for $6. My sincere apologies to John Lennon for that absolute travesty but just in case you are not utterly awestruck by this, let me reiterate. A tray of strawberries for $6. That’s 16 punnets. For $6 dollars. The world may have not ended on December 21^st but it has surely gone mad!

How do farmers make any money when the (literal) fruit of their labour is being sold off at about 40 cents a punnet?

Maybe because the week before Christmas punnets of strawberries were selling for $4 each!

I know, it’s not the farmers, it’s the wholesalers and the grocery shop owners and all the people in between who add their mark up. The farmers probably got paid the same for the $4 strawberries as they did for the 40 cent strawberries.

My joy at my bargain buy lasted until I had to carry, not only all of my regular fruit and veggies, but an additional four kilos of strawberries, from the shop to my car. By the time I reached the car (it was a hot day and I had parked some distance away from the shop to get a spot in the shade), I’d stopped thinking “I’m the best shopper in the world! ” and “I’m in berry heaven” to “What on earth am I going to do with four kilos of strawberries?” and “How can four kilos of strawberries actually weigh a ton?”.

My first task, on getting home, was to sort the strawberries – a few in each punnet were overripe and were starting to get a bit manky. The perfect ones went into a colander and the fridge for eating. We have been feasting on these all week.

The almost perfect berries went into a bag and into the freezer whole. I puréed the somewhat bruised berries and placed them in 6 containers in the freezer where they will be great for smoothies, muffins, etc later in the year. Finally, my kitchen helpers, Oscar and Lulu, were on hand to dispose of the fourth group being the few badly bruised berries that were left.

We have been eating strawberries all week – by the handful whenever we feel a bit peckish; for dessert with cream (Mark) and ice cream (me) and for breakfast with mango and vanilla yogurt:

Strawberry, Mango and Vanilla Yogurt Breakfast

I have started making a strawberry liqueur based on the link below with some tweaks inspired by other recipes, most notably, I am putting the sugar in from the start.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/homemade-strawberry-liqueur-recipe.html

I searched high and low for tarragon yesterday; I went to three greengrocers and I could not find it for love or money. I decided to use basil instead.

I was so excited about making the liqueur and trying to track down the tarragon, that I completely forgot to check the other ingredients. I knew I had strawberries, I had vodka. I was searching for tarragon. And who particularly someone who bakes regularly, doesn’t have caster sugar? Me apparently. Grrr… Such a newbie mistake!!!

So today, I ducked into the supermarket to pick up the caster sugar and found piles of tarragon. As I had another recipe for tarragon and strawberries I was aching to try, I bought a bunch and pulled the basil out of my would be liqueur and popped in the tarragon and sugar. All the sugar sank to the bottom and when I tipped it upside down to mix it in, it made these drippy pale pink stalactite type things that looked awesome! The mixture is also already a fabulous pink colour. And it’s only Day 2. Imagine Day 30.

It’s Mark’s birthday tomorrow and the temperature is set to soar. Baking in my tiny kitchen when it’s anything above 30 degrees outside is not something I relish. So, I’ve decided that he will get a White Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Semifreddo in lieu of a traditional birthday cake. I’m aiming for quirky but cool. We’ll see how that works out. I also need to get busy making it. Which means that my strawberry and tarragon salad recipe will have to wait until the next post.

On a more sombre note, and speaking of temperatures soaring, many parts of Australia are currently experiencing devastating bushfires and my heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones, homes and belongings in this tragedy and to the brave people, many of whom are volunteers, who are so valiantly fighting the fires. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

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17
May
2012

Food For Lovers – The Three Course Love Feast

categories: Apples, Bacon, Cabbage, Chicken & Poultry, Corn, Cream Cheese, Cucumber, Food For Lovers, Ginger, Sultanas, Walnuts

As a concept, Kelly Brodsky’s Food For Lovers falls on the kooky side of the spectrum. Is this echoed in the food?

Well, sort of…

There are a number of odd recipes. Many of which rely on inappropriate uses of pineapple:

Pineapple isn’t automatically an ingredient I would expect to see in a recipe entitled Braised Wine Steeped Beef. And yet, Kelly Brodsky takes it there.
The stuffing mix for the Veal with Cashew Nut Stuffing recipe on p65, contains bacon, cashew nuts, calves liver and pineapple. If mixing offal and pineapple was a good idea, surely it would be pizza by now.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s the veal scallopine sandwich:

Ok. Pineapple is the least of the problems in that recipe which actually sounds frighteningly modern. I”m sure something similar is being served in a fast food restaurant somewhere even as I write this.

Monosodium glutamate also features prominently in the recipe ingredients. As does canned asparagus.

However, Food For Lovers also contains a lot of good as well. I marked up over 30 that I would be prepared to make and I have made four, all of which were delicious!

So now, here is my Food For Lovers Three Course Love Feast.

Cucumber Stuffed With Cream Cheese

These were great!

2 large cucumbers, leave the skin on1 cup cream cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
10 chopped anchovies
1 tbsp chopped chives
Ground black pepper

Scoop out the centres of the cucumbers.

Combine the cream cheese, lemon juice and anchovies and stuff this mixture into the cucumbers.

Place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Serve sliced very thin sprinkled with the chives and black pepper on crackers or buttered crusty bread.

(Brodsky suggests serving with a dab of mayonnaise, I tried both with and without mayo and preferred it without)

Sautéed Cabbage and Bacon

1/2 head of cabbage

3 bacon rashers, chopped

1 clove or garlic chopped

Dash of lemon juice

Finely shred the cabbage and steep it for 5 minutes in boiling salted water. Whislt this is steeping, sauté the bacon. Add the cabbage and garlic. Sauté Lightly. Sprinkle with a dash of lemon juice and serve.

(Broiled) Chicken With Corn Stuffing

I always thought that broiling was what Americans call grilling. The original recipe for this cooks it in water. Maybe she meant boiled? Either way, I roasted my chicken and it was super!

4 lb chicken
1 1/2 cups dry whole wheat breacrumbs
1 cup whole corn kernels
2 tbsp butter
1 cup chopped celery
1 finely chopped green pepper (I”m not a fan of this, I used a red onion in mine)
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
Chicken Stock
I also added a clove of garlic, crushed, 1/2 a chilli and some thmye and sage leaves)

In a large pan, heat the butter and saute the celery, pepper (onion), corn, mushrooms and garlic.

Take off the heat, add the herbs and breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Moisten with chicken stock. Cool. Then spoon into the chicken.

(I actually prefer to cook my stuffing in a separate dish).

Roast as per your preferred method. If unsure, Jamie Oliver has a solid method.

Gingered Dutch Apple Cake

This was very yummy!

3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup sifted self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup stewed apples
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of lemon juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sultanas
1 tbsp chopped preserved ginger

Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Then stir in the flour a few spoonfuls at a time, alternating with the milk. Pour into an 8 inch tin.

Combine the apples, cinnamon, lemon juice, brown sugar, walnuts, sultanas and ginger. Spoon on top of the cake mixture. Bake in a 190°C oven for around 45 minutes.

Slice and serve still warm with cream.