To Prep
Soak vermicelli noodles in hot water for 5 mins, drain and allow to cool.
In a bowl, prepare the dressing by mixing the chilli paste, lime juice and fish sauce.
Add noodles and Chinese BBQ pork to the dressing.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and toss through.
Garnish with mint and peanuts (optional) and serve warm.
Noodles
Vegetarian Pho
For the Soup Base
To make a more flavourful soup, charring the onion and ginger goes a long way. Do this by simply grilling the onion and ginger until their surface is slightly blackened – take care not to overdo this and actually burn them. Once they are nicely charred, remove from the heat and set them aside.
Dry fry the cinnamon, white peppercorns, star anise, cloves, and coriander seeds over low heat in a stockpot. Fry the herbs until fragrant.
Once the oils in the herbs have been released, add the vegetable stock, charred onion and ginger, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and soy sauce. Turn the heat up to high until the stock begins to boil.
Once the stock begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium low and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for 60-90 mins.
When the soup is done, strain it through a wire-mesh strainer and season with salt. Keep the soup warm for later.
For the Noodles
Prepare the rice noodles according to packet instructions. Once cooked, drain the noodles through a sieve and rinse under running water to stop the cooking.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Pan fry the brocollini until tender and lightly browned. You can add some salt to season the vegetables. Do the same for the button mushrooms and baby bok choy. Set aside the toppings.
Add the portions of noodles into their own separate bowls. Top with the pan fried vegetables, five spice tofu, and bean sprouts, then, pour over with the warm soup.
Garnish with lime wedges and Vietnamese mint and serve hot.
Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad (Bun Bo Xao)
To Prep
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, fish sauce and water and mix well.
Then, add the lime juice, garlic and chilli. Mix and set aside for later.
Combine the sliced beef, oyster sauce, ½ tbsp minced garlic, lemongrass, salt, pepper, chicken stock and 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a mixing bowl. Mix well, making sure that the beef in evenly coated in the marinade. Let the beef marinade for 20 mins.
To Cook
Heat up a wok and add the remainder of the vegetable oil. When the oil has heated up, sauté the rest of the garlic until fragrant.
Next add the beef to the wok and fry until the beef is no longer pink.
Cook the rice vermicelli according to packet instructions. Drain the noodles when they are done and portion into individual bowls.
Add the mixed greens and cucumber on top the vermicelli and top with the stir fried beef. Garnish with the do chu, fried shallots, and crushed peanuts.
Use the dipping fish sauce as a salad dressing. Mix the salad with the dressing and serve.
Cantonese Fried Flat Noodles in Egg Gravy (Wa Tan Hor)
To Cook the Noodles
Lightly blanch the noodles in some boiling water to avoid them sticking together.
Heat up the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the noodles, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.
Stir fry and toss until the noodles are evenly coated with the soy sauce. Continue until the noodles are cooked. Set aside.
To Cook the Gravy
Heat up some oil in the wok and fry the garlic until golden brown.
Next add the chicken, fish cake and prawns. Fry until the prawns and chicken are cooked and pour in the chicken stock
Season the chicken stock with the light soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt to taste. Once seasoned, bring the stock up to a boil.
Prepare a cornstarch mixture by adding the cornflour to water and mixing well, making sure there are no lumps.
Pour the cornstarch mixture into the chicken stock and simmer until the gravy thickens.
Add the choy sum into the gravy and crack the eggs in as well.
Turn the heat off as soon as you crack the eggs in and stir vigorously to break up the eggs and mix them into the gravy.
Pour the gravy over the prepared noodles and serve immediately.
Claypot Glass Noodles with Prawns (Goong Ob Woonsen)
To Prep
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
Cut the roots of the coriander into 3cm pieces, and the stems and leaves into 9cm pieces. Set aside.
To Cook
In a claypot, heat the cooking oil over medium heat.
Lay the pork belly at the bottom of the claypot.
Add the garlic, ginger, peppercorns and coriander roots. Turn the heat up to medium-high and stir-fry until they become fragrant.
Add the glass noodles, chicken stock and sauce, and stir until evenly mixed. Cover and simmer for 1-2min.
Add the prawns and top with the coriander stems and leaves. Drizzle sesame oil over.
Cook on medium heat for 10 min or until the prawns and vermicelli are fully cooked. If the sauce dries up while the dish is cooking, add more chicken stock.
Mixed Vegetable Curry (Sayur Lodeh)
To Cook
Grind spice paste A ingredients together. Add in water to ⅓ of the height of the paste.
Heat the cooking oil and saute the paste A. Big bubbles will start to appear as the moisture evaporates. Keep stirring to prevent the paste from sticking to the sides of the wok or pan.
When the bubbles become smaller, add in all the vegetables, stir fry for 5 minutes.
Add in water and coconut milk. Bring this to a boil and add prawns, tofu, tempe and vermicelli bean thread. Boil for about 3 mins and serve hot.
Tofu and Seaweed Udon
To Cook
Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add the tofu. Bring back to the boil. Immediately drain, then cut into small cubes.
In a small saucepan, combine the remaining Tofu ingredients, bring to the boil. Add the tofu cubes and simmer for 5 mins. Drain and discard the cooking liquid.
Cook the Udon noodles according to packet instructions. Put the spring onions in a small wire sieve. Dip them briefly into the boiling water. Refresh under cold running water and set aside. Drain the noodles, rinse and drain well.
