Priscilla’s Favourite Recipes

Ingredients:
750g beef flank (can use chicken or pork instead) cut into thin slices and pounded
2 tablespoon of canola oil
2 clove of chopped garlic
225g dry roasted peanuts
450g bean sprouts
½ head lettuce chopped
herbs – basil, cilantro, mint – ½ cut each

Marinate ingredients:
1 thumb ginger
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauces – one spoon of light soy sauce and one spoon of dark soy sauce

Methods:
1. Cut the beef flank (chicken or pork) into think slices and pounded
2. Julienne ½ thumb ginger and chopped the garlic.
3. Pound the other ½ thumb ginger and squeeze the juice.
4. Add the julienned ginger, chopped garlic and ginger juice together with 2 tablespoon of water and mix well.
5. Then add in the sugar, salt and soy sauces.
6. Add in the meat to marinate, personally I like to marinate overnight or at least for a few hours in the refrigerator.
7. Pounded the dry roasted nuts
8. Blanched the bean sprouts in hot water.
9. Heat up oil in frying pan and add the 2 cloves of chopper garlic
10. Stir-fry until brown and then add in the beef to fry.
11. Serve with rice or rice noodles and garnish with lettuce bean sprouts before putting the meat on top and sprinkle with the herbs, peanuts and fried onions.
12. Add Nuoc Cham sauce if desired.

Personally, I prefer to squeeze some lemon juice over the beef.
Can also served in buns.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 lb of shrimp
1 lb of tomato (cut into wedges)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
5 cups of water
1/2 cup of pineapple
1/2 cup of taro stem or celery
2 cup of bean sprout
1/2 of straw mushroom
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup of cilantro leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons of rice paddy herb
1/4 cup of green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons of tamarind
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Methods:
1. Heat oil in a frying pan and add garlic. Stir-fry until garlic turn brown, add tomato. Stir for a few minutes until tomato is softened. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.

2. In a separate pot, bring 5 cups of water to a boil.

3. Pour tomato sauce into the boiling water.

4. Then add pineapple, mushrooms, tamarind, salt, sugar, and fish sauce.

5. Bring it to a boil, add shrimps, bean sprouts, and taro stems.

6. When it boils, finally add green onions, mint, cilantro, and rice paddy herbs. Serve immediately.

Ingredients: Serving 6-8
1 kg beef bones with marrow
3 yellow onions, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
7.5-cm piece fresh ginger
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 parsnips, peeled
5 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup (60 ml) fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
500 g rice vermicelli
500 g beef sirloin, 13 cm thick
3 green scallions, trimmed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (fresh coriander)
1 tablespoon Sriracha chile sauce
Garnishes – sprigs of coriander (cilantro) leaves, lime wedges, cut green chilies
Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dressing) for serving

Methods:
1. In a large roasting pan, place the beef bones in a single layer in preheated oven at 230°C. Roast for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, quarter 1 of the yellow onions. Place in a small baking pan with the garlic and ginger. Drizzle with the canola oil and toss the onion mixture to coat them with the oil. Place in the oven and roast alongside the beef bones until slightly charred, about 30 minutes. Stir the beef bones once during this time.
3. Transfer the beef bones and onion mixture to a stockpot. Quarter the parsnips and add to the pot with the star anise, cinnamon stick, salt and 3 qt (3 liters) water.
4. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and skimming off any form from the surface.
5. Reduce the heat to medium and boil gently, uncovered, until the broth takes on a rich brown color, about an hour.
6. Line a fine-mesh sieve with cheesecloth (muslin) and place over a clean saucepan. Remove and discard the bones from the stock, then pour the stock through the sieve and discard the solids.
7. Add the fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of the vinegar, and the white pepper.
8. Place over low heat and keep at a low boil.
9. In a bowl, soak the rice vermicelli in warm water to cover for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
10. Slice the beef against the grain into slices ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick.
11. Cut the remaining 2 yellow onions into thin slices.
12. Thinly slice the green scallions on the diagonal.
13. In a bowl, toss together the green and yellow onions, cilantro, chile sauce and remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar.
14. Bring a saucepan three-fourths full of water to a boil. Add the drained noodles and boil until just tender, about 2 minutes. Then, drain.
15. Divide the noodles, beef slices, and onion-chile sauce mixture among bowls. Top with the broth. Add the garnishes and Nuoc Cham as desired to the soup. (Or let the eater add themselves.

