Cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma, Chadstone shopping centre.
Ennis Le from Hanoi Mee.
The recent cooking demonstration by talented Vietnamese chef Ennis Le from Hanoi Mee in Port Melbourne was a great success.
Participants watched Ennis create tantalising modern Vietnamese delights and were thrilled to sample his dishes.
If you missed the demonstration, here are his recipes to try at home.
Keep your eye out for more cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma, Chadstone shopping centre, soon!
Recipe from Ennis Le of Hanoi Mee Kitchen and Bar
140 Rouse St, Port Melbourne
Phone 0452 452 583
Green rice fried prawns
Ingredients
10 tiger prawns, peeled, deveined, remove heads, but leave tails on
1 pkt green rice flakes, from Asian grocers
1 head butter lettuce
handful each of Vietnamese mint, garden mint, coriander, spearmint
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
200ml soda water
oil for deep frying
Pickle ingredients
handful julienned carrots
handful julienned green papaya
200ml water
100g sugar
150ml vinegar
Dipping sauce
500ml water
250g sugar
460ml fish sauce
150ml lemon juice
1 fresh chilli, sliced
Mix all dipping sauce ingredients together and set aside.
Method
Stretch the prawns to straighten.
Combine rice flour and glutinous rice flour and slowly add enough soda water until a thick slurry is formed.
Keep chilled in the fridge or on ice for 20 minutes.
Pickle the carrots and papaya. Whisk sugar with water until sugar is dissolved, add vinegar, keep whisking, then add carrot and papaya. Chill in fridge for one hour.
Dip prawns in fish sauce, coat with rice flour, dip in batter and then coat in green rice flakes.
Heat oil, deep fry prawns at 180 degrees C until crispy.
After about 1 and 1/2 minutes, remove prawns and drain on paper towels.
Serve the prawns with butter lettuce, herbs, pickle and dipping sauce.
Soft shell crab rice paper rolls
Serves 4
This is a tasty dish which makes a good appetiser.
Ingredients
4 sheets rice paper
4 soft shell crabs, available at fishmongers
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
1 avocado, sliced lengthways
100g rice vermicelli, soaked in hot water for 6 minutes, then drained
8 sprigs rice paddy herbs, available at Asian grocers
sweet chilli sauce
200g iceberg lettuce, shredded
Batter
150g tempura flour
50g rice flour
approx 1 cup soda water
extra rice flour for dusting
Method
Mix tempura flour and rice flour. Add water and whisk until it is the correct consistency. Batter should lightly coat your finger when dipped in.
Heat oil for deep frying.
Dust crab in rice flour, coat in batter and deep fry until golden.
Drain and cut crab into pieces.
Dip one sheet of rice paper in warm water, remove immediately and lay flat on bench top.
Place shredded lettuce neatly on the bottom 1/3 of the rice paper, add carrot, avocado, vermicelli, a little sweet chilli sauce and crab pieces.
Stretch the rice paper over the filling and roll up tightly.
Cut each roll into four and garnish with rice paddy herbs.
Repeat with remaining three rolls.
Dip into hoisin sauce before eating.
All photos by Jonathan.
