Vietnamese Food

Last week my Vietnamese friend invited me to her house.  She was very nice to make everything in advance just to show me some Vietnamese food. I was happy to learn about the common food she made at home for her family.

Breakfast Rice Noodle 

Flat Rice Noodle - Shredd to small pieces and heat up in microwave.
Top with fresh fried shallots and fried tofus.
Serve with fish vinegar sauce (see note)

Fish Vinegar Sauce (Dipping Sauce)

2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup water
Minced garlic
Hot green chili (optional)

Mix well, refrigerate any unused portion in a glass container.

Note:
I tried to mimic the sauce at home. The taste was pretty close to what I had at my friend's house.  I added a little minced garlic and green chili to spice up the sauce.  I forgot to add the fried tofu to the noodle but it should be included.

Vietnamese Shrimp Toast

Shrimp - shell the shrimp and make it into a paste
Add some black peppers
1 tsp Oyster sauce
1 tbsp Mirin Wine (sweet taste)
1 tbsp Soy sauce

Spread on slices of bread to toast at 300 degree for 10 minutes.
Cut up into triangle shapes to serve.


Vietnamese spring rolls

Cooked rice vermicelli according to package
Rice wrappers
Shrimp meat balls (See below for recipe)*
Thai basil
Mint leaves
Lettuce

Dipping Sauce: fish sauce,lime juice, sugar, chili (see above note for recipe of sauce)

Steps:

1. Fill a bowl with warm water. Dip a rice wrapper into the warm water for 1 second to soften. Lay wrapper flat.  Place a small piece of lettuce, basil, mint leave, small amount of vermicelli, and 2 shrimp balls on the wrapper.  Fold and roll the wrapper into a rectangular shape. Repeat to finish making the rest ingredients into spring rolls.

    2.  In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and fresh chopped chili. 
    3.  To serve, dip spring roll into sauce.
 

*Shrimp Meatballs

Shrimp paste
Ground Pork
Japanese Mirin Wine
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Black Pepper

Mix all ingredients and shape in to small balls.
Fry in a little oil and scoop out when it's done.

Vietnamese Basic Noodle Soup

Daikon
Celery
Yellow Onion
Carrot
Ginger
Chicken

Add all the ingredients in a big pot of water and cook for 2 hours.
Shred the chicken meat and save for later use and discard the rest.
In a bowl, add shredded chicken meat and rice noodle or vermicelli with this soup.
Add mint leaves, bean sprouts and fresh lemon.
Serve with hoisin sauce and chili or hot sauce.

Note:

Serve the shrimp meatball and noodle in this soup as lunch.