Vietnamese

 Menu

Fresh Spring Rolls

Bánh Xèo Vietnamese Crepes

Cà tím nướng mỡ hành Grilled Eggplant

Ka Cho Tofu Braised in Caramel Sauce

Cá Chiên Sea Bass with Green Papaya Salad and Ginger Lime Dressing

Pho Vietnamese Hotpot 

Báhn Flan Crème Caramel

Wine Pairings: Clean Slate Riesling Mosel, Pierre Sparr Gerwurztraminer Reserve 2017, Thirty Bench Riesling, Domaine Wachau Riesling

Laura

The Epitourists have occasionally experimented with Middle Eastern flavours, but we mostly stay within the comfort zone of Western cuisine. This month we decided to expand to the Far East with a Vietnamese theme. The fresh flavours and bright colours seemed a fitting antidote to a rather grey January in Ontario. 

For some inspiration, Diane, Kaarina and Caroline visited a Vietnamese restaurant in Toronto. They intended to go to top-rated Pho Hung but it was the week after Christmas, and they were closed. So they ended up at Saigon Lotus, a vegan Vietnamese restaurant.

This month the feast was held at my house on Wolfe Island. Fortunately there is a really good Asian grocery store in nearby Kingston, so I was able to find everything I needed for my dishes. I chose to make fresh spring rolls. There are so many recipes for these rolls, but the common element is assorted shredded fresh vegetables wrapped in soft rice paper wrappers. Sometimes shrimp is added, but I chose to keep them just a colourful assortment of veggies including green and red cabbage, red pepper. cucumber, green onion, carrot, Thai basil, cilantro, and mint. The dipping sauce Nuoc Cham, a very simple yet versatile staple of the cuisine.

Springrolls, Braised Tofu and Crème Caramel à la Kim Thuy

I also made Ka Cho, tofu braised in caramel sauce. It sounds strange, but the simple process of caramelizing sugar, adding water and soy sauce turns tofu into a savoury, nuanced dish. 

There aren’t a lot of Vietnamese desserts, but báhn flan, or crème caramel, is popular. It came as an import from France but has become a staple dessert all over Vietnam. There are so many recipes available for this dessert. I used the recipe in award-winning fiction writer Kim Thuy’s Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen. 

Caroline

Unfamiliar territory... What to make? My quest lead me to Jn Cooking Channel on YouTube. Informative, organized and clear this website proved to be a perfect springboard to Vietnamese food whats and hows.

The idea of making crêpes Vietnamese style or bánh xèo appealed to me because it is somewhat familiar, well the crêpe part is. The batter consists of rice and tapioca flour, coconut cream, turmeric, canola oil and beer. Traditional fillings are pork belly, shrimp and soya beans. A traditional
Nước Chấm or fish sauce based dipping sauce gives this dish great zing with its bird's eye chili.  The videos I came across never covered the "how to eat" this crispy delight. A quick search brought me to this short clip from Noodlies: 

The fun in Asian cuisine is the sampling of many dish. A recent visit to Saigon Lotus, a Toronto Vietnamese restaurant, had me tasting an eggplant dish that wowed me away. Served along side some jasmine rice, this grilled eggplant or Cà tím nướng mỡ hành is sure to delight!

Grilled Eggplant with Jasmine Rice

Kaarina

There was no red snapper to be had that Thursday morning just as I was heading to Wolfe Island for the Epitourist’s Vietnamese cook off. My plan was to deep fry a whole snapper and pile green papaya salad and ginger lime dressing on top for a dramatic presentation a.k.a. Cá Chiên.

The theatricals had to be scratched and  Plan B went into effect. Instead of snapper I scored superbly fresh Black Sea Bass at Diana’s Seafood on Lawrence St. E. A firm white fish with delicate flavour from the northeast Atlantic. No cause for complaint. As the fish is simply dipped in egg and potato starch and dunked in boiling canola oil for two minutes, any Vietnamese flavouring needed to come from the sauce and/or the accompaniments. Green papaya — which is simply a raw papaya, available along with green mangoes in Asian green grocers, isn’t exactly flavourful. Enter Nuoc Mam Cham — the workhorse of great Vietnamese flavours.
Nuoc Mam Cham flavours scores of Vietnamese dishes. We used it as a dipping sauce for the fresh roll, with the shrimp and pork filled Vietnamese crepes, as a dressing for the green papaya salad and a sauce for the deep fried Black Sea Bass.

Black Sea Bass with Green Papaya Salad

Nuoc Mam Cham
In a pot over medium heat, bring a quarter cup fish sauce, quarter cup rice vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar and half cup water to just short of boiling. Set aside to cool. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic, one minced bird's eye chili and 2 tbsp lime juice, and stir to combine. Make a day ahead (or not) and refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Diane

Years ago, when I first arrived  in Toronto, there had been such a glowing review of a Vietnamese restaurant's hot pot, I just had to make a visit. Delicious broth kept so hot, diners could essentially cook their own meal at the table by spearing meat and veg and poaching in the golden liquid. Once cooked to satisfaction, wrapping the tasty bits as contents inside a lettuce leaf and dressing with a light sauce. After the wraps are enjoyed, a delicious soup to finish the meal.

One of my favourite Asian markets is closing the end of January so I had to find another. Sunny Supermarket  is just a short drive away and had the lemongrass, oyster mushrooms, quail eggs and raw beef. For the broth itself I picked up the best quality beef bones I could find at St. Lawrence market.

I bookmarked an authentic pho recipe, packed up the ingredients, and travelled with Kaarina to Wolfe Island.

Bone broth is so full of goodness — all that collagen is being touted as better than botox, a cellulite reducer, great for arthritis and healing for the digestive tract. Three hours in the Instant Pot brought all the little pearls to the surface.

As the soup was the last course of the night, we were able to make use of all the other veg that was prepped and still left over: carrots, cabbage, red and yellow peppers, enoki mushrooms, bean sprouts, fresh coriander, mint, thai basil.

Hot Pho!