Vietnamese Chicken Salad
Ingredients (for 10 serves)
- A whole chicken (1kg)
- 100ml fresh lemon juice
- 4 lemon leaves, un-chopped
- 1 tsp finely chopped lemon leaves
- 1 tbs garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbs fish sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbs brown sugar
- 2 onions, trimmed, cut into thin slices of 1cm
- 1 cup fresh Vietnamese mint leaves
- 1 tbs canola oil
Directions
- Place the chicken in a big pot. Add some un-chopped lemon leaves. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the chicken Bring to a boil, then reduce heat until the chicken is well-cooked. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and discard the lemon leaves, set aside.
- Finely shred chicken in a large bowl. Mix the shredded chicken with onions, Vietnamese mint leaves and finely-chopped lemon leaves.
- Add salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice into the mixture and toss together. Leave in the room temperature for around 10 minutes. Serve with rice.
Vietnamese Stew Beef (Bo` Kho)
Ingredients (For 10 serves)
1.5 kg gravy beef or beef chuck steak
5 carrots, cut into chunks
4 tomatoes, cut into quarters
4 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 liters of water
3 lemon grass stalks, bruised the white part
10g five spices powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp minced ginger
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tsp oil
3 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp salt
Bo Kho powder seasoning (can be found in Asian groceries in Footscray market)
coriander
Vietnamese basil leaves
Directions
1. Cut the beef in chunks 1½ -inch chunks. In a large bowl, marinate the beef with Bo Kho powder seasoning, fish sauce, salt, sugar, Chinese 5 spices, ginger, garlic, brown onion, ginger, lemon grass. Mix well to evenly coat the beef and set aside for 30 minutes (can cover and refrigerate).
2. Stir-fry the marinated beef until the beef begins to brown on all sides.
3. Add enough water to cover the surface of the mixture and Simmer it for around 10 minutes.
4. Add carrots, tomatoes and enough water to dilute the mixture.
5. Cook the soup on medium heat until the beef is tender and flavors have married, approximately an hour and a half.
6. Right before serving, do a final taste test. Add salt or fish sauce to intensify the overall flavor, or add a bit of water to lighten the broth
7. Put chopped coriander and basil leaves on top.
Bo Kho is traditionally eaten with a freshly toasted baguette, but you can have it with noodle or rice.