Vietnamese cooking

A tasty healthy vietnamese dish Beef Pho

Bill and Sue, are Asian friends of ours, who run the Golden Sun Restaurant at Capalaba. I wrote a review for the Best Restaurants website you can read it here. If you’re in the area call in and have lunch or dinner and give them my love. Co-owner Sue is Vietnamese and makes the best spring rolls. She is the reason we were familiar with Vietnamese food, when we visited Vietnam last year (2010).

Vietnamese food is fresh, and healthy. For flavouring they use mint, basil, ginger, garlic, star anise, galangal and to this zingy combination add lots of vegetables. They also use mung bean sprouts. Mung bean sprouts are widely available, but I sprout my own.

One dish I really love to eat and cook is Beef or Chicken Pho, pronounced Fur. It can be made very quickly if you use a shop bought stock and dry rice noodles. Try and make your own stock it does taste better. Good for using some of the old boilers that are not laying. Here’s the recipe:

Chicken Pho

Ingredients:
250g of chicken thigh fillets (if you want to make beef pho replace that with beef)
2 or 3 litres of good chicken stock
Fresh or minced garlic (as much or little as you like to taste)
Fish Sauce
4 Star Anise
3 Cloves
2 sprigs of Vietnamese Mint
1 bunch pak choi, bok choi or any green vegetable you have in the garden
2 sprigs of Greek Basil
Couple of handfuls of Mung Bean Sprouts
250g dried Rice Noodles
1 bunch of spring onions

Method:
Cut the spring onions into half.
Finely slice the green end of one of the spring onions, for garnish.
In a large saucepan place the chicken stock, star anise, garlic, cloves and the spring onions and bring to the boil.
Turn down the heat and simmer for about half an hour. Put through a colander to remove the star anise and cloves. You can leave the spring onions.
Slice the chicken into thin strips.
Fry it off in a little oil until just browned and close to cooked. Cover with foil and set aside.
Drain the (soaked – see below) rice noodles and place into 2 large serving (noodle) bowls
Bring the stock back to a vicious boil (It has to be hot to finish cooking the rice noodles and chicken)
Put the pak choi into the stock and allow to wilt. Do not overcook.
Ladle the hot stock over the rice noodles, completely filling the bowl.
Add the chicken pieces.
Add the mint, bean sprouts, basil and spring onions. Add fish sauce to your taste.

Don’t forget to slurp and drink the stock. It’s full of nutrients