kha

Some other photos from the same scene : and here :

I would like to collect recipes for Nem Nuong. Nem Nuong consist of pork meat balls that you wrap in salad, vegetables and rice paper wrapper. I have a few recipes already, and my Nem Nuong is really well appreciated among my friends and family, but to tell you the truth, I am not happy with the meat. The way I cook the pork is as follows (not the whole recipe): - With a knife, I chop the fatty pork brisket - then I crush the meat in a mortar for a very long time - I add suger, garlic, onions, salt and pepper I allow it to rest fro two hours, and then I make balls out of it, and grill it over the barbecue. The sauce that I serve along with the meat balls is a special peanut and garlic sauce. One I have found the recipe for the pork, I will give you the whole recipe. The meat I obtain is not dry when cook properly, but I don't like the texture of it. Should be more like "pâté" than grilled pork. Here is a picture I took in Da nang a few years ago. I was wandering around with my wife on our honey moon, and we suddently were caught in the middle of an extraordinary agitation : a Nem Nuong "fabric"/ I say fabric because the quantity of Nem nuong served was huge. <br/> <br/> <br/> If anybody has a clue, on how to prepare the meat, I would be very grateful.

Hi, Banh Beo is usually eaten at the restaurant, not in the street. There is a reason for that: While Banh Xeo, Pho, Bun Bo Hue can almost count as a whole meal by themselves, Banh Beo is served along with toher steamed dishes : - Banh Bot Loc - Banh Nam - Banh It So it is rather difficult to eat this dish on these small tables and chairs right on the sidewalk. From what I know, in france we cook it at home (Hue restaurant are quite rare in Paris) and invite the family to join us for lunch. On the contrary, in Vietnam, this is not an every day dish, and therefore it is more often eaten in specialized restaurants rather than home. Kha

