Vietnamese style pancakes

Vietnamese pancakes. Photo by Steve Shanahan

Cooking Asian food requires some preparation and energy to hunt and gather ingredients, but provides its own reward with simple, light and fresh flavours.

We don’t need to travel very far in Canberra to access fabulous local food markets and a plethora of Asian grocers, offering the opportunity and inspiration to recreate Asian street style delicacies. My challenge each visit is to only buy as much as I need.

When old friends from the North Coast of NSW arrive for a surprise stay we visit the Capital Region Farmer’s Market to shop for an Asian feast.

So to counter my habit of buying more than I need, I make a shopping list and take my friend along for back-up. Arriving at the market I turn my trolley upside down to find the shopping list, which I realise is languishing on my kitchen benchtop. So we shop from memory and collect a little extra just in case. I do find shopping from memory does tend to keep me a little more focused.

After escaping with only a couple of extra bags of produce, we return to prepare the feast of pork and chicken pancakes in bean sauce and sticky rice dumplings in ginger syrup. This is accompanied with a glass or two of alcoholic inspiration.

Over dinner, our visitors enthused about the quality and choice of the produce available at the market, again reminding me of Canberra’s strong relationship to it’s burgeoning and multicultural food culture.

This recipe requires some preparation time, so start early and give yourself a few hours leeway or have someone else in the kitchen to share out the tasks.

Crispy Vietnamese pancakes with bean sauce

Batter

400g rice flour

300ml coconut milk

300ml water

2 green shallots, chopped finely

vegetable oil for frying

Filling

200g pork mince

100g chicken mince

1 small onion, chopped

3 green shallots, chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp palm sugar or coconut sugar

1 chilli, deseeded and chopped

1 lime, juiced and zest

½ cup of fresh herbs, a combination of basil, coriander and mint, finely chopped

vegetable oil

1 tsp ground white pepper

200g fresh bean sprouts

Bean sauce

50g vegetable oil

100g salted soy beans, found at Asian grocers

150ml sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp dried chilli flakes

¼ cup of fresh ginger, finely chopped

¼ cup of green shallots, finely chopped

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

60g roasted peanuts

2 tbsp water

To make the pancake batter, place rice flour into a medium sized mixing bowl, add coconut milk and water and mix until smooth. Add shallots and mix together and leave to rest for half an hour.

To prepare the bean sauce, heat the oil in a medium sized frypan over medium heat. Then add the ginger and shallots and cook for one minute. Add the tamarind paste, bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, peanuts and sesame seeds and cook for five minutes, stirring to combine and prevent sticking and burning. Add the water and continue to stir for another two minutes. Remove to a bowl to cool slightly, then blend on high speed for one minute in a food processor or stick blender until smooth. Remove the blended sauce to a bowl and set aside.

For the filling, in a medium sized frypan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the pork and chicken mince and cook until golden and crumbly. Add the onion and shallots and cook for another five minutes. Then add the fish sauce, sugar, chilli, lime zest, peanuts, juice and white pepper. Continue to cook and mix for another five minutes. Taste for seasoning. Transfer the mince mixture to a medium bowl and stir through half of the chopped herbs, cover and set aside.

For the pancakes, preheat the oven to 80C. In a medium sized frypan or wok, heat three tablespoons of vegetable oil over a high heat and add a third of a cup of the batter, rotating the pan to evenly coat the the base of the pan.  When bubbles start to form cook for a further two minutes until crispy around the edges. Remove from pan with a large egg lifter and place on an oven tray. Transfer to the oven to keep warm. Repeat until all the batter is used.

To serve, place the pancakes on individual plates, top with a couple of spoons of warmed meat filling, add a spoon of chopped fresh herbs and top with a good dollop of bean sauce, some fresh bean sprouts and toasted sesame seeds.

Due to the crispiness of these pancakes they do not roll well, so eating with a fork and knife works best.

Duck in master stock

Duck in master stock

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 7 December 2012 

Duck, cooked in a myriad of ways, is one of the most popular street foods across Asia. If you tend to avoid cooking duck because you believe it’s too difficult, this method of red braising will give you sweet and succulent meat with a deliciously crispy skin every time. Using this ancient but simple technique might give you confidence to add duck to your favourites list.

The very traditional method of red braising produces some prized master stocks, with recipes that are often handed down by families over generations. Many family master stocks are so highly valued they are given as a wedding present to represent good luck and a long and happy life.

