Vietnamese Recipes

This dish is part of the famous Bo Bay Mon (Beef in Seven Ways), a popular Saigon feast consisting of seven different beef dishes. You will need a fondue pot, or some other means of cooking the stock at the table, and some utensils for letting each diner simmer their beef (the little wire baskets with long handles, sold in some Asian groceries, are ideal).

1 lb well-marbled beef fillet

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 recipe Do Chua (pickled carrot)

1 cup fresh coriander leaves

6 scalliions, slivered

2 heads Boston lettuce, or one head leaf lettuce

24 quarter-round Banh Trang (dried rice papers)

Fondue Stock:

1 T peanut oil

2 medium cloves garlic

1 T sugar

2/3 cup rice vinegar

3 cups water

1 stalk lemon grass

Dipping Sauce:

4 medium cloves garlic

1 1/2 Tsp Sambal Oelek

6 tsp sugar

1 oz anchovies, patted dry

1 lime

1/2 cup hot water

2 T finely chopped fresh pineapple

Two hours before serving time, put the beef in the freezer to chill for later slicing. Arrange the sliced onion, scallions, coriander leaves, pickled carrot and lettuce on a large platter, leaving room in the center for the beef. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time.

Heat the oil in a fondue pot (put it on a stove burner for this) and fry the garlic until its golden. Add the rice vinegar, water, and sugar. Cut off the bottom 6″ of lemon grass, remove outer husk, and halve it lengthwise. Cut into 2″ long sections, and add to the fondue pot. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, then remove from heat.

In a mortar, pound the garlic and sugar together to a fine paste, then add the Sambal Oelek and anchovies and mash well. Transfer to a bowl and squeeze the juice of the lime into it. Rinse out the mortar with the 1/2 cup of hot water (to make sure you get all the mashed ingerdients), and pour into the sauce bowl. Add the pineapple, mix thoroughly, and divide, if you wish, into smaller individual serving bowls.

Remove the beef from the freezer when chilled firm and slice it into paper-thin slices. If the slices are too thick, pound them flat with the side of a cleaver. Arrange the slices in the center of the vegetable platter. Just before serving time, prepare the Banh Trang by brushing one side of each paper with water (use a pastry brush, and brush sparingly – the papers should be moist but not drenched). Lay the papers wet side down on a plate, overlapping, but leaving about 1/2″ of each one exposed. Put the Banh Trang on the table along with the vegetable/beef platter and the dipping sauce. Light the burner under the fondue pot and let the stock simmer.

Each diner immerses a little beef and onion in the stock and lets it simmer until the beef is cooked to taste. Peel off a sheet of Banh Tranh and lay it on your plate with the wide end nearest you. Arrange at that end  some lettuce, a little of each vegetable, and then the beef and onion. Roll up, tucking in the sides, and dip in the sauce before eating. You can also serve a bowl of Nuoc Cham, for those who don’t like anchovies.

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Good for lunch or a light dinner. The quality of the crabmeat used is all-important, so if you don’t want to kill live crabs, use a nice lump crabmeat, either canned or vacuum-packed.

6 live Blue Crabs

4 oz ground pork

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp fish sauce (in all)

1 scallion, minced

4 large eggs

1 tsp freshly fround black pepper

1 medium onion, halved and sliced thinly

3 T peanut oil

Coriander leaves for garnish

1 recipe nuoc cham (seasoned fish sauce)

Kill the crabs by running very hot tap water into their faces, or put them in a steamer. Either way, steam them  over boiling water for 30 minutes, then rinse under cold water and scrub them clean with a bristle brush. Crack them open and remove the meat. There should be about 1 cup. If any of your crabs are female, include any orange roe you find.

Mix the pork with the salt and 1 tsp of the fish sauce. Mix in the minced scallion.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, pepper, and the rest of the fish sauce. Add the pork mixture, stirring to break up any lumps, then add in the crabmeat and mix.

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees and set an oven-proof platter inside.

Have the bowl of omlette mix, the sliced onion and the peanut oil ready by the stove. Heat a 12″ omlette pan over high heat for 1 minute, then add 1 T of peanut oil and let it heat for 1 minute more. Add 1/3rd of the sliced onion slices and let them brown slightly.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Use a soup ladle to pour 1/3rd of the omlette mixture into the pan. If any onion pieces get shoved to the sides, remove them and put them on top of the omlette. Cover the pan and cook on low for 3 minutes, or until the bottom of the omlette is browned. Turn carefully and cook, covered, to brown the other side. Slide onto the platter in the oven, then make two more omlettes in the same way, stacking them on top of each other like a stack of pancakes. Remove to a serving plate, cut into quarters, garnish with the coriander leaves, and serve with the nuoc cham on the side.

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Very simple, but very delicious. You do have to make nuoc mau (Vietnamese caramel syrup), but once made, it keeps forever.

Make the nuoc mau:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup hot water

Set a heavy 9″ skillet over high heat for one minute, then pour in the sugar and reduce heat to medium. Cook the sugar, stirring frequently, until it’s frothy and orange in color. Turn off the heat and stir constantly for another three or four minutes, until the foam has subsided and the syrup is very dark (it will look almost black). Add the hot water and stir, turning the heat back on to low, if necessary, to facilitate mixing, until all the syrup is dissolved in the water. Set the pan aside to cool. When cool, pour into a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Nuoc mau will keep indefinitely on the pantry shelf.

Ga Nuong:

6 whole chicken legs (thigh included)

7 medium shallots, peeled

1 tsp whole black peppercorns

3 1/2 T fish sauce

3/4 T nuoc mau (Vietnamese caramel syrup)

1/4 tsp salt

Put the shallots and whole black peppercorns in a mortar and mash together. Add the fish sauce, nuoc mau and salt.

Separate the legs from the thighs and prick each piece all over with a metal skewer or sharp fork. Mix the chicken with the marinade, rubbing the marinade in with your fingers to ensure that each piece is coated and the marinade is forced into the chicken. Let sit 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the grill. When the chicken has marinated, grill it directly over the coals for 10 to 15 minutes on each side. The chicken should get slightly singed, but not burnt. Serve while hot.

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Fish sauce is “nuoc mam,” but seasoned fish sauce is “nuoc cham.” It’s addictive, and a must for any Vietnamese meal. To make it efficiently, you need a mortar and pestle.

1/2 lime and it’s juice

1 clove garlic, peeled

8 tsp sugar

1 tsp sambal oelek (red chili paste, found in most Asian groceries)

2 T fish sauce

1/3rd cup hot water

Cut the lime in half around the circumference, then (holding it over the mortar) use a sharp knife to section one half the lime as you would a grapefriut. Cut out the “meat” and add with the juice to the mortar. Add the garlic and the sugar and mash everything to a paste (the granulated sugar helps absorb the lime juice and aids in mashing). Add the sambal oelek and the fish sauce and mix, then add the hot water and stir. Taste, and add more lime juice, fish sauce or sambal oelek to taste, if desired. Transfer to a small serving bowl, or, if you wish, to individual bowls.

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