Bravo. Beautiful photo and recipe. Now there is one question I have. I asked that question to my stepfather who was originated from Hue, but his answers always change. I always considered Raum Ram as the inseparable from Bun Bo Hue. In your recipe which seem very traditional, you don't mention it. So my question is this : Is Rau Ram served with Bun Bo Hue in Hue or not ? Is it a late addition from south vietnamese people who appear to like this herb very much ? Give me your opinion. I join to my post my own recipe (quite similar to yours) for Bun Bo Hue BUN BO HUE RECIPE ============= So there it is, the recipe for 10 bowls of this magnificent Bún Bò Huế (genuine accentuation there) soup. Ingrédients 500 grams of pork hocks cut in 8 pieces 2 pig's feet (ask your butcher to give you the front feets since they are thiner, and to cut into 6 pieces. I remember I once seriously damaged one of my favorite kitchen knife in trying to cut a pig's feet) 1 kg of beef brisket boneless 8 stalks lemongrass 4 tbs (tablespoons) of Mam Rước (shrimp paste, brown-violet colored with the consistency of a thick cream) 4 tsp (teaspoon) Bun Bo Hue spices, which can be found in asian products stores. It is mainly chili, garlic and seeds of red annetto. A few months ago, this product was removed from the shelfs in France, and therefore I explain below how to replace this ingredient. 2 garlic cloves 4 large onions 1 cinnamon stick (3 inches long and one thick) 4 shallots Rice vermicelli fresh or dried. These are thick rice vermicelli, not the thin ones 2 tasteful tomatoes for serving Rau Ram leaves (pronounce Rao ram) or polygonum (latin nickname). This is a crucial ingredient, and so is the freshness of the leaves. Eventually banana flowers, cut into thin strips(This is lao influence, and shall not be considered in the traditional line) White Onions black grounded pepper Nuoc Mam Lime Fresh red and green small peppers thinly minced Notice that Thai basil, coriander, mint leaves are not listed there since they don't really match with Rau Ram. Rau Ram leaves or Polygonum This leaves are often used in Hue's cuisine. It is used in salad (delicious Ga Xe Phay, Jack fruit salad, and sometimes Banh Xeo). You can keep it in the fridge for about a week, but the easiest way is to reuse the stems from which you removed the leaves and allow it to develop roots in a glass of water on the balcony. Later, you can move the stems in gardening soil. The whole process doesn't take more than two weeks. Directions Crush the cloves of garlic, Chop the shallots. Chop finely 3 stalks of lemongrass Cut the beef brisket into slices 5mm thick, 5 cm long et 2 cm wide. Place the beef in a bowl with these ingredients, and add two tbs of peanut oil. Add salt and pepper, add 2 tbs of nuoc mam, mix, knead and marinate for two hours. Boil 5 liters of water in a large soup pot. Once the water boils, reduce the heat in order to obtain a gentle boiling. This is important in order to preserve the broth clarity. Add the pig's feet and the pieces of pork's hocks. Add the coarse salt and allow to boil gently for two hours while continously removing the foam the broth will produce. Put two tbs of peanut oil in a cast iron casserole. When oil is hot, add the two tsp of Bun Bo Hue spices, which will turn brown within seconds. Keeping the heat high, add the marinated beef meat. Stir constantly, and when the meat is well colored, add the tomatoes cut in pieces. Continue to stir until the tomatoes have completely melted in the pan (about ten minutes). Update: This famous blend of Bun Bo Hue spices (Oriental Flavour Mixed Chili Gia Vi Bun Bo Hue) has become impossible to find in French Asian stores recently. I finally had the explanation: I don't know about the US market, but in France, the distributor lost its marketing authorization for this product (what the hell did they put in it). But fortunately the parade is very simple since annetto seeds can still be found in France. Heat 3 tbs of peanuts oil in a pan and when the oil is hot, add 3 tbs of red annetto seeds, and a tsp of dried peppers. When the oil turns orange, add a ladle of broth in the pan, filter back to the main pot, discarding the seeds. Notice that if you want to degrease the broth (my guess, if you are on a diet, simply avoid Bun Bo Hue), you need to do it before this stage, since each spoon of fat you discard will also take away from the broth, some of its essence. Next, put 3 ladles of the broth in a bowl and dissolve 4 tbs of Mam rước into it, stirring constantly until the complete dissolution of the paste. You can then add the content of the bowl back to the main pot. crush four stalks of lemongrass using a pastry roll and cut into 10 cm long sections. Add to the pot. Cut onions in four and put them on a dish, and under the grill in the oven. Allow them to grill until their skin turns brown. You can also use a pan to do this, adding a little peanut oil and stirring occasionally. When the onions have turned brown, add them to the main pot. These grilled onions will slightly sweeten the broth. Then add the cinnamon stick, 10 tbsp of nuoc mam, salt and pepper. Taste the broth and add Nuoc Mam or salt to match your taste. Leave the pot uncovered over medium heat (gently boiling) for 2 1/2 hours and thirty. After 2 1/2 hours, remove the pig's feets, the beef and the pork's shank and allow it to cool in the fridge (it will be easer to cut). Remove from heat and let the broth to cool until dinner time. Ideally, you can let the broth rest for one our two hours. Meanwhile, boil a large quantity of water (enough for the vermicelli to grow during cooking in a clear water. If you don't use enough water, then the noodles will be too sticky and the temperature of the water will drop suddenly as you introduce the noodles. Wash the herbs, detach the leaves from the Raum Ram stems, slice young onions, minced the pepper and crush it gently with a spoon. When the water is boiling add a tbsp of oil from the broth and one tsp of salt. Add the noodles. Dried noodles takes 15 minutes to be al dente. Rinse vermicelli under cold water to stop the cooking process and drain. When the meat is cold, its become firmer and easier to cut. Slice the pork's hock, the beef brisket being already sliced down. Serving In each bowl, place the noodles, beef, a few slices of shank and a foot piece of pork. Then pour the broth through a sieve until the meat is covered. Drain the content of the bowl returning the broth to the main pot, to warm up the noodles and meat. Place on top of the meat minced Rau Ram, white onion (which should not touch the broth), et piece of lime et Add in a little bowl of onion white, Rau Ram, a piece of lime, and little fresh grounded pepper using a pepper mill. Serve immediately. This soup is a bit heavy in the stomach, and I sometimes make a lighter version, by throwing the first broth, degrease thoroughly the broth, removing the pork's hocks or using only one pig's feet. Anyway, it doesn't looks like me, I like fat. Let's be generous. It might sound odd at first, but this soup goes along very well with a glass of red wine. Personaly, I likely taste a powerful and tannic wine such as Cahors. No need to take an expensive though. Saint Chinian for the summer is not too bad, we can serve a fresher. The recipe on my blog : http://khas-kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/06/b...celles-aux.html

