May 21, 2011

Vietnamese Spring Roll recipe from Le Meridien KL

Last Monday I took a day off to take advantage of the Tuesday holiday for a pro-longed weekends (man I can get used of that 3 day work week) and attended a cooking demo at Le Meridien KL.

It was part of the “Experience Vietnam” promotion at Latest Recipe that runs from 16-22 May, 2011. Three chefs from Sheraton Saigon  - Chef Tran Cong Tien, Chef Nguyen Thi Duy and Chef Bui Van Tien Dong flew all the way here to KL to infuse the restaurant with some true blue (or red?) Vietnamese cuisine, and of course, to share a few recipe with us.

yes, these are real Vietnamese ladies too.

I’ve always been a fan of Vietnamese food ever since the university days in the States, and having traveled to Saigon for 9 times over the last 7-8 years or so, this brand of South East Asian cuisine isn’t exactly very foreign for me.

Yet, this is the first time I learn how to make a real Vietnamese Sping roll. It turned out to be really simple, you can source all the ingredients locally and make yourself some authentic Vietnamese spring rolls too!

making a vietnamese spring roll

Here’s the ingredients to make 20 spring rolls:

• 20 pieces of rice papers
• 80 grams of lettuce
• 25 grams of your favourite Vietnamese herbs (basil and chives usually)
• 70 grams of carrot, sliced in strips
• 200 grams of fresh rice vermicelli (they use the thick version, i think mee hun might work too?)
• 20 pieces of blanched prawns, peeled & halved

Then the ingredients for dipping sauce

• 50 grams of tamarind pulp
• 50 ml of hot water
• 40 grams of dried mung bean
• 60 ml of tepid water
• 200 grams of preserved soya bean
• 50 ml of corn oil (or any cooking oil)
• 10 grams of chopped garlic
• 60 grams of sugar

Kim and I got our hands dirty, and our cooking skills upgraded

The steps in making the Vietnamese spring roll is surprisingly easy:

• wet the rice paper on one side with hand, but careful not to drench it
• apply a piece of lettuce, then 2 basil leaves, a few strips of carrot, then some noodle
• next fold the rice paper from both sides, then roll up from bottom until you just cover the ingredients
• at this point put 2 pieces of shrimp on top, a piece of chives, and continue to roll the spring roll till complete

The last step separated out for mainly aesthetic purposes, so you can clearly see the shrimps through the translucent rice paper. Brilliant, I always wonder how they made it that way. Now I know.

chef Tran Cong Tien and team making Bo La Lot (beef in fragrant leaves)

While you can consume the spring roll as is, they are best served with the soya bean dipping sauce, and here’s how you make them:

• Stir in tamarind pulp in 50 ml of hot water, then strain through a fine sieve and set aside.
• Steam the mung beans with 60 ml of water for about 20 minutes then blend together with the steaming water to form smooth paste. Set aside.
• Blend the soya bean into a smooth paste. Set aside.
• Next, heat up the oil in a pan, sautee the garlics till golden and throw in tamarind pulp paste, mung beans paste and soya bean paste. Stir till combined.
• Simmer for 10 minutes till mixture thickens.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool down before storing in fridge. This dipping sauce can be kept for up to a week

Cheo Troai Noouc (the dessert), Haze, Chef Antoine, Ciki

The good chefs from Vietnam also taught us how to make one of the most iconic Vietnamese food – Bo La Lot (grilled beef in fragrant leaves), and the dessert by the name of Cheo Troai Noouc (sticky rice dumpling with green bean filling and ginger syrup). I didn’t get a chance to try how to make those, but perhaps one day!

Address:
Le Meridien
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7888

On an unrelated note, there’s a great deal over at MilkADeal that shouldn’t be missed! Xiao Fei Yang steamboat for RM 40 instead of RM 107.80 and good for 4 pax to enjoy!

The deal includes a dry pot of fish ball, pork intestines, deep fried pig skin, pig stomach, fried fish maw, foo chuk, vegetables + 4 boiled rice. You can check out my review of Xiao Fei Yang at the Pudu branch. This deal is for their newer Damansara Utama branch. Head over to check out the deal and grab it before it expires on midnight of 25 May, 2011!

Address:
No:40G & 42G, Jalan SS21/62,
Damansara Utama, Kuala Lumpur

December 28, 2010

Fried Okra & Xmas Eve Potluck at Suan’s

Ladies and gentlemen, today yours truly don on chef’s hat and pretend that I know something about cooking. The recipe you are about to read comes from the Southern part of the country that likes to police the world. Yes, that would be U S of A.

We are going to learn about fried okra, on of my all time favorite beer food that isn’t served in any restaurant this side of Pacific.

fried okra ingredients – okra, pepper, salt, egg, milk

First, the ingredients, and they are fairly simple:

• okra (or lady finger, if you prefer)
• half a cup of milk
• one egg
• a cup of corn flour
• a tea spoon of salt
• pepper to taste
• other spices optional (be imaginative, if you would)

fried okra makes for awesome beer food

Then, the steps, this is child’s play in terms of cooking, no post graduate degree in culinary field is required:

• slice or chop okra into bite size
• beat the egg, milk, salt, pepper, and corn flour in a mixing bowl till even
• coat the okra
• fry till golden brown
• serve while hot!

This is one yummy snack that goes very well with cold beer, Kilkenny, Heineken, Guinness, anything! I brought this as my contribution to Suan’s xmas eve potluck, and was happy that it was well received. Even master chef Lance liked it, and that is plenty good for me

mimi bacon pizza by Haze

Haze came up with this concoction that she called mini bacon pizza. The ingredient’s pretty straight forward:

• bread
• bacon (as many slice as you have bread
• pasta sauce (tomato base)
• mozzarella  cheese
• oregano spice

Steps:

• flatten the bread (she had somehow forgotten this part then…)
• spread pasta sauce on bread, then add cheese and oregano
• carefully lay a strip of that precious bacon on top
• roll everything up and hold it with a toothpick
• fry till golden brown (for the health freaks, you can also bake them)

The result certainly did not disappoint either, I liked it a lot too!

clam chowder (Lance), bacon pasta (Suan), roast chicken (Kim), sausage (Horng)

Lance brought a pot of clam chowder that had uses some sort of bacon stock, it was by far the best clam chowder I’ve ever had! You can actually order it at bbq-addicts.com, I guarantee that you’ll be 100% satisfied!

Suan cooked up some bacon carbonara that turned out to be the best pasta she’s ever made, Kim too roasted a chicken, very juicy, and tasted plenty awesome right out of her new oven! Horng made some sort of east-meet-west sausage for the potluck.

xmas eve party at Suanie’s crib

The little get-together over xmas eve turned out to be a very gastronomically satisfying event. We had a little bit to drink (there’ll be plenty more for NYE in a few days’ time at Michael’s), and spent the night reliving the old tradition of watching Euro Trip all over again.

So how was your xmas?