Put the Noodle’s dashi broth and dark soy sauce into a saucepan. Add the light soy sauce, brown sugar and sake (or sherry). Bring to the boil. Season to taste with salt.
Arrange the noodles in serving bowls. Top with the tofu, spring onions and the nori sheets. Ladle in the hot broth and serve immediately.
Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki
To Prep
In a large bowl, mix mirin and water, then add the flour. Mix with a whisk until well combined.
To Cook
Heat up a frying pan over medium heat. With a ladle, pour in a little less than ½ of batter into the pan. Spread immediately from the center outwards in circular motion to about 20-23cm in diameter.
Sprinkle in bonito powder liberally and add half of the cabbage. Then add ½ of spring onions and bean shoots on top.
Place 3 slices of pork belly, without overlapping, over the vegetables.
Pour 1-2 tbsp of batter over the ingredients to bind them together.
Flip the okonomiyaki carefully to cook the meat with medium high heat until done, then reduce the heat to low.
Heat oil in another frying pan and stir-fry 1 packet of noodles with 1½ tbsp of okonomiyaki sauce, while shaping them to the size of the okonomiyaki. Transfer the okonomiyaki on top of the noodles with 2 spatulas.
In the empty frying pan, heat some oil and add 1 egg. Spread the egg immediately into a circle of the size of the okonomiyaki. Transfer the okonomiyaki, with noodle at the bottom, onto the egg.
Fry the egg until cooked and check that it is not sticking to the pan. Transfer the okonomiyaki to a serving plate by placing the plate on top of the okonomiyaki and flip over.
Add okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and seaweed powder on top. Repeat to make the second okonomiyaki. Serve hot.
Korean Noodles in Black Bean Sauce (Jajangmyeon)
To Prep
Prepare the pork by cutting them into 2-3cm cubes. Marinate the pork with a tablespoon of rice wine (or mirin), ginger, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut the onion, cabbage and zucchini to 2-3cm cubes. Set aside.
To Cook
In a small saucepan, heat up 2 tbsp of oil then add the black bean paste, sugar, and oyster sauce. Fry it over medium heat for 2-3 mins, stirring constantly.
Heat a large pan over medium high heat with the remaining1 tbsp of oil. Add the pork and stir fry until cooked. Add the vegetables and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the black bean paste and mix everything thoroughly together until all the meat and vegetables are coated well with the paste.
Pour in the stock and bring it to a boil for 3-4 mins.
Place the potato or corn starch into a small bowl, dissolved in ¼ cup of water. Stir in to the pot of sauce and cook briefly until the sauce is thickened.
In a separate pot, heat water and add the noodles in the boiling water. Cook according to the package instructions and drain, the noodles should have a firm bite to them. Place a serving size of noodles in each bowl. Spoon the sauce over the noodles and garnish with the thinly julienned cucumber and carrot.
Korean Mix Vegetables and Seafood in Mustard Sauce (Yang Jang Pi)
To Cook
Bring a pot of water to boil and add yang jang pi noodle sheet. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the starch noodles are al dente. Drain noodles into a colander and rinse under running tap until the noodles are cool.
Season the noodles with ½ tbsp soy sauce, ½ tbsp. sugar, 2 tsp sesame oil and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Marinate pork using the pork marinade and set aside. Mix mustard sauce ingredients and set aside.
On a large round platter or plate, arrange squid, prawns, cucumber, capsicum, 5 shitake mushrooms and omelette in a circular arrangement and place yang jang pi noodles in the middle.
Heat up a wok with oil and add marinated pork. Saute pork over high heat and add onions, ¼ carrot and the remaining 2 shitake mushrooms and briefly saute. Add garlic chives and spring onions and quickly saute for about 15- 20 seconds.
Pour pork stir fry over the noodles in the middle. Serve yang jang pi with mustard sauce poured over.
Thai Leaf Wrapped Grilled Fish (Miang Pla Pao)
To Prep
Stuff 3 stalks of bruised lemongrass and 1 cup of basil leaves inside the fish. Then rub 2 tbsp salt all over the fish.
To Cook
Heat up the grill and cook the fish for 15-20 mins on each side.
Prepare the sauce while the fish is grilling. Combine all the ingredients for the spicy sauce in a food processor and blend until it becomes a thick paste. Spoon out and set aside.
To make the sweet sauce, add all ingredients to a saucepan and heat over low heat. Keep stirring until palm sugar is fully dissolved. Turn off the heat, add in crushed peanuts and stir to mix well.
The fish should be ready by now. Serve whole fish with fresh vegetables, rice noodles and sauces on the side. Simply peel off the skin and scales of the fish to reveal the moist and tender fish meat.
To enjoy, take a betel leaf, add some rice noodles, fish meat and other vegetables. Wrap it up and dip it into either sauce and shove it into your mouth!
Buddha’s Delight (Lo Hon Chai)
To Cook
Soak shitake mushrooms, black fungus, rice vermicelli/glass noodles, foo chook, lily bulbs for about 40 mins.
Heat oil in the large wok, add red fermented beancurd and stir fry briefly.
Add in water, followed by the fermented bean curd water, cabbage, fried beancurd, red dates, mushrooms, lily bulbs and black fungus. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 mins.
Add carrot and fresh lotus seeds, let simmer for 5 mins. Season with salt and sugar according to taste.
Lastly, add rice vermicelli/glass noodles and simmer for 2 mins.