Tomato and Bamboo Shoot Soup
1 tomato, cut into 8
1 small bamboo shoot, cut into 12
5 shrimps, shelled, deveined
2 green onion, cut into 2-inches length
1 clove garlic, minced
Stri-fry tomato with garlic then add bamboo shoot in to cook for few minutes, season with fish sauce and pepper. Add water, bring to boil, add shrimp. Season with sugar fish sauce to taste. Add green onion and serve.
Tod Mun
3/4 lb fish paste
3/4 cup green bean
1 green onion
1 egg
1 T sugar, fish sauce, pepper
Vegetable oil
Mix egg, sugar, some fish sauce (just enough to season green beans), pepper into fish paste until smooth.
Thinly dice green beans and green onion crosswise (1/8 inch thick).
Mix green bean and green onion into the paste.
Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. When it's hot enough, scoop mixture with a spoon in. When the down side harden, press down the mixture to make a flat patty. Turn to cook both sides evenly (golden brown).
Serve with cucumber sauce.
Cucumber Sauce: put 1 part sugar + 1/2 part water + 1/2 part vinegar in a small sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolved and the sauce thicken as syrup. Cool off.
Peel 1/2 cucumber and remove seeds, dice into small cubes.
Pour sauce over cucumber and refrigerate until serve. Top with some crushed roasted peanut when served.
Snap Peas and Beef Stir-fry
2 cups sugar snap peas
1 piece beef filet
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 T oyster sauce
Vegetable oil, soy sauce, fresh ground pepper
Snap the top of the sugar pea's pod off and pull down to remove the strings from both seams. Rinse peas throroughly.
Slice beef.
Heat some oil in a pan over medium high heat, add garlic and stir until fragrant, add beef and stir-fry until it turns color. Add a dash of soy sauce and pepper, stir. Add peas, oyster sauce, stir to cook for 2 minutes (It won't take long to cook snap peas). Season with some soy sauce to taste if desired, sprinkle some fresh ground pepper. Serve.
Stuffed Hairy Gourd Soup
1/2 small hairy gourd
8 shrimps, shelled, deveined, minced
2 sprigs cilantro, 1 green onion
Salt and pepper
Season minced shrimp with salt and pepper.
Peel and cut gourd into 6 rings, scoop out the seeds from the rings, stuff with shrimp paste.
Put the stuffed rings into a small sauce pan, cover enough water, bring to boil over medium high heat. Clean foam that rises. Reduce heat and let it cook until the gourd is soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Add chopped green onion and garnish with some cilantro, serve.
Fish Cake Noodle Soup
1 lb fish paste
1/4 lb shrimp paste
2 eggs
4 bamboo shoots (small)
3 tomatoes
1/2 pineapple
3 lbs pork neck bones
2 blue crabs or 1 fish head
1 bunch water dropwort (rau cần nước)
1 T red hot chili oil
Garlic, shallot, green onion, cilantro
Vegetable oil, salt, pepper, fish sauce, sugar
Place pork bones, blue crabs (or fish head if you are fish lover) and 3 shallots in large pot, add water, bring to a boil over high heat, skim off foam, lower the heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add some salt and strain broth.
Fish Ball: 3/4 lb fish paste + 1/2 T sugar + 2 crushed green onions (just the white heads) + 1 egg white + 1 t fish sauce + pepper. Mix until smooth. Pluck a small piece of the paste and form the mixtures into balls, smooth them with oil. Deep fry.
Fish Cake: 1/4 lb fish paste + 1/4 lb shrimp paste + 1 egg white + 1 t cornstarch + 1 minced garlic + fish sauce, sugar and pepper to taste. Mix until smooth. Line some oil in a small baking pan, add this mixture in (1/2 inch thick) and steam for 10-15 minutes, remove. Beat 2 egg yolks evenly and pour on top of fish cake, bring back to steam for 5-10 more minutes.
Tomato: cut into 8 lengthwise
Bamboo Shoot: cut into 12 lengthwise
Pineapple: Slice 1/2 pineapple into 4 pieces lengthwise, remove core strip on top, slice into 1/2-1/3 inch pieces.
Stir fry bamboo shoot and pineapple with some garlic and season with some fish sauce and pepper. Add into the broth. Add fish balls into the broth. Bring to boil.
Stir fry tomato with some garlic and add into the broth. Add 1 T red hot chili oil.
Season the soup with salt, sugar, fish sauce, pepper to taste.
Put noodle in a bowl, top with a piece of fish cake, some water dropwort, ladle soup on top with tomato, bambooshoot, pineapple, fish balls. Top with chopped green onion and cilantro.
Option: a side dish of water dropwort, sliced shallot (raw), and green onion (white head).
Shaking Beef Rice Dish
1 lb beef filet mignon or tenderloin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion
3 cups cooked rice
1 T ketchup
Vegetable oil, butter, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper
Dice beef into small bite size, marinate with 2/3 minced garlic, 1/2 t sea salt, some thick soy sauce, sugar, pepper and oil.
Red Rice: Heat 1 T oil in a pan over medium high heat, add 1/3 minced garlic in and stir-fry until fragrant. Add cooked rice in and stir, add ketchup, mix evenly, season with soy sauce, sugar and pepper to taste.
Luk Lak Beef: Use a thick bottom pan, heat 1 T oil and some butter over high heat. When it's hot (but not smoking hot), add beef in, you can do 1/2 batch at a time. Make sure all the beef touch the bottom of the pan. Leave for 1-2 minutes until it's lightly burn. Turn or shake to cook all the sides, add onion to cook. Serve with red rice. Option: Some prefer to add 1/2 T oyster sauce in the beef when adding onion to serve with rice dish. Don't add oyster sauce when you serve this beef alone.
