"Happy Hue Pancakes"

HAPPY HUE PANCAKE

Hello all,

The book

First let me start by apologizing for the delay, last week was HECTIC. Also there is a change in plans on the selected recipe. I know I said I HAD to make whatever was selected; however, I was unable to find 6 of the 12 ingredients needed to make the recipe in my little town. If I substitute 1/2 of the ingredients, let’s face it... it's not the same recipe. So without further delay here is this week’s recipe, chosen by my hubby Steve:

The Book: The Songs of Sapa, stories and recipes from Vietnam

The Author: Luke Nguyen of Red Lantern Restaurant

A little info about the recipe. BAHN KHOAI is the Vietnamese name for the dish and means 'Happy Pancake', and Hue is a city in Vietnam. So you need to smile while making and eating this dish.

The Recipe:                                                                

100g dried mung beans

Vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Yummy Veggies

200 g raw school prawns

200 g boneless pork belly,

            Sliced thin

1 green oak or butter lettuce

1 bunch Perilla

1 bunch Mint

1 bunch Vietnamese Mint

1 bunch Vietnamese Fish Mint

1 Lebanese cucumber,

            Sliced thin

1 star fruit, sliced thin (optional)

1 onion, thinly sliced into rings

500 g Bean Shoots

Mung Beans

2 spring onion, sliced thin

250 g Sticky Soya Bean Sauce (pg. 331)

 Batter:

125 g cornflour (corn-starch)

75 g plain flour

½ tsp. turmeric

½ tsp. sugar

½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

Pork & Prawns

100 ml coconut milk

The Toppings

Put the dried mung beans in a bowl of water and soak 20 minutes. Then drain and steam in a saucepan with steamer.
Place a frying pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and the prawns, and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
Remove the prawns and set aside. Wipe the pan clean, and then repeat this process with the pork belly. Set aside.

To make the batter, combine the rice flour, plain flour, turmeric, salt, bicarbonate of soda, coconut milk and 400ml water. Whisk well and set aside for 10 minutes.

Wash the lettuce leaves and herbs and arrange them on a large platter.

Place a small heavy-based non-stick frying pan (about 20 cm/8 inches) over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot, add a thin layer of batter to the pan, swirling to coat the base of the pan. Add some mung beans, slices of onion then add some prawns, pork, spring onions and bean sprouts.

Fry for 2 minutes or until the base is crisp and browned. Repeat this process with the remaining batter and filling ingredients.

Fold the pancake in half to make it "smile", and eat with lettuce, perilla, mint leaves and star fruit.

Enjoy!

The Results are in:

1) Steaming mung beans is messy!
2) No Salt & Pepper while cooking the prawns or pork?? Huh... took a lot of restraint to stick to the recipe on that one. I believe in seasoning in layers!

As for substitution, I couldn't find Perilla or Vietnamese fish mint. My local produce lady suggested I add some fresh basil instead. So I did. I'm a big fan of basil anyway. Couldn't find any star fruit either but that was optional anyhow.

All in all this was a pretty simple recipe, the main thing was getting all of my "mise en place" together. (That's kitchen speak for get your shit together)... see I still got it.

Now for the good, the bad and the WTF's...
As soon as my batter hit the pan it turned BRIGHT red. Huh? That is not what's in the pictures! I'm thinking my turmeric might have been old or darker than his. Oh well it's just color, right? Also, my batter did not get all poufy and crispy-fied like the pic. I followed the recipe to the letter! This is where my theory that 'all famous chefs leave an ingredient or two out when they write a cookbook' comes in. My pancakes kinda look like I made them out of bacon... which would be awesome, but not following the recipe. Hmmm...
So strange colored batter and lack of crunch aside, we decided to eat them anyway. A girl's gotta eat! Much to my surprise they were pretty damn good. They were crisp, fresh and very light. The prawns and pork had great flavor despite the lack of S&P. Haha.Though I wish I'd had the star fruit, I think it would have cut the fattiness of the pork belly. The batter/pancake was ok, a little weird but it wasn't terrible. I would definitely make this again, but with a few tweaks to the batter.
P.S. I poked around a bit on the interwebs and found that Luke Nguyen had done this recipe on the SBS channel here in Oz, guess what the recipe was not exactly the same for the batter. Gonna have to test it out. Cheeky Bugger!!

The end Results... they look like bacon pancakes.

"Red Beans & Rice"

Well the first challenge has been eaten. Today I made Red Beans & Rice from "Delilah's Everyday Soul". I followed the recipe, which was quite difficult seeing as I usually just use recipes as "guidelines" or inspiration.

I am a Southern Girl, born and raised in Florida. I know how to make Red Beans & Rice, and the first BIG difference between what I make and this recipe was that it did NOT have the Holy Trinity in it that most Southern dishes start with. For those of you not from the south, a Holy Trinity is the combination of chopped onion, celery and green bell pepper (capsicum) that is used to start almost any slow cooked or stewed item in southern cooking. Other than that the recipe sounded pretty good and easy to make. It's mostly about stirring to keep the beans from sticking and waiting for the beans to cook. Mine took about 3 hours. I also made the Corn Bread recipe that was suggested to serve with it. I did have to make one substitution though. The recipe calls for Andouille sausage, which unfortunately is not available here and I didn't have time to make it. I substituted with Chorizo.

The results: It was quite tasty! The dish was very rich and satisfying, and I'm not sure I missed the celery or peppers. I served it with steamed white rice and the YUMMY corn bread that was suggested. Steve (my hubby) was my taste tester this evening, he was also raised in the south. He said it was really good. I think that I would have liked it to be a bit spicier, but I think you loose a bit of heat not having the Andouille sausage which is usually more spicy than the Chorizo I substituted with. Would I make it again? Totally.

I'm still looking into copyright issues and whether or not I can post someone else's published recipe. But you can google it in the mean time or stop by and borrow the book.

Steve has chosen my next Book/Recipe, and boy is it a doozy. Probably going to have to wait till next weekend as it has heaps of steps and ingredients. And the recipe is...
"Black Olive and Veal Stew Millefueille with
Basil Flavoured Piatelli Bean Puree" from the book Italy's Great Chefs and their secrets. Sounds delicious!!

The Book: Delilah's Every Day Soul
                Soulful Cooking with Style
Author: Delilah Winder
The Recipe: Red Beans & Rice, Corn Bread

So I've decided I need a new challenge. I've been collecting cookbooks from everywhere I've been, including some very strange ones left to me by my Mom, around 150 books. Some of these include Microwave cookbooks from the 80's, books from culinary school, some fabulous finds from thrift stores (from my Mother In-Law) and heaps of others that I've picked up along the way (maybe a few impulse buys from Amazon.com) and the collection is ALWAYS growing. Here's the challenge: At least 1 cookbook selected at random, and one recipe from said book selected at random from that book per week. I am not allowed to skip over or re-choose if I don't like the looks of it. I realize there will be some challenges sourcing ingredients given that I am in the middle of Oz, but I am resourceful and will work that out. Don't worry I won't be the only one tasting these creations, my hubby Steve as well as neighbours, friends & co-workers will be subject to taste testing. Pictures too!! So here goes the fun.

The challenge starts tomorrow and the first book is....

"Delilah's Everyday Soul" Southern Cooking with Style
by Delilah Winder

And the recipe is...
Red Beans & Rice

So here's where the real challenge comes in. I am for the most part a "Southern Girl". I know how to make "Red Beans & Rice", at least the way I like it, and the way my Chef training has taught me to make it. So now I'm going to follow this recipe to the letter, and do it the way "Delilah" says....
Stay tuned!