Bún Gỏi Già (Spring Noodles)

Gỏi Cuốn’s sister this dish is pretty much the same as gỏi cuốn except the rice paper is replaced with hot broth from cooking the meat and prawns.

Ingredients:
-1/2lb pork belly
-1/2lb prawns
-rice vermicelli
-beans sprouts
-fresh assorted herbs
-Chinese chives
-fresh coconut juice or water
-salt

What to Do:
Boil prawns and pork in coconut juice, add salt to taste. Slice pork into thin slices. Peel prawns and slice in half. Cook and drain rice vermicelli. Add noodles in to a bowl, followed by pork and prawns. Ladle on hot broth and garnish with chop chives. Serve with cooked bean sprouts, and fresh herbs.

Gỏi Cuốn Spring Rolls

Ingredients (for 15 rolls):
-1/3lb pork belly
-15 prawns
-fresh assorted herbs
-1/2lb bean sprouts
-1/3lb rice vermicelli
-fresh Chinese chives
-15 sheets bánh tráng (rice paper)
-fresh coconut juice or water

What to Do:
Boil pork and prawns in coconut juice or water; reserve cooking liquid to make dipping sauce. Slice pork into thin pieces. Peel prawns and slice in half. Wash bean sprouts, and herbs. Cook rice vermicelli and drain. Wet a piece of rice paper; add a row of herbs in the center, followed by some noodles, and bean sprouts. Lay prawns and meat in a row above the noodles and veggies towards the edge of the rice paper. Fold sides of rice paper over and add a stalk of chive in the center. Roll up starting at the end with the noodles and veggies, ending at the end with the prawns and meat.

Dipping Sauce:
-3 tbs hoisin sauce
-2 tbs peanut butter
-1/2 cup meat and prawn stock
-3-4 tbs sugar
-2 cloves garlic
-1 tsp oil

*Mince garlic and fry in oil until fragrant. Add hoisin sauce, peanut butter, sugar and stock. Bring the sauce to a boil and give a taste test, all flavors should be equal.

Bánh Phu Thê (Husband and Wife Cakes)

These cakes are a must have for weddings as their name means husband and wife (phu means husband, the means wife). Traditionally these cakes are steamed in a small individual boxes made from coconut leaves and tied into pairs with red ribbon. However, coconut leaves are extremely hard to obtain in the U.S. especially Seattle. Thus, plastic wrap takes its place.

Filling:
-200g mung beans (peeled and split)
-150g sugar
-1 tbs oil
-1 tsp mali flavor or banana flavor, vanilla
-50g candied winter melon

*Wash and soak beans before steaming and mashing. Chop candied winter melon into small pieces. Add sugar and oil to mashed beans and stir fry over medium heat until thickened. Add flavor and candied winter melon mix well. Divide into 30-35 small balls.

Dough:
-454g tapioca starch
-660g/ml water
-300g sugar
-1 medium age coconut (see note)
-1 tsp mali flavor, pandan extract, banana flavor, or vanilla
-yellow or green coloring
-sesame seeds

*Grate coconut into match size pieces. Mix together tapioca starch, water, coconut, coloring and sugar over in a pot over medium heat until thickened and pasty (the dough does not have to be fully cooked). Remove from heat, add flavor and mix well.

What to Do:
Moist hands and large spoon with a little water. Using a spoon scoop out about 1-2 tbs dough, flatten and wrap a filling in the center, add a few sesame seeds on top. Next, wrap each pastry with a piece of plastic wrap. Finally, steam over high heat for 15-20 mins or until transparent.

Note:
Coconuts are sold in 3 different “ages”. Young coconut = very little and soft flesh, sweet juice, usually used for drinking. “Old” = the hard dark brown ones, thick and firm flesh, usually. “Middle age” = looks like “old” coconuts except the color is much lighter (with to very light brown). For best results use “middle age” coconuts.

Color wise…..Yellow cakes are should be mali or banana flavored. White ones are favored with vanilla, green ones carry the sent of pandan leaves.

Hủ Tiếu Bò Viên (Noodles with Beef Meatballs)

These meatballs can either be served as is or with noodles, or as a meat choice for Phở.

Ingredients:
-1lb ground beef (but the leanest kind available)
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp sugar
-1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional)
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1 tbs potato starch
-1/3lb beef tendons (optional)

What to Do:
Boil beef tendons until tender, drain and cut into small pieces. Mix together ground beef with salt, sugar, sesame oil, pepper and potato starch. Put mixture in the freezer until nearly frozen (a layer of frost over the surface). Quickly process in a meat processor to a fine paste, refreeze and process again if you have too. The key here is to process the meat into a paste as fast as possible, keeping the meat as cold as possible while processing. Next, mix in beef tendons. Drop teaspoonful of paste into a pot of simmering water. The meatballs will float to the surface when cooked. Remove into a bowl of ice cold water. Reserve cooking water to be used as broth for the noodles, add salt to taste. Boil rice noodles (the type used for pho) and add to a bowl, add beef balls and ladle hot broth over noodles, garnish with chopped cilantro, spring onions, preserved cabbage, and sesame oil.