I want to open this topic specific to Hue's cuisine, which is one of the finest cuisine in South-east asia. I am based in France, but my father's family is originated from Hue. The recipes I can propose are the following : - bun bo hue - banh xeo - banh bot loc As an example, the recipes I am looking for : - Tre (fermented pigs ears with galanga) - Banh It - Banh Nam I will contribute to this topic with one typical recipe from Hue : Banh Beo. I got that recipe directly from my grandmother who was an excellent cook and passed away 15 years ago. The principle of the recipe is very simple: steamed rice cakes topped with ‘shrimps cotton', crushed crispy pork’s fat and green onions. Cotton shrimp is the most interesting part of the recipe: it is obtained by rapidly drying gently crushed shrimps over a hot pan, transferring it back to the mortar and repeating this operation several times until the shrimp’s texture becomes like cotton. The recipe is not particularly complex, but surely requires a lot of work. Then of course, comes the Nuoc Mam sauce, which is very specific to this dish. Ingredients for 40 cakes You can usually serve 4 cakes per person, but I guess that some would get frustrated if they could not have some more. For the dough 2 bowl of rice flour 2 bowl of hot water 2 bold cold water For the topping and sauce 10 young onions 100gr of pork fat (cut out from the pork brisket) 6 tbsp of dried shrimp 2 minced red chilis 4 thinly chopped garlic cloves 5 sugar cubes Nuoc Mam 15 fleshy shrimps 1 big shallot, finely chopped Directions We begin by preparing the dough. In a large bowl, place the rice flour, add hot water and mix well without leaving any lumps forming. When the mixture is completely liquid, slowly add cold water, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Allow the paste to rest for at least half on hour. Preparation cotton shrimp and topping Boil three glasses of water in a saucepan and dip the shrimp very quickly, so they are barely cooked. Save the cooking broth for later. Transfer the cooking broth in a bowl and allow the dried shrimps to swell for twenty minutes. Drain cooked shrimps removing the shells and deveining. Keep the shells of the shrimps to improve the broth. With the flat of a knife, crush the shrimps. Heat a non-stick pan, and transfer the mortar content in it. Stir constantly. The aim is to dry the shrimps, not to cook them. If the pan gets too hot, remove from the heat. Transfer the shrimps back to the mortar and crush gently. Repeat this operation 4 or 5 times, until a the shrimps turn pink and their texture look like cotton. Reserve the shrimps cotton in a bowl. Cover the bowl with cellophane to prevent the cotton from drying, and keep it in the fridge. Remove the dried shrimps from the broth an drained using paper towel. Thinly chop the dried shrimps (eventually with a blender) until it turns into an orange powder. Set aside in a bowl. Chop the pork fat into small pieces. Transfer to a frying pan and heat (medium heat) stirring constantly until the fat produces oil, and the crispy pork fat get a nice golden-brown color. Drain trough a sieve and return the oil to the frying pan. Chopped thinly the crispy pork fat with a knife, and reserve in a bowl. Remove the white part of the green onions and mince into 5mm long sections. Thinly chop the shallot. Heat the pork fat oil, and when the oil is hot, add the green onions and the shallot. Stir quickly and remove for heat. Preparation of the Nuoc Mam sauce Return the broth to a saucepan, add the shrimps shells and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Dissolve 5 sugar cubes in the saucepan, add the thinly chopped garlic. From now on, the sauce must not boil. Add the Nuoc Mam (10 tbsp should be fine) until it fits your taste. You might as well add one thinly sliced red chili, depending on your taste and experience. Finally add one tbsp of shrimps cotton, and one tsp of chopped dried shrimps to the broth and reserve. The sauce is ready. Baking the rice flour cakes Traditionally, each Banh Beo is cooked in a small hollow plate. With a paper towel, grease the pans well with the fat pork oil. It is important to ensure that the cakes won’t stick to the mold after cooking. Using a small ladle, fill each plate with paste (approximately 3mm height of paste). The dough will rise, and there must be enough place in the plate. In a large Couscous pot, boil water in the lower part. Once the water boils, place the steamer on top, and put the small banh beo plates in that upper part. Close the lid and cook 4 to 5 minutes. Cooking is complete when all the cake has become translucent. The cakes must be firm and translucid. Put the plates on a tray, it will be served on the table after the topping is set. Adding the topping With a small spoon, spread a little pork fat oil on top of each cake.It will help to keep the shrimps cotton in place. Add a little crispy pork fat Add the cotton shrimp Add a little bit of dried shrimp powder Finally add a few slices of young onions from pork fat oil The cake should look like the picture above. This dish should be served warm, as starter. In Vietnam, it is often server along with a plate of sliced Cha Lua (vietnamese pork sausage). You can buy it from asian stores, although it is not as good as the one which is served in Hué cuisine and which contains more pepper. Anyway… Additional images on my blog : http://http://khas-kitchen.blogspot.com/20...ith-cotton.html Kha

