Foot and Fire

By GERLIE M. UY The first fried batch of Lumpia Hanoi 300 g vermicelli 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 onion, chopped 1 canned tuna (about 300g) 1 can green peas 2 potatoes, chopped black pepper soy sauce lumpia wrapper canola oil Sauce: Fish Sauce Calamansi / other citrus chili Place in a bowl the vermicelli. Add hot water and soak until cooked through. Drain. Mix the remaining first 7 ingredients. Wrap in a lumpia wrapper. Heat oil and deep fry. For the sauce, mix all ingredients. Check out other Sauce s here. chopped potatoes solid in water canned tuna Vermicelli, already cooked through The mixture before wrapping The modified Vietnamese Nouc Mam as the original recipe calls for lime juice while I used Calamnsi here.

By GERLIE M. UY (FYI: In my Beijing trip, I learned that this is a lucky cabbage for the Chinese and they make jade and gold sculptures of this)  Two heads of Chinese Cabbage 3 medium pieces sweet potatoes or potatoes 1 can tuna (solid in water) salt and pepper to taste Some toothpicks How to: Prepare the Chinese Cabbage by remove 1/4 of an inch from the ends. Separate and wash each leaf. Save the smaller leaves for other recipes. Can yield 12 pieces for each head. Boil the sweet potatoes. Peel and mash. Put the mashed potatoes in a bowl, add the tuna (include the water). Season to taste. Form the mixture into balls. Since we just love cabbages, I use the whole leaf to cover the ball of potato and tuna. You may opted to cut them into half. Secure the wraps with toothpicks. Steam for five minutes. Remove the toothpicks and serve as appetizer or side dish. For dipping sauce, I used dalanghita. Any citrus will do. Fish Sauce 2 pieces long chili (jalapeno) See my previous post of...

By GERLIE M. UY The Banh Xeo served with the ever salivating Nouc Cham... PANCAKE: 200 g Banh Xeo 1 T turmeric powder 250 ml evaporated milk 200 ml water (Or coconut thin milk, as per package instruction) Small amount of oil FILLINGS: 1 T canola oil 1 pc. carrot, cut into strips 1/2 sayote, cut into strips 10 pcs Baguio beans, cut into slant strips 1 small head cabbage, cut into strips ground pepper SAUCE Nouc cham sauce (fish sauce and calamansi) In a deep bowl, put the Banh Xeo and cumin powder. Slowly add the milk and water until dissolved and there are no lumps. Set aside and leave oil for later. In a pan, stir-fry the vegetables, add ground pepper. Set aside. Heat a non-stick Teflon pan, put about 1/4 cup. Cover for about 30 seconds and place a small amount of oil around the edges. Place stir-fried fillings. Fold the pancake half-way to cover the fillings. Remove from pan and lay on a plate. Roll pancake before serving. Serve immediately with Fish and Calamansi sauce (Nouc Cham) ...

This is one of the dishes we cooked up at the Saigon Culinary Art Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lotus stem is tasteless, aroma-less but super crunchy; perfect for salad. Since this recipe called for pork and shrimps, I omitted these two. In the following recipe, I shall include pork and shrimp for your perusal. Marinade 1 T lemon juice 2 T sugar 2 T white vinegar 2 T fish sauce (patis or nuoc mam cham) A pinch of salt and pepper 180g Lotus stem (cucumber, carrots, green papaya, cabbage or turnip may be used)  100 g pork tenderloin 100 g shrimp 10g celery 20 g carrots Garnishing 1 big chili 1 chili flower 5g knot weed (may use sweet basil) 5-7 g mint leaves 1/2 T fried peanuts 1/2 T fried shallots (may use onions) Preparation MARINADE: Mix all marinade ingredients except fish sauce, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely. VEGETABLES: Cut in julienne the lotus stem, carrot and big chili. Cut celery in 1-2 cm length. PORK: Prepare pork by boiling it over medium h...

Cabbage and Radish in Vietnamese Dressing By GERLIE M. UY <p><p><br><br><br><br>VVVV</p></p> If hunger is the mother of kitchen inventions, then variety is the twin of kitchen creativity!!!  This is proven by another way of serving the ever favorite radish salad: cut rounded and thinly and served with tomatoes and onions in vinegar and salt dressing. It was quite a surprise when I served the shredded radish with shredded cabbage and as dressing used the Fish Sauce and Calamansi sauce or the NOUC MAM CHAM or NOUC CHAM the sauce I have featured here earlier fo...

By GERLIE M. UY Summer rolls halved for presentation and served here with the two dips 250 g Vermicelli, rice or mung beans hot water 25 Rice papers Cold or warm water 100 g. boiled or steamed beef/pork/chicken cut into strips           (for my recipe, I used boiled beef) Also, shrimp, crab or fleshy fish may be used 1 medium turnip or singkamas, cut into strips of desired thickness 1 medium to large carrot, cut into strips of desired thickness and blanched, if preferred 1 young cucumber, peeled or unpeeled, cut into cut into strips of desired thickness 1 head of lettuce of any kind, cut into 1/2 inch-wide strips Place Vermicelli in a big bowl, put hot water all noodles are covered. Wait until the noodle is cooked. Add more water if necessary and just drain if the noodles are already are tender but not overcooked. Set aside the drained noodles. Half-fill a big bowl with warm water (some suggests cold water but I tried the warm on this one; no...