Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup - The Shortcut Way

My family loves to eat Vietnamese beef noodles.  In fact, we are big fans of Vietnamese food.  Read about our two trips to HCM and the delicious food we had.  

A weekend in HCM Part 1

A weekend in HCM Part 2

A Weekend in Ho Chi Minh - Part II

Photo take from http://blog.my.88db.com/

I can eat Vietnamese food every day!

There's something about a cuisine that features such prominent use of fresh herbs, minimal use of oil and heavy reliance on fresh ingredients.  Vietnamese food is considered one of the healthiest cuisine in the world.

Vietnamese Prawn Rolls

Making your own Vietnamese Prawn Rolls is simple and easy.  There is a fair bit of preparation, but the recipe is actually very easy and fuss free.  If you are gonna be serving this for several adult size portions, then it makes sense to make your own as the ingredients are very cheap (except the prawns I suppose!) and most of the ingredients can be kept for several days and be used for other types of meals. 

Instead of just plain cooked prawns, I cooked the prawns and toss them in a chili lime dressing to them a zesty flavour that complements the rolls very well.

Curtis Stone's Chili Lime Prawns - recipe HERE

I also used some homemade pickles - comprising julienned carrots, radish and cucumber - in the rolls to give it that added tang and crunch.  You can substitute this with plain strips of the same vegetables.

Simple homemade pickle

Vietnamese Prawn Rolls

• 300g jumbo cooked prawns, sliced crosswise, recipe HERE
• 6 pieces of dried rice sheets
• 1/4 cup of homemade pickle, recipe HERE or substitute with shredded cucumber, carrot and radish
• Handful of fresh mint leaves
• Lettuce pieces

Dipping sauce

• 2 tbspn fish sauce
• 2 tbspn lime juice
• 2 tbspn of brown sugar
• Toasted sesame seeds and crushed peanuts

 
1.  Dip the rice sheets in a bowl of warm water until softened.

2.  Assemble two pieces of prawns, some pickle or shredded vegetables, mint leaves and lettuce and roll the sheet to wrap it tightly.  Slice each roll diagonally before serving with the dressing.

 

 

 

Love all kinds of rolls?  Here are two other recipes for you to try :-)

 

Cold Lettuce Rolls - the most popular recipe on my blog!

 

Vietnamese Chicken and Lemongrass Roll

 

 





Tamarind and Lemongrass Ribs

After seeing Mich's mouth watering tamarind prawns post, I was very eager to try, using some spare ribs I had in the freezer.

Vietnamese Rice Rolls with Lemongrass Chicken

 

My post on Cold Lettuce Rolls is by far the most popular in my blog.  Maybe because of the ease in preparation, the fun in assembling and the prettiness of the whole thing :)

 

So now let me present to you Version Number Two - a Vietnam-inspired rice rolls wrapped with fragrant lemongrass chicken strips and paired with creamy avocado, cucumber and fresh mint leaves. Very yummy.

 

Whilst i like to think of Version One as a more homemade, Malaysian style roll with sweet pork mince, this Viet version is bursting with the fresh flavours of lemongrass and mint.   There really is no need for any dipping sauce as the chicken meat is well seasoned, but if you are a die hard sauce fan, then feel free to serve it with some sweet Thai chilli sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vietnamese Rice Rolls with Lemongrass Chicken

 

• 400g chicken thigh fillet, sliced into very thin short strips, sbout 1 inch length
• 1 packet of dried rice roll sheets
• 1/2 a cucumber, julienned
• 1/2 head of romaine or iceberg lettuce, rinsed and the leaves cut into thin strips/chiffonaded
• 1/3 carrot, julienned
• 2 cups of fresh mint leaves, rinsed
• 2 avocadoes, pitted and cut into slices

 

Marinade for the chicken meat

• Lemongrass paste (see below on instructions to make lemongrass paste)
• 3 tbspn sugar
• 2 tbspn fish sauce
• 1/2 tbspn soy sauce
• 1 tbspn oyster sauce
• Generous dash of white pepper

Lemongrass paste

• 3 stalks of lemongrass, white part only, roughly chopped
• 3 pip garlic
• 1 inch knob ginger, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced

1. Put all the ingredients for the lemongrass paste into a blender and pulse until fine.

 

2. Pour it together with the rest of the marinade and mix with the chicken strips.  Marinade for at least 3 hours or overnight.

 

3. Heat 2 tbspn of oil in a pan and fry the meat until cooked. Adjust the seasonings. Set side to let cool.

 

4. Assemble the ingredients.   Pour some warm water into a wide bowl or container, wide enough to dip the rice roll sheets.

 

5. Gently dip the rice sheets into the warm water until soften but not wilted. Spread onto a wide plate, put the toppings and wrap into a spring roll shape. Serve immediately.

 

 

 

Stir Fry Chicken with Basil

 

Is this a vietnamese dish or a thai dish? You can find this on both thai and vietnamese menu.  In any case, hubs and I love both.  During our trip to Hanoi last year, we stayed with an old friend who is now a high flying expat working in the vietnamese capital.