None of the one you mentionned are suitable for this recipe. Actually, you can easily cook this recipe with just curry powder. However, when I use curry paste for this dish, I use the massaman curry. There are three curry pastes in thailand like the colors of the rastas flag : Yellow (massaman), green (for chicken Keng Kia wan kay) and red (paneang Neua). Here is a picture of this curry : Massaman curry But believe me, the most important is the curry powder which image is below: Keep me posted on your experiment. Kha What kind of chile paste do you use for this recipe? I have the book and decided to give that recipe a try. It was kind of a last minute decision, so I had to go with what I had in the fridge. I had a Chinese style hot chile paste with garlic, and a Thai sweet chile sauce, so I used a combination of the two. I liked the dish as it was, but would love to make it with the "correct" product; could you post a photo or even just the name of the paste that you use? ←

Hi, I have a few thai recipes on my blog. My all time favorite is the Pu Phat Ping Curry, which is the famous sauteed crabs with curry powder. It is best cooked with medium size Mangrove or Mud crabs, which you can find in the muslim area south of phuket. I cook it in france using french tourteaux, and it is also very good. Here is the recipe Sauteed Crabs with curry powderSauteed Crabs with curry powder Now the recipe is in french, so if you are interested, tell me and I'll translate it for you, and post it on my english blog : Kha's kitchen - thai, vietnamese and Lao cuisine It is difficult to make a nice photo of this dish. Besides, never order this dish on a date, it get's very dirty. Kha

Crabs in Tam som is great. If you cook this recipe though, you should call it : "Tam Mak Khung" which is the lao name for it. Tam Som is rather thai vocabulary and as soon as you use crabs, it becomes lao. Now, the crabs are not only marinated, but fermented with salt just like Pa Dek. I am not sure you can dio this by yourself. Now there is a much more efficient way to have in your recipe this incomparable crab taste, it is called : Nam Phu (crabs sauce). You can find this ingredients in asian store (I bring mine directly from Vientiane's market). It bring sweetness to you Tam Mak Khrung. then you can add your marinated crabs on or two small crabs for a plate. crabs need to be cut in small pieces and crushed along with the papaya. Hope it'll help Kha

