Cookbook club - February - Good Morning Vietnam

[Catinthecorner]

Back up and running the cook book club. This month it’s Vietnamese cooking from any book/website you fancy with a general focus on Mai Pham’s recipes from New flavours of the Vietnamese Table.

A couple of links to get us started (shamelessly stolen from the previous thread)

Recommended Blogs:

www.theravenouscouple.com/

www.uyenluu.com/recipes/

Recommended Recipes:

ww.epicurious.com/contributors/mai-pham

shadowcook.com/2008/03/10/mai-pham-ginger-lime-dipping-sauce-and-warm-beef-on-cool-noodles/

www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pad-see-yew

[HairsprayBabe]

Place marking!

[Taffeta]

My copy has just arrived!!

[Pantah630]

Signing in, waiting on one book but can get on
with the JO. It's good to be back in cookbook club

[Taffeta]

Cat - do we need to mention Jamie Oliver Super Food Family Classics in the title as well?

[Catinthecorner]

Yes sorry. Do we want that one specifically or shall we say Vietnamese/Jamie Oliver in general?

[worriedaboutchristmas]

I'm sooo excited about Vietnamese cooking this month- I'm going to try 3 phos and compare the best- it's dhs absolute favourite.

And I've wanted to replicate a Banh mi since I went to Saigon- I'm sure I can't quite make it the same, but I'm ready to try

I'd say that jo family classics/ jo online as jo general will lead to people cooking from a collection of 20+ potentially different books!

[moochypooch]

Joining in again.
Mexican Refried Beans and the Roast Chicken Tikka on the menu this week from JO online.
Vietnamese looks great but dcs are less keen, will try a few recipes from online next week.

[KnottedAnchorChief]

Oh I’d like to be in this too! I’ve never tried to make Vietnamese before. Ordered the older book Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table today (I like pictures!)

[KoalasAteMyHomework]

Yes agree we should narrow JO a bit - originally we said superfood family classics so think that or similar. Happy to go with general consensus though.

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

I’ll be making Sizzling Saigon Crepes at the weekend, can’t wait to try them. There’s loads in the book I want to have a go at though so could change my mind!

[Taffeta]

I have a DC allergic to prawns so have ruled out quite a few Mai Pham recipes. I’m interested in:
Stir fried chicken with lemongrass and chillis
Barbecued five spice chicken
Fish with fresh tomato sauce
Steamed sea bass with ginger soy & spring onions

[glorious]

Checking in. Books haven’t arrived yet so I’ll see if any of the recipes on the links appeal

[PrivateParkin]

Checking in - looking forward to this!

[PrivateParkin]

Oops pressed post too soon. I'll probably end up doing JO superfood family classics rather than Vietnamese, sadly. Thanks for starting this thread and all the links Cat

[indio32]

I think it would be good to be as general as possible with the books. I have a couple of Vietnamese cookbooks but not the one mentioned above. To be honest I don't really want to buy it just for this besides it would be good to compare various recipes.

[HairsprayBabe]

So for Vietnamese cooking this month I will be attempting something tofu and aubergine based,

Have found the following and will work out wich looks most like a meal!

www.uyenluu.com/recipe/aubergine-hotness/
40aprons.com/lemongrass-tofu/ - with cauliflower rice
www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/lemongrass-curry-with-broccoli-and-tofu
thewanderlustkitchen.com/vegan-bun-chay-vietnamese-noodle-salad/
linsfood.com/vegan-vietnamese-tofu-and-eggplant/
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/soy-lime-dipping-sauce-105524

P.S this is EXTRA tricky when trying to find lowish carb veggie stuff

Will have a look at the Jamie Recipes in the 2nd half of the month.

[incywincybitofa]

I find JO difficult to take so I shall stick to the Vietnamese theme for this one.
But I am looking forward to joining in

[FeedingFrenzy5]

Hi all, so here's a list of my favourite recipes from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table (Mai Pham). I'll put the vietnamese names too so that people who don't have the book can google for similar recipes...

chicken/beef pho - really delicious, especially if you can get lots of different herbs for topping. I like it with brown rice noodles.
rice soup with chicken and ginger (chao ga) - this is comfort food really. If you can buy some deep fried dough stick from chinatown (they look like savoury churros), they are really tasty sliced on top.
vietnamese spring rolls (cha gio) - these are super delicious, but lots of work. Definitely a weekend kind of meal.
sizzling saigon crepes (banh xeo) - I love these, but I find them hard to get right in terms of getting the right consistency and not too oily. Ottolenghi has a vegetarian version in Plenty.
hanoi rice noodles with grilled pork (bun cha Hanoi)
chicken curry with sweet potatoes (ca ri ga) - tasty and easy.
beef stew with star anise and basil (thit bo kho) - don't worry about the anatto seeds, I don't think they make a difference.

Hope that helps, looking forward to hearing about what everybody makes!

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

feeding I’m planning on making the crepes but have read online reviews saying the consistency is difficult -any advice? My second choice was the rice noodles with grilled pork so might have the ingredients for that on standby just in case!

[HairsprayBabe]

So I did the 40aprons recipe tonight, I added sesame seeds and had it on a bed of stirfried swiss chard, cabbage and asaparagus with the left over tofu marinade.

I am really bad at exactly following recipes because I like to chuck extra ingredients as I go e.g. sesame seeds!

It was really very nice though! And I am going to do my best to fully stick to the recipie for the aubergine dishes!

[Tuareg]

How do you post images?

[FeedingFrenzy5]

EnglishGirl - try a few, and if you can't get them to stay together you could try adding an egg to your batter. Both the Ottolenghi and Rick Stein recipes I have for these use egg in the batter, which I think makes them behave more like regular pancakes. I'm sure there's a trick to getting them to work the traditional way but I'm not sure what it is!

[FeedingFrenzy5]

P.s. Rick Stein's batter recipe is this: 100g rice flour, 2 eggs, 175ml coconut milk, 1/2tsp each of turmeric, sugar, salt.

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

Thanks feeding

[HairsprayBabe]

@Tuareg

If you are on desktop then there is a choose file button under the text box.

If you are on mobile there is a little paperclip icon you can press to attach images!