The Fabulous Ms. Vy
Meeting Ms. Vy — restaurateur and cooking teacher extraordinaire — was one of the highlights of our Viet Nam trip. After a delicious dinner at her newest restaurant, Morning Glory, I was looking forward to the cooking class the next day, and it didn’t disappoint.
Informative, encouraging and witty, Ms. Vy spoke passionately about the ingredients available at Hoi An’s marketplace. “It’s so easy,” she said, “to fix great food when you have beautiful ingredients. Freshness is a fixture of Vietnamese cuisine.”
A highlight of the class was the Vietnamese crispy pancake we each made — way too long and complex a recipe for this lazy blogger to type out but incredibly delicious. Do NOT visit Hoi An without eating at Morning Glory. Fit in a class with the fabulous Ms. Vy and you’ll add some marvelous recipes to your repertoire. An enchanting chef in an enchanting land.
Much easier to make than the crispy pancakes is this grilled chicken dish. There’s considerable chopping time involved, but the resulting layers of flavor are worth it.
Grilled Chicken & Lime Leaves
3.5 pounds boneless chicken thighs, skin on
Chop, then pound (individually):
2 TB. red shallots. chopped
2 TB. garlic
3 TB lemongrass
2 TB fresh galangal
3 TB fresh turmeric
Mix the pounded spices together with 1 tsp. sea salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 2 TB fish sauces, 4 tsp crystal brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili sauce, 1 tsp chili powder and 1 tsp. five spice powder.
Shred 2 TB young lime leaves very fine. Save a few shreds as garnish; chop the remainder. Add to the spice mixture.
Coat chicken well with the spice mixture,. Add 1 TB roasted sesame oil and 1 cup peanut oil. Let marinate at least 30 minutes
Place chicken pieces skin side down, fold in half, skewer and then spread out the meat to cook evenly.
Grill 3-4 minutes per side for thick pieces, 2 minutes a side for thin ones (which Ms Vy prefers ).
Serve with a salad of banana flower, green papaya or Chinese cabbage dressed with lime juice, fish sauce and a dash of sugar.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 8:52 amand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
