Photo by Uyen Luu
Like many of us, I imagine, I spend a lot of my time daydreaming about where I might go to once travel is an untroubled possibility again, and Vietnam is very high on my list of fantasy holiday (ie eating) destinations. It always has been, actually, and yet I have never been. I first ate Vietnamese food in Paris when I was a teenager, a long time back in the last century, and I was bowled over by its exquisiteness, and have been entranced by it ever since; it’s both delicate and yet full of depth, and so fragrant, light and bright. And so I fell upon Uyen Luu’s Vietnamese. As its subtitle — Simple Vietnamese Food to Cook at Home — suggests, the recipes are easily within the interested but not specialised cook’s grasp. Yes, there are dishes which are more involved but even so, what those few call for is time rather than expertise. Indeed, to give an example of this, the bánh mì - that smallish Vietnamese-style baguette that is the proper bread for quite rapturous sandwiches (“your roll of heaven” as Luu writes), is explained so precisely and invitingly, I found myself immediately ordering the baguette trays suggested to bake them in. But on the whole, it is the simpler, quicker recipes that I earmarked greedily and, in particular, the Soy Aubergines with Thai Basil, Hot & Fiery Greens with Anchovies, Omelette with Carrot, Cabbage and Chinese Sausage, Sizzling Crepes with Prawns, Savoy Cabbage, Roasted Cauliflower & Cashew Chilli Noodles, Glass Noodles with Vegetables, Caramelised Hake with Fish Sauce and Ginger, Coconut Rice Pudding with Ginger Syrup & Grilled Peaches, and Vietnamese Iced Coffee. I have to say, too, that I’m hoping that there are still courgette flowers to be found for her Fried Courgette Flowers with Prawns & Chives — definitely a fiddly recipe (the courgette flowers are filled with a flavoursome prawn stuffing before being deep-fried) but there are days when you want something straightforward and fast, and days when a bit of a project is joyfully possible. The recipe I have chosen to share with you perhaps sounds more complicated than it is: it’s the Fish Cake Noodle Soup, but the little fishcakes in question are the work of an easy moment if you have a processor.
Vietnamese: Simple Vietnamese Food to Cook at Home by Uyen Luu (Hardie Grant, £22) is published on 27th May.
Photographer: Uyen Luu
