My mother's sister, has been making bánh cuốn for years. Every morning, her husband wakes up at 3am to start a fire in their little clay oven. On the pot of water, sits a canvas frame with a slit on one side (to let steam out). The rice flour mixture is ladled onto it and cooks with the lid on for about a minute and my aunt folds them up into rolls. She makes and sells this every morning from 5am at the market.
These can be eaten plain with fried shallots and fish sauce, or with spring onions, minced meat and/ prawn fillings. You can add whatever you like them. Sometimes I eat them with fried aubergines and a sweet and chilli soy sauce or with lots of cured ham and basil. They are silky and delicious, one of my favourite things in the world.
I have written a recipe for it which will be published in my forth coming book.
[Repost]:
My
cousin Binh and I met when I first came back to Vietnam for the first
time in 2000. He was about 8 and I was about 21. When Binh was little,
he survived a tragic accident causing his head to split open. Luckily,
nothing bad happened to him except everyone says he is very quiet and
keeps himself to himself, except when I come back, he only ever talks to
me.
This time, he showed me how he makes creme caramel because
he is setting up a little street stall outside the house. We both have a
strong miss and craving for the creme caramel you can get in both our
mother's home town of Phan Thiet - 5 hours away from Saigon.
In
Phan Thiet, there lives a poet and teacher, named, Duong (Uncle) Tran,
after school every day, he would open up his garden which is at the
front of his house, turns on the fairy lights hanging from a jack fruit
tree, opens the gates and people flood inside for tea, coffee and creme
caramel, the best creme caramel in the world! I always have to visit
this place every time I go to Vietnam. Its a must!
Duong Tran
doesn't talk much, especially about what goes into his famous dessert.
He refuses to disclose any information on how he makes it. (I don't
blame him) He lost his wife, his muse, who always loved his kem flan,
and tells us that that he will make this everyday so that she can also
enjoy it in the afterlife.
The Vietnamese love creme caramel, one
of the things bought over by the French colony. In Vietnam, they do not
really have ovens, so if you were to recreate it, it is usually
steamed. Goodness knows how Duong Tran makes it to utter perfection of
sweetness, egginess, lightness and delightfulness.
Here is Binh's recipe which is very close to Duong Tran's.
Binh's Ingredients (from film clip):
400ml Long Life Sweetened Milk 1/2 Can Condensed Milk 1/2 Can Hot Water 6 Eggs Vanilla Flavouring
For Caramel Sugar and a splash of water
Not
too many people have ovens in Vietnam, so this is steamed over a bowl
in a pot of water for 30 mins, but this leaves many holes in the
custard.
A little voice, deep inside inside had always squeaked something at me and I couldn't really hear what she was saying until it surfaced by chance in the summer when I did my first styling gig with Bill Granger. After years of watching and loving Jamie, Nigella, (even Ramsay & Delia), Stein, Rachel Khoo and Saturday Kitchen, I am somehow landing a few jobs behind the scenes as a food stylist, as a home ec person, as a prop stylist and even being the actual talent myself on camera! ha.
Gregg Wallace, me & Chris
Left over tomatoes from shoot
I went to work with Gregg Wallace, (to be aired on BBC1). I was quite nervous as I heard he had a reputation for being rather vocal. And yes, he was. He challenged me as soon as he met me but because I knew what I was doing and I had everything ready for him we became friends on set and I really enjoyed working with him and listening to his outrageous jokes. Uyen! Like you and me, he kept chuckling as he'd throw his heavy arms around my shoulder. Weeks later, I was even called back to work on the remainder of the shoot which I was very pleased about because I had the opportunity to go to the beach in England which was something I had wanted to do all summer.
I had to make 650 tripled fried chips, cut with an apple corer. Took me 13 hours!
Then I was lucky enough to work with Raymond Blanc. The set, my kitchen! I spent a whole week organising and propping my kitchen and then food styling as well as working with Raymond in front of camera (to be aired BBC2, Winter/ Spring). It was an absolute honour to work with one of the finest figures in food.
Raymond Blanc & me
The next thing I knew, I was packing my little suitcase and going to Thomasina Miers's house to do some recipe testing with her for her forthcoming book. That was a great day, making curries, ceviche and other yummy Asian food. The best thing she came up with was a fragrant pork noodle salad with roasted rice powder, loads of limes, lime leaves and chillies - it was like eating an Asian spaghetti bolognese - totally amazing! She was so cool and we gossiped while we were chopping onions and playing with ingredients. I loved working with her. She is a woman I totally look up to and if I weren't just about the same age as her I could say I aspire to be someone like her, but I am just about the same age as her and I do aspire to be like her: loved by her husband, soon to be mother of two, a successful business woman, author of many books, living in a beautiful house. Tommi then asked me to work as her stylist on a TV pilot (hopefully for Channel 4).
Thomasina Miers
Fragrant Pork Noodle Salad
Fried Fish & Green Mango Salad
Monk Fish Curry
Mackerel Ceviche
Grilled Pork & Tamarind
Part of Tommi's beautiful kitchen that her father and she built
I am incredibly lucky. Doors are always opening for me even when I am not even knocking. Somehow, the skills I gathered as a film maker to a fashion designer to a cook has landed me in this food styling place… I never would have thought! I am truly loving it, it feels like I found something I really really enjoy. The work is hard and you have to be on your feet, the actual ones as well as the mental ones, constantly. You have to think way a head of everyone because food needs preparation and you're in charge of that department. You have to have everything ready, and you have to know where a can opener is or a tooth pick to a chopping board at any given moment it may be requested. It keeps you on your toes and its great fun!
I am now currently styling my own cook book and working with an excellent team, my publisher Ryland Peters & Small. I am loving the photos, the outcome and can not wait to share it when the book is published in Autumn 2013!
Gennaro Contaldo & me (still waiting to work with him)
In bad company, it is hard to swallow something as mighty good as it may well taste, even if its in a top restaurant, cooked by a top rated chef because a song and dance (or should I say, a rattle and shake) which can be performed by the invitee makes it impossible to enjoy. My mother always says, its best to resolve conflicts, then eat, or do it after, never during a meal, never spoil a perfectly good meal! And to always resolve a conflict before sleep.
In good company, I can eat a steak, well done (when ordered medium rare) without even complaining about it. It sure is chewy and he doesn't look too pleased and there is that dreadful awkward and unhappy silence during which that dry piece of meat is being chomped and masticated. Those moments are when you can tell much about a person because that is when they can have a choice to act as well done as that piece of steak or remain succulent, medium rare and juicy as the steak they were meant to be. Its a good test of character. There are many times when mine was rather flawed.
cheese souffle
On one cold chilly evening, Roche Communications sent me to eat at The Grill On The Market, Smithfields. I was very happy about it as I had been working all day and really needed a little pampering. However, the steak was over cooked but we didn't care too much, we were in good company, we talked about things and laughed about them too. Even the starters were on the safe side of bland but the wine was excellent and so was the sticky toffee pudding. Service was brilliant which made it all quite a fun date.
sticky toffee pudding
I always order steak. I love steak even though it is so easy for me to cook at home. I order it for the quality of meat that I can't always get when cooking at home or for the fire of the grill, a serious creed. Sometimes, I have friends whom when I am with, always reminds me that I want to eat steak, something about them. I love people who enjoy steak as much as I do. There is something very inherent about that grip of your teeth into flesh, tearing at the almost raw tissues.
Perhaps it would be cooked to my liking the next time.
The Grill on the Market
2-3 West Smithfield, City of London, EC1A 9JX