Nuoc Cham

Ingredients:
2 ripe red chilies
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon sugar
1 lemon
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon water
4 tablespoons fish sauce

Methods:
1. Cut off stalks from chilies, split down the center and remove seeds and center membrane.
2. Cut into chilies into pieces, place into blender together with peeled clove of garlic.
3. Add sugar.
4. Peel lemon, removing all the white pith, slice and remove seeds. Add a small piece at a time to the chilies and blender.
5. Stir in the vinegar, water and fish sauce.
6. Serve in a small bowl and use in small quantities.

(Blender is used as I do not have a mortar and pestle at home. Sauce will be a little frothy but taste is right.)

Ingredients:
3 kg beef rib bones
500 g beef gravy
2 onions, peeled and sliced
thumb-size of fresh ginger
stick of cinnamon
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste
500 g fresh rice noodles or 250 g dried rice noodles
500 g fresh bean sprouts
6 scallions
4 firm ripe tomatoes
2 white onions
500 g rump steak
fish sauce, added to taste
lemon wedges
fresh red or green chilies, chopped
chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves

Methods:
1. Pour in cold water to cover the bones and gravy beef, sliced onions, scraped and sliced ginger, cinnamon stick, whole peppercorns in a big pot and bring to the boil.
2. When boiled, turn heat to very low and simmer, covered, for at least 6-7 hours. Add salt to taste.
3. If using fresh rice noodles, slice them into 1-cm strips and pour boiling water over, then drain or steam in a colander for 5 minutes. If dried rice noodles are used, they have to be soaked in warm water for at least 2 hours, then drained and cooked in boiling water until just tender. Drain well.
4. Prepare salad ingredients by scalding bean sprouts with boiling water in a colander. Run cold water over and if necessary pinch off any straggly brown tails.
5. Slice scallions thinly and cut tomatoes in half lengthways, then slice each half.
6. Peeled and sliced white onions thinly and also slice rump steak into thin bite-size slices. Arrange all on a serving plate.
7. Put a ladle of noodles and a ladle of bean sprouts in each large individual soup bowl.
8. Put a few slices of beef, tomato and onion in a large ladle, immerse in the boiling stock until beef begins to lose its redness. Beef should be pale pink.
9. Pour contents of the ladle over the noodles and bean sprouts and serve with a bowl of fish sauce, lemon juice, chilies and fresh coriander by the side to be added in separately.

(To avoid browny foam from the bone marrow, can bake the bones in the oven first before boiling as broth.)

Ingredients:
8 oz of rice vermicelli
4 oz of port loin
1 lb of shrimp
1 cup of fresh basil leaves
1 cup of mint leaves
1 cup of cilantro leaves
1 head of red leaf lettuce
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
3 tablespoons of roasted brown rice
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 pack of 25 rice paper

Methods:
1. Cut pork into thin slices.
2. In a small frying pan, heat up oil and add garlic. Fry garlic until golden brown. Mix in garlic with pork and roasted brown rice and fish sauce.
3. Bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Sprinkle it with a dash of salt. Place shrimps into the boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain it. Cut each shrimp in half. (Can left the shrimp whole up to your desire, I prefer whole shrimp.)
4. In a large pan, bring 7 cups of water to a boil. Put rice vermicelli into the boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes. Pour into a colander and quickly rinse it with cold water.
5. Dip rice paper into a large bowl of warm water, place it on a rack for 1 minute until it is soft and flexible. Place a little of rice vermicelli, lettuce, basil, mint, cilantro, pork, shrimp on the paper. Roll firmly

(Note: Beef can be used instead of pork, we used beef as we do not take pork)