All posts filed under: Noodles

Bún Bò Huế / Huế Beef Noodle Soup

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Bún Bò Huế is a popular beef noodle soup originating from the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam. The soup has a great combination of salty, sweet, sour and spicy with a strong citrus fragrance. This soup is served with a plate of condiments including various herbs, vegetables and rice vermicelli noodles. To get the right balance of flavors require boiling pork bones and beef shank with lemongrass and fermented fish sauce for hours. Spicy chili oil is added to the broth during the process to add a kick.  Bún bò in Huế is not the fiery spicy broth that most people associate with in the US. It is a generally mild and complex broth. The spiciness is added according to people’s taste afterward. This is my mom’s recipe that she learned from a famous Bún Bò Huế vendor in Huế. Difficulty: Medium / Servings: 8 bowls / Time: 3-4 hours to prepare Ingredients: 1/4 cup of ruoc  (shrimp sauce) 6 quarts water 1 lb boneless eye round roast beef 4 lb. pork small knuckle 3 lb pork leg chop …

Pan Fried Fish with Turmeric and Dill / Chả Cá Thì Là

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Fish with turmeric and dill or chả cá thì là is a famous Vietnamese dish made popular in the northern region of Vietnam. This dish typically has a hardy white fish marinated in turmeric and other seasonings and then pan fried with a lot of dill. My mom and I came up with a version that you can make at home. It has a few exotic ingredients that are generally available at an Asian grocer. This dish is fragrant and is served on a bed of vermicelli rice noodles and top with dill, peanuts and a dab of the aromatic sauce. We published a taco version last month based on this recipe so some of the steps will be the same. The key difference is that this recipe uses shrimp paste or rouc, a pungent shrimp seasoning. In our taco recipe, we substituted the shrimp paste with fish sauce and created a different sauce to pour over the fish at the end. If you do not like the shrimp paste, use the recipe for the marinade and sauce …

Phở Bò / Beef Noodle Soup

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Phở is a hearty noodle soup that is the most well known of all noodle soups from Vietnam. The stock can be made with chicken or beef with the most popular type being beef noodle soup. Every region has its own take on phở bò and the noodle soup is often eaten for breakfast. Phở bò takes at least a few hours of just simmering the bones to get the  right bone stock for the soup base. This is a dish that is made for long weekends and especially when the weather turns cold. We redid the traditional phở recipe into 2 parts (beef stock and  phở broth) to make it easier to measure the ingredients and to get a consistently good broth. This is one of the easiest recipe for phở that we wrote to create a very clear, rich and fragrant broth. You can make the bone stock in advance and freeze it. Whenever you want to make phở, just defrost the bone stock and season the stock to make the phở broth. Difficulty: Medium / Time: 3 hours for bone …

Duck and Bamboo Vermicelli Noodle Soup / Bún Măng Vịt

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Duck and bamboo vermicelli noodle soup or  bún măng vịt is a permanent fixture at my parent’s weekend dinners. This simple and rich vermicelli soup is a dish that one will not find at a restaurant. This is comfort food at its core. A whole duck is boiled for 45 minutes to create a fragrant and rich broth. The duck is then cut into bit size pieces and ready to be dipped in a garlic ginger fish sauce. The bowl of noodle soup is topped with bamboo shoots simply sauteed with some seasoning and a salad of lettuce, cabbage and mints. This is a meal that is best served with family and friends as you’ll guarantee to fight over the meatiest parts of the duck. This dish takes 1 – 1.5 hours to prepare. The recipe serves approximately 8 portions and is rated medium in difficulty. Ingredients: 1 whole duck 1 package of dried bamboo shoots (If you don’t have this, you can use the can version.) 8 tablespoons of fish sauce (for broth and …

Crispy Egg Noodles with Seafood / Mi Xao Don Do Bien

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A simple and impressive dish for a  dinner is Mi Xao Don Do Bien or Crispy Egg Noodles with Seafood. The mix of seafood simmered with a savory sauce over a bed of crispy egg noodles is to die for. The good thing is that you can make the crispy egg noodles and prepare most of the ingredients prior to the dinner. This is a delicious and elegant dish guaranteed to be a hit at your next meal. This recipe is rated medium in difficulty and takes 45 minutes to make 2 large servings.  Ingredients 1 package of fresh egg/ wonton noodles ½ lb of frozen squid ½ lb of scallops ½ lb of mussels ½ lb of Tiger shrimp 6 bok choy 1 cup of snap peas 1 red bell pepper 3 stalks of broccoli 1 cup of baby carrots 1 tablespoon of minced garlic 1 tablespoon of minced ginger ½ of an onion and 1 tablespoon of diced onions. ½  teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder 1 ½ teaspoon of oyster sauce 1 teaspoon of …

Phở Chay / Vegetarian Phở Noodle Soup

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Everyone loves phở but if you are a vegetarian, you are missing out on a national treasure. Buddhist temples have been making vegetarian phở for a long time. This is a fruit based broth with phở seasoning that has a remarkable resemblance to the beef version. Vegetarian phở is also much quicker and easier to make for those days where standing over a bubbling pot for hours is not on the schedule. Enjoy this healthy and delicious phở anytime of the day. This recipe is rated easy and takes approximately 1.5 hours to make. Ingredients: 1 large carrot 1 daikon 1 asian pear 1 casava 1 bartlett pear (American) 1 fuji apple 1 yellow onion 1 chayote 1 leek Vegetarian soup base (can be found in Asian markets) 1 package of pho dac biet seasoning 1 package of fresh pho noodles (flat vermicelli) / Dry pho noodles if the fresh version is not available 1 tablespoon of rock sugar Soy sauce Sugar Sea Salt Ground pepper Assortment of mock beef and ham or tofu depending …

Spicy Beef Saté Noodle Soup

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Spicy beef saté noodle soup is a cross between phở and bún bò huế. It is not as well known as the two, but requires the same bone based broth. Spicy beef saté noodle soup uses pork neck bones and a surprising ingredient of chunky peanut butter. The spiciness comes from the chili oil where you can modify the heat according to your tolerance. This is a delightfully complex yet simple noodle soup that will have you sweating and enjoying the broth at the same time. This soup is especially good on a cold day. This recipe is rated medium and requires approximately 2 hours to make. This recipe serves approximately 6 bowls of noodle soups. Ingredients 2 lb. of pork neck bones 1.5 lb. of beef (eye round or top round) 1 package of pho of flat rice noodles (fresh if available) 3 tablespoons of fish sauce ¼ cup ground chili in soya bean oil (There are many different brands that have different level of heat.) ½ cup of dried shrimps 3 dried squids …