I picked up my master stock recipe many years ago from Darren Ho, who was the executive chef at the award winning restaurant Terroir, in the Hunter wine region. Ho, steeped in the business of food since he was seven years old, hails from a long line of chefs and restaurant owners. His grandfather bestowed the family master stock recipe on him and the affable chef willingly  shares his knowledge of this cherished braising liquid. 

My master stock is more than a decade old and, like a good red wine, has aged gracefully, with its well balanced flavours bearing testament to many past meals. I have named my pre-adolescent stock Mao, as the erstwhile Chairman of the Peoples’ Republic insisted that his dishes were cooked in this way.

Preparing your first master stock is simply a matter of combining the ingredients in a large stockpot and simmering until the flavours are infused. If you follow some basic rules, the stock will keep in the refrigerator for many years, ready for when you next need it. Before refrigerating, the stock should be strained and brought to a rolling boil for a few minutes after each use, to keep it free from nasty bacteria. The complexity and depth of flavour of the master stock continues to grow based on the accumulated meat and vegetable infusions.

The flavours in master stock are incredibly versatile and will provide just the right base for sauces, soups or gravy. It can even be reduced down to a paste to make a glaze for pork or ham, and it makes an easy stir fry sauce or as a natural enhancer for casseroles instead of using stock cubes. 

Duck legs, or marylands, are the best cut of duck meat for this recipe, and the skin can then be crisped up under a hot grill before serving. I like to serve the duck with a fresh Asian style salad of mint, coriander, lychees and ginger to cut through the richness of the duck meat.

If you are cooking for a special occasion and you have a large enough pot, a whole red braised duck is an impressive dish, just make sure you make enough stock to cover the bird in the pot and cook slowly for three and a half hours on top of the stove on a very low heat. You will need to double the recipe quantities below to cook a large piece of meat. Pork belly can also be braised in this way, adding some onion, cloud ears (black fungus) to the stock.

For your initial batch of master stock, prepare it a day before you are ready to cook your duck, so the flavours will have time to infuse. Each time you use the stock you can add to it by replenishing the ingredients to ensure you keep a large enough quantity for your next use. The ingredient quantities are approximate, you can adjust these based on your taste.

The ingredients in the recipe are available at Asian grocery stores and the quantity serves 4.

Master stock

2 litres of water

250ml Shaoxing wine

125ml light soy sauce

75ml dark soy sauce

100g yellow rock sugar of palm sugar

3 cumquats or 3 pieces of orange peel

2 cinnamon quills

4 star anise

1 knob of ginger, roughly chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

5 dried Chinese mushrooms

Duck

4 duck marylands or 8 duck legs

full recipe quantity of master stock

2 shallots, chopped

12 lychees, peeled and chopped or tinned

½ cup mint leaves

½ cup coriander leaves

½ red chilli, chopped

2 tbsp ginger, peeled and finely chopped

4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded

juice of half a lime

To make the master stock, bring all the ingredients to boil in a large stock pot, simmer for half an hour. Strain. This recipe makes about two and a half litres. Any leftover master stock can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen for longer periods. With regular resuscitation, rejuvenation, boiling and refreezing, your stock can be made to last for generations.

To prepare the duck, preheat the oven to 160C. Trim any excess fat from the duck and slit the joint in the leg to keep it flat. Place in a baking dish, skin side down. Bring the master stock to the boil in a saucepan and pour over the duck pieces so they are almost submerged. Cover with a lid or aluminium foil and place in the oven. Cook for one and a half hours and then remove the lid or foil and turn the duck over to skin side up. Cook for another 45 minutes until the meat is almost falling from the bone.

Remove the duck from the stock and refrigerate until needed. Completely chill the master stock in the refrigerator and then remove the fat that has accumulated on the top. Place two cups of master stock in a saucepan, bring to the boil and reduce by half. The duck pieces can be either reheated in the reduced stock or, for a crispy skin, placed in a shallow pan, skin side up and reheated in a 180C oven for 10 minutes or reheated under a hot grill.

While the duck is reheating and sauce reducing, make the salad by combining the remaining ingredients in a bowl and tossing with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Transfer the duck pieces to a serving bowl and pour over the reduced stock, then pile the lychee and ginger salad on top of the duck.