Canh Nghêu Nấu Mướp và Lá Quế (Clam with Sing Kwa and Basil Soup)

Ingredients:
-1/2 lb manila clams
-1 large sing kwa or zucchini
-1/2 large onion
-1/2 bunch each: basil and cilantro
-1 green onion
-2 cloves garlic
-2 thai chilies (optional)
-1 tbs fish sauce
-salt and sugar to taste
-water

What to Do:
Wash clams, cut onion into wedges. Peel sing kwa and cut into bite size pieces. Crush and mince garlic, chillies and green onion. Roughly chop basil and cilantro. In a large pot heat 1/2 tsp oil. Add garlic, chillies, and onions and stir fry until fragrant, add clams, fish sauce and water (enough water to cover the surface of clams by 3-4 inches). Boil over high heat until clams begin to open up, add sing kwa and onions. Bring mixture to a full boil, skim surface and add salt and sugar to taste. Turn off the heat and add in cilantro and basil. Serve with noodles, or rice.

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Bún Mọc Thang (Chicken and Pork Noodles)

This dish is the result of marrying Bún Mọc with Bún Thang, thus the name Bún Mọc Thang. Both Bún Mọc and Bún Thang are noodle soups from Northern Vietnam. Bún Mọc Thang was conceived and given birth to in Seattle, by yours truly :D. So....technically, Bún Mọc Thang is an American dish...after all it's created in America by an American. LOL

Ingredients:
-1 chicken
-3 eggs
-4 shitake mushrooms
-1lb vietnamese ham (chả lụa)
-1lb pork meat paste (uncooked chả lua aka giò sống, mọc)
-5 woodear mushrooms
-1/2 bundle cellophane noodles
-shredded ong choy (rau muống, can replace with celery)
-thai chillies, lime
-salt, sugar, pepper
-onion, green onion, cilantro
-rice vermicelli
-rau răm herb

What to Do:
Hydrate shitake and woodear mushrooms in water, remove their stems and slice thinly. Boil together chicken, shitake mushrooms, and one roasted onion to make broth, add salt and sugar to taste. Remove chicken once it's cooked and shred the chicken meat. While the chicken is cooking.... Cut onions into thin slices, finely chop cilantro, rau răm and green onions (to be used as garnish). Cut chả lụa into matchstick size pieces. Beat eggs and use a nonstick pan to fry thin egg sheets. Roll the sheets into a log and cut into thin slices (so you'll get thins strips of eggs). Cut cellophane noodles into shorter pieces. Mix together pork meat paste, chopped woodear mushrooms and cellophane noodles, divide mixture into 2 portions. Fry on portion cut into thin slices (mọc chiên). Drop tsps of the remaining mixture into the broth to cook (mọc luộc). Cook vermicelli according to package instructions.

To Serve:
Vermicelli goes in the bowl first. Followed by shredded chicken, egg strips, matchstick size pieces of chả lụa, fried meat paste (mọc chiên), boiled meat paste (mọc luộc). Ladle in hot broth and garnish with onion slices, chipped onion, rau răm and cilantro. Serve with shredded ong choy, chillies and lime.

FYI, Difference between Bún Mọc and Bún Thang:
Bún Mọc:
Broth is made with pork bones, "meat choice" is limited to only chả lụa, mọc chiên and mọc luộc.

Bún Thang:
Broth is made with chicken, "meat choice" includes only shredded chicken, eggs strips and chả lụa.

**Both bún mọc and bún thang have the same garnish and are served with rice vermicelli, shredded ong choy, chillies and lime.

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Bánh Mì Ngọt Nhân Xoài và Phô Mai (Mango and Cream Cheese Bun)

To make this, you start out off with 2 ripe mangos and make a mango purée. The mango purée is then used in the sweet bread dough and the filling.

Mango Purée:
-2 large ripe mangos
-1/2 tsp lemon/lime juice

*Blend mango flesh and juice in a blender until smooth, run the mixture through a sieve and discard and fibers left in the sieve.

For the Bread Dough:
-50g sugar
-170g warm milk
-170g mango puree
-1 tbs yeast
-130g butter (salted at room temperature)
-390g bread flour
-150g all purpose flour
-egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbs milk)

* In a large bowl, mix together sugar, yeast and milk, let stand for 15 mins and add in mango puree. Add yeast mixture to flours and knead to form a smooth dough, add butter and knead another 10 mins. Prove until doubled, punch down prove again until dough is 1 3/4 it’s original size.

Mango and Cream Cheese Filling:
-200g cream cheese
-1 egg
-2 tbs corn starch
-mango Purée

*Cream together cream cheese, egg and corn starch until smooth. Gradually add in leftover mango puree until texture of the filling resembles whipped cream.

