Del-icious!

Vietnamese

So, after drying my herbs and browsing through the recipes in my Vietnamese cookbooks, I finally made dinner using all the ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted. I initially decided on some grilled beef skewers but changed my mind as they seemed very similar to the pepper leaf parcels I was going to make.

So, I decided on a Vietnamese salad which would utilise all the herbs I so carefully dried all day. I adapted the recipe a little to suit what I could find in my local supermarket and what is in season right now.

'Beef and Kohlrabi salad' Goi bo su hao

My adaptation

1/4 large daikon, cut into long, thin strips

1 carrot, cut into long, thin strips

3 fl oz apple cider vinegar
1 sachet each of Splenda and Sugar Twin sugar substitute or 3 oz sugar

1/4 cucumber, peeled and cut into strips

1/2 mango, peeled and cut into strips

a large handful each of: mint, basil, Vietnamese mint, sawtooth coriander, pepper leaves and sesame leaves.

350g sirloin steak, sliced

2 tbsp peanuts, roasted in a dry pan

Salad dressing:

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 sachet each of Splenda and Sugar twin sugar substitute or 2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 chili, chopped

Method

Marinade the daikon and carrot in the vinegar and sugar for one hour in the fridge.

Place the cucumber, mango and herbs into a large dish.

Fry the steak over a high heat in a frying pan with a little oil until brown, don't overcook.

Add to the salad with the drained daikon and carrot and pour over the dressing.

Garnish with the peanuts, chili flakes etc.

I also made ground pork wrapped in pepper leaves. The recipe was once given to me by the owner of an amazing Asian store in Vancouver, it was a good way to use up the pepper leaves.

200g pork, ground in a food processor.

juice of one lime

1/2 sachet of sugar substitute or 1/2 - 3/4 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce

12 - 15 pepper leaves

Method

Mix the pork with the seasonings.

Place a small piece of ground pork in each leaf and wrap up.

Steam in a bamboo steamer set over a pot of simmering water for about 15 minutes.

Cut one open to check it's cooked and no pink is left.

Options:

You could add chopped chili, water chestnuts, shallots, garlic, dried prawns etc.

You could use beef, chicken or prawns.

Served with a dipping sauce:

Initially I just used Sriracha sauce, but it was so hot I thought I was going to faint while my head throbbed! so I came up with this toned down option.

Sauce:

2 tbsp Sriracha chili sauce

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp water

1 tsp fish sauce

pinch of sugar to taste

Mix together

The mayonnaise was not the greatest idea as it didn't emulsify too well, (it does with hot sauces), but it was pretty tasty and seemed in keeping with the other flavours.

So, a pretty successful day of non-wastage. If my husband ever reads this, I'm sorry, but the carefully dried herbs that had been drying all day wrapped in a tea towel, were inadvertently dropped onto the floor. There was no way I was going to throw them out after all we had been through together, so the 5 second rule prevailed! Sorry, but you're OK, aren't you(?)