this is my own recipe of the Lab nueua. I am partly lao, partly viet, and I just love cooking traditional food. The Lab here is lao. The only difference between lao and thai laab is the nuoc mam, which, in lao cuisine is replaced by Pa deck. It's funny but the trigger that makes me publish a recipe is really the quality of the photo that will illustrate my recipe. Lione took yesterday this wonderful photo of my Larb, and therefore I am ready to publish it. This is a larb, that is, the traditional lao beef salad. The Thai also cook Larb, their own way, replacing Pah Dek which is really the lao signature, by Nuoc Mam. I have found a very interesting page about Pah Dek on the Web : Lao Plah Dek My recipe of the Larb is not the most orthodox, but this is is my experience after having tastes hundreds of different varieties of Larb. This dish is often served along with a beef broth, greens and sticky rice (Khao Niao). Since I was in Vientiane last week, I want mention my favorite restaurant in town. The broth that accompanies this dish is called Keng Khruang Nai (literally, "soup of stuff from the inside"). The Ban Kham restaurant which lies by the Mekong River side in Vientiane, if you ask me, is simply the best lao restaurant in Vientiane, and propose a very tasteful version of that broth. The restaurant prices are high for the country (a meal for 4 people costs 30 USD), but frankly it's worth it. Ingredients * 300gr of beef (sirloin, tenderloin or any tender part of the beef) * a stalk of lemon grass * three shallots * 2 garlic cloves , minced * two or three tbsp of toasted rice powder (very common ingredient that you need to preprare on your own. Simply grill without oil some glutinous rice in a stove, and when the rice seed turns golden-brown, use a blender or a mortar to obtain a nice brown powder). * one or two red chilis * three slices of chopped galanga * a dozen mint leaves * three minced young onions * 5 leaves of saw teeth coriander (ngo gai) * 3 branch of coriander * 2 tbsp of lime juice * 2 tbsp of Pah Dek or if you don't have any, Nuoc Mam For the beef broth * 500 gr beef brisket * 300gr of assorted beef entrails * one beef's bone marrow * one onion, cut into quarters * 5 leaves of Phak Yleuth (betel leaves) * three young ginger slices * salt, pepper, nuoc mam For service Herbs are an essential element of the recipe * young eggplant (as shown) * a sliced cucumber * Lao mustard greens (phak gaht). There are not in France, but curiously, what is the closest are the tops of radishes (the leaf of red radish). These leaves are rather bitter and little de * Salad for decoration Directions 1. Boil 2 liters of water in a pot. Once the water is boiling add the meat cut in pieces,marrow and entrails. 2. Boil vigourously for ten minutes and discard this first broth. 3. Put water in the pot, add the meat, marrow and entails bring to boil 4. Add onion, slices of ginger, salt, pepper and nuoc mam. 5. Allow to simmer on low heat for 2 hours. 6. After the broth is done, add phak Yleuth, minced young onions, coriander leaves and allow to rest. 7. Slice the chilli, two shallots and garlic and brown in a small pan. Once the shallots and garlic have turned brown, put them in a mortar and crush until you obtain a brown paste. 8. Thinly chop the beef with a knife(a blender is really not appropriate here). In a bowl, place the beef, the chili and shallot paste, the chopped galanga, season with salt, pepper and 2 tbsp Pa Dek (or Nuoc Mam). 9. Chop thinly the lemongrass, and mix with beef. Cover and let stand 20 minutes. 10. Meanwhile coarsely chop the young onions, mint, coriander and saw teeth coriander. 11. Wash and cut the eggplants and cucumbers. It is very easy to quickly decorate the vegetables with a knife. 12. Ten minutes before serving, mix the chopped herbs and the meat, lemon juice and add a small ladle of broth. Mix well and adjust seasoning. 13. Serve with the broth and vegetables. NB: In Asia, Larb is often served slightly cooked, mainly because of basic rules of hygiene in these country. In Europe or in the States, we don't have this problem and crude meat slightly cooked by lome juice and broth is tastier. However, if you still want to cook the meat, heat a frying pan, and when hot, add the marinated meat without oil, stirring constantly. Larb is like a national dish in Laos, and is often eaten by the numerous river side sala (terrace) at sunset. A few beers, Tam Mak Khung (papaya salad) and Larb will nicely start the evening. The recipe on my blog : http://khas-kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/l...beef-salad.html Tell me what you think about this recipe . Kha