What to Do:
After the dough has risen a second time. Divide dough into 12 portions. Fill a pastry bag with the mango filling. Take a piece of dough, slightly fatten and wrap it around the tip of the pastry bag. Squeeze the pastry bag to "fill" the dough with about 1 tbs of filling. Gently remove the dough from the pastry tip and pinch the edges to seal in the filling. Allow the buns to rise until doubled. Brush loafs with egg wash and pipe the leftover mango filling (if you still have some) on top of the buns into whatever designs you wish. Bake at 400’F for about 10 mins., reduce heat to 350’F and bake until golden.

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Đồ Biển Xào Cay (Spicy Seafood Stirfry)

Ingredients:
-1lb seafood (your choice)
-1 jalapeno pepper (as much or as little as you like)
-1 tbs mince crab sauce
-1 large bell pepper
-cilantro, basil (the more the merrier)
-3 cloves garlic
-salt and sugar to taste

What to Do:
Clean and prep seafood. Mince garlic, cut jalapeno into thin strips. Cut bell peppers into bite size pieces. Chop cilantro and basil into 1" pieces. Heat 1 tbs oil in a wok, fry garlic until fragrant. Add seafood and crab sauce, stir fry for approx. a min. and add in peppers. Continue to stir fry over high heat until seafood is cooked. Add salt and sugar to taste. Remove from heat and mix in cilantro and basil.

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Dâu Ua/Sữa Chua (Vietnamese Yogurt)

This treat definitely represents the touch of French influence in Vietnamese treats. Like any yogurt, to make this you need a starter which is really just plain yogurt. However, unlike most yogurts which are usually made with fresh milk, Vietnamese yogurt differs in the fact that it is made with sweeten condensed milk. Although fresh milk will work just fine in this recipe, the sweetened condensed milk is what gives Vietnamese yogurt its "Vietnameseness". This is a traditional recipe. By that I mean the fermentation process does not require a yogurt maker.

Ingredients:
-1 can sweetened condense milk
-1 can boiling water (measured using the milk can)
-2 cans cooled boiled or filtered water (measured using milk can)
-1/2 cup yogurt (Starter)
-wash and dried baby food jars (or any container you may have)
-boiling water
-large container with a lid

What to Do:
Empty milk into a large bowl and stir in boiling water until milk is dissolved. Stir in the cooled water and the yogurt goes in last. Stir well and fill mixture into baby food jars, and close them with a lid. Arrange yogurt jars into a "container" (container should be large enough so that the yogurt jars can fit in one layer). Pour boiling water over the jars until the water level comes up to right around the lid of the jars but not covering the jars. Place lid on container tightly and leave to ferment overnight...you'll have fresh yogurt in the morning.

Note:
Preferably use Vietnamese yogurt which buy at most Viet delis as your starter. If you don't live by one...just use plain yogurt from the supermarket...but remember to read the label and buy the most natural yogurt you can find. After the yogurt ferments you save a jar to use as a starter for your next batch.

Reference:
Madam Nguyễn Thị Hường (Gia Chánh Hoa Hường/Rose School of Home Economics)

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Bánh Bông Lan Cuốn (Swiss Roll)

To make this treat... follow the recipe for spongefon cake, using the jelly roll method (bottom of recipe).

To get the decorative strips on the cake: after making the cake batter, remove about 3 tbs of batter and mix in some food coloring. Pour the rest of the batter into a jelly roll pan. Fill a sandwich bag with the colored batter and cut a small hole in the bag. Pipe the colored batter into long strips on top of the batter already in the ban. Use a knife or toothpick to "drag" the lines together to create the pattern (if the colored batter is piped on horizontally then drag the toothpick vertically). Bake and fill/assemble as you would for any jelly roll.

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Bánh Hoa Hồng (Rose Dumplings)

"Pastry" Shell:
-1 cup wheat starch
-2/3 cup rice flour
-1 cup boiling water
-2 tbs oil

*Mix flours together and stir in boiling water. Let dough rest until cool enough to handle and knead in oil to make a smooth dough. Divide into 12 portions.

Filling:
-1/2lb ground pork
-1 carrot
-1/2 onion
-2 shitake mushrooms
-cilantro
-1/2 tsp each: salt, pepper
-1 tsp each: soy sauce, sugar
-2 cloves of garlic
-few slices xá xíu (chinese bbq pork "cha siu", optional)

*Dice carrot, onion and bbq pork. Soak mushrooms in water for a few hours to hydrate and cut into thin slices. Mince garlic and cilantro, mix everything together and divide into 12 portions.

What to Do:
Flatten the wrappers and wrap the filling. Use a rose dumpling tweezer to pinch the dough to form petals (can use you fingers if you don't have the tool). Steam dumplings over high heat for about 15-20 mins, lifting the lid of the steamer every 5 mins to release excess steam. Serve with fish sauce.

Rose Dumpling "Tweezer"

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