Crispy Fried Duck

Don't know why I always feel hungry when it rains, and always feel like eating something heavy, hearty, so I made Crispy Fried Duck today for lunch.

Ingredients: (for 2)

- Duck breast: 500 gr
- Spice paste*: 100g
- Cooking oil: 1 tbsp
- Lemon grass: 2 stalks, bruised
- Cinnamon Stick: 5 cm length
- Chicken stock: 1 litre

Marinade:

- Spice paste*: 50g
- Salt: a pinch
- Black peppercorns: 2-3, crushed
- Rice flour: 50g

*Spice paste: Grind coarsely these ingredients and mix with a little bit of water: large red chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, turmeric, candle nuts, dried prawn paste, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, nutmeg, cloves salt


Method:

1. Marinate duck with half the spice paste for 1 hour in a cool place.
2. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add remaining spice paste, lemon grass, cinnamon stick and saute for 2 minutes. Pour in stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.
3. Add the duck breast and bring back to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes till the duck is 80% cooked. Remove from the heat and leave duck to cool in the stock. When cooled, remove from stock and drain well.
4. Marina duck. Rub duck with spice paste, salt and pepper and dust evenly with rice flour. Deep-fry in medium hot oil till duck is crispy and golden brown in colour. Drain well and served with steam rice, can use the sauce of soya sauce mix with chili sauce and warm water.

Pork & Cucumber Salad

Ingredients: 
- 200g pork fillet
- 1 large or 2 small cucumbers
- 2 tablespoons small dried prawns, soaked, cleaned

Dressing:
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon tamarind juice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground dried red chillies
- 1/4 teaspoon dried shrimp paste
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tables spoon ground roasted peanuts.

Method:

1. Boil the pork till just cooked, about 20 minutes. Cool, then slice thinly.
2. To prepare the dressing: Blend the tamarind juice, chillies, half of the shallots and shrimp paste until fine. Stir in the rest of the dressing ingredients and mix all in a large bowl. Add the dried prawns, pork slices and cucumber. Toss well.
3. Serve with steamed rice.

Fried Rice with Kim chi and Fresh bacon

I haven't cooked for myself a proper meal for ages since I have been too busy. Got a week off from work because of the horrible Migraine made me bored so I looked at my camera and found the picture of the fried rice I made just a week before I got the migraine and today, I am not totally recovered yet, but the pain is bearable to write this post.

It is not easy to cook for one person, so left over food is always a big problem for me. And I got an idea for left over rice, with some fresh bacon and kim chi (fermented cabbage in Korean style), I had a wonderful fried rice that tasted so good that I need to share on this blog.

Ingredients:


- Shallots
- Fresh bacon
- Kim chi (can buy in Korean food store)
- Chili paste (option)
- Spices,  and of course, cold cooked rice (or left over rice)

The amount of each is up to your taste, to your like.

Method:

Heat the pan, fried the thinly slices of bacon till the oil is out and both sides become golden, put in the shallots, then the rice, reduce the heat, stir constantly so the rice won't be burnt about 10 minutes, put in the kim chi and little chili paste (if you want it spicy) and continue stir about 10 more minutes then add some salt and pepper and serve.

Enjoy!

My simple fried prawns

I love fried prawns, but don't like the tempura ones as too much batter, and I also don't like just prawns being fried, then will be boring. How about just a very thin layer of batter for my simple fried prawns.

Ingredients:

- 300g prawns, peeled and clean

- 1 egg

- 1 table spoon wheat flower

- salt, peper and chili powder

- cooking oil

Methods:

Mix the flower, egg, a little bit of water with salt, pepper and chili powder till it becomes a thin batter. Put the prawns in and mix gently till all the prawns are cover in that thin batter.

Heat a little bit of oil, just one table spoon, in a frying pan till it is hot. Take each prawn, shake off the liquid, and put on the pan one by one.

Fry each side till it turns golden.

And here are the fried prawns, with a very thin layer of batter that I like, not too oily, but not boring, love it ;)

Sauté shrimps/prawns with fish sauce

I think all Vietnamese love this dish, it goes so well with hot steam rice and some pickle vegetables and so easy, so fast to cook. You can apply this recipe for either shrimps or prawns. If you choose prawns then you should peel them. I like the small shrimps which can find only sometimes in the local market, the ones they get from the river, not the farm ones, taste much better

Ingredients:

 - 200 g of shrimps or prawns

 - 1 tsp turmeric powder (for both better flavor and nicer color after cook)

 - 1 tsp of dark soya sauce 

- 1 tsp of fish sauce

- 1 tbs of cooking oil

- a pinch of sugar

- Garlic and ginger, as you wish

Method:

Heat the oil, saute the garlic and ginger till flavor, add turmeric then the shrimps and stir constantly till it is a little bit dry then add sugar, continue to stir in low heat till it is dry, add soya sauce and fish sauce, then cook till the prawns are dry. Serve hot with steam rice.

My mom's steak

Here is how my mom usually makes steak for us, her recipes are always simple with all ingredients we can get easily in Vietnam, so yum!

Ingredients: (for one person)
- Beef fillet (200 gr)
- Lemon, chili sauce
- Pepper
- Fish sauce
- Garlic
- Roasted peanuts (optional)
- Cooking oil
- Sesame oil
- Sugar

Method:

1. To make the sauce: Crush around 1 tsp of roasted peanuts, then mix with 1 tbsp of good soya sauce, 1 tsp of minced garlic, 1 tsp of chili sauce, 1 tsp of lemon juice, a pinch of sugar.

2. Marinate the beef with 1 tsp of fish sauce, pepper, 1 tsp of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, 1 tsp of minced garlic for around 3 hours.
Heat the pan with cooking oil till very hot and cook the beef as you desire, rare, medium or well done.

Served with tomato salad and above sauce.

Vietnamese Coffee

Nothing about food today as so far I have no time to prepare food, just some fast food only. I want to write about my favorite drink which I cannot live without, which I drink every morning or even sometimes at night if I have to stay late, that is coffee
I love coffee, when I have time, I always make my own Vietnamese coffee with the drip filter. But normally, 3 in one is a fast way to start a morning if you have no time.
Today, I have a free morning, and it is raining outside, I feel like spending some time watching the coffee  dripping slowly into the glass.
Here is the filter set I just bought, there are 4 pieces in one filter set.

I put around 2 tbsp of coffee into the filter, pour just a little bit of boiling water first, then wait till the coffee is soaked then fill the filter with boiling water

Now I can just sit next to the window, look out to see the rain and wait for the coffee which is dripping slowly into the glass. I don't know why, I really love watching the rain, and the coffee drops, It is just beautiful and a nice combination for me.

The coffee is ready, now I can add either sugar, milk or sweetened condensed milk, I can also add ice if I want an iced coffee. 

If you like to drink hot coffee like me, you should put the glass into a bowl of boiling water, to keep the coffee hot. Now I can just enjoy my coffee while looking at the rain. What a relaxed morning!