My Recent Cooking Escapade
December is a perfect opportunity for me to spend time in a little self-indulgence. It's the month with the least stress and not much running around doing errands and household chores.
And since the kids are away at holiday camps during the recent December school holidays, I decided to go for a cooking escapade in Saigon Cooking Class in Vietnam. It was an unforgettably interesting experience and what I love about their cooking is the abundant use of fresh herbs and vegetables. Among the recipes that I learned there were fresh sweet and tangy salad and spring roll.
I never expected that water spinach would be used to make the salad. Although I have cooked and prepared water spinach in many ways, I discovered that all these years I have wasted the stem when it could easily be made into this wonderful Asian sweet and tangy salad. Such a waste! I also discovered that there is this simple, yet effective kitchen gadget to split the water spinach stem. I regret buying only one coz I'm sure that my sister would also agree that it is one of the best kitchen tools ever!
The next Vietnamese dish that I simply love is Goi Cuon (Vietnamese spring roll). Made of the thinnest rice paper I've ever seen, this dish is served cool to the touch with peanut sauce. The filling is made up of rice vermicelli, salad, herbs, prawns and spring onion.
The dip is made of peanut butter, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, salt, chili powder and crushed roasted peanuts. It is delightfully simple yet tasty and I could eat this everyday.
Apart from the simplicity and healthiness of the above dishes, they are a great way to get kids to eat fresh vegetables!
And since the kids are away at holiday camps during the recent December school holidays, I decided to go for a cooking escapade in Saigon Cooking Class in Vietnam. It was an unforgettably interesting experience and what I love about their cooking is the abundant use of fresh herbs and vegetables. Among the recipes that I learned there were fresh sweet and tangy salad and spring roll.
I never expected that water spinach would be used to make the salad. Although I have cooked and prepared water spinach in many ways, I discovered that all these years I have wasted the stem when it could easily be made into this wonderful Asian sweet and tangy salad. Such a waste! I also discovered that there is this simple, yet effective kitchen gadget to split the water spinach stem. I regret buying only one coz I'm sure that my sister would also agree that it is one of the best kitchen tools ever!
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| Water spinach stems |
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| Using the splitter...never ever attempt to remove the round plastic top for the blades might cut your finger |
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| Dunk the shredded stems into a bowl of iced water |
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| Adding the sauce |
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| The salad...hot and tangy |
The next Vietnamese dish that I simply love is Goi Cuon (Vietnamese spring roll). Made of the thinnest rice paper I've ever seen, this dish is served cool to the touch with peanut sauce. The filling is made up of rice vermicelli, salad, herbs, prawns and spring onion.
The dip is made of peanut butter, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, salt, chili powder and crushed roasted peanuts. It is delightfully simple yet tasty and I could eat this everyday.
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| Arrange the filling neatly on the translucent rice paper, then roll it |
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| Ready to eat |
Apart from the simplicity and healthiness of the above dishes, they are a great way to get kids to eat fresh vegetables!
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