Cooking at Chateau Mango with 'My Vietnamese Kitchen'

There is some major kitchen love going on at Chateau Mango for the cookbook 'My Vietnamese Kitchen' by Uyen Luu. I recently discovered the book in Artbook, a local shop in Saigon and have not been able to put it down since. Uyen Luu is based in London, having moved to the UK from Vietnam with her family when she was a young girl.

inside the cookbook...

This cookbook is thoughtfully written for those who may be attempting Vietnamese cooking for the first time as well as those who are looking to expand their Vietnamese repertoire.  Uyen explains everything there is to know about working with Vietnamese ingredients. If you have trouble finding a few, she has great tips for alternative ingredients. Before you start cooking you are well versed on herbs, spices, condiments, rice and noodles...the Vietnamese essentials.

 Table of Contents

Ingredients

Awaken the Senses Breakfast

Feed the Soul Soups

Sticky Fingers Noodles

Eat and Play Lunch and Dinner

Happy Endings Sweets

This week we made Lemongrass Beef in Betel Leaves also known as 'bò là lốt'  Fortunately for us... we have a plentiful supply of betel leaves and lemongrass growing in our garden. We turned it into a meal and had enough left over for lunch the next day.  I loved the flavours in this dish... lemongrass, garlic, chilli, sesame oil, sesame seeds, honey, betel leaves, fish sauce, roasted peanuts, Thai sweet basil, cilantro, mint and perilla....you can find the recipe here.

Our woman about the house, Huyen, cooks for us amongst many other things. She is one of the memories I will cherish most about our time living in Vietnam. Huyen prefers to cook from cookbooks, something I am only to happy to oblige her with. When we cook Vietnamese, which is most often the case, I always ask her opinion first, for she knows best. This recipe received a big  thumbs up from Huyen. 

 I managed to snap the pic below just before adding the peanut sauce.. not nearly as attractive as the cookbook photo but trust me, it was delicious! 

Photo..me

Uyen offers delicious recipes on her website..here

I encourage you to watch this lovely clip about Uyen Luu.

It is a wonderful story.

  

You can purchase 'My Vietnamese Kitchen' on the following sites.

In the USA: here

In the UK and Europe: here

In Australia : here

In New Zealand: here

In Vietnam: here

More Vietnamese cookbooks 

on the shelves of Chateau Mango : here

ăn uống tốt!

Good Eating!