Vietnamese Pho Recipe & Red Boat Fish Sauce

To my knowledge (and please correct me if I am wrong!!) there is no fish sauce in Australia that doesn't contain sugar (or MSG and preservatives) other than Red Boat fish sauce. When I looked into this product a few months back after researching what is on the market, I was super impressed.

It only contains 2 clean ingredients:

·      Fermented anchovies; plus
·      sea salt.

Nothing else.

It is made using a unique 200 year old artisanal process. The anchovies are caught locally (from the crystal clear waters off the Phu Quoc island archipelago) and salted immediately. They are then transferred to traditional wooden barrels and weight of the anchovies in the barrels produces the sauce at the end of the 12+ month fermentation period. Authentic to a tee, Red Boat has become a national treasure of Vietnam.

Check out this YouTube clip on how they make it:

Anchovies are high in B vitamins and minerals and are a great source of protein. This sauce tastes awesome too, very strong and pungent - a little goes a long way!

The only problem is that no one sells it in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. So to put an end to that problem I've started buying it from the distributor and selling it from my workshop in Waverley at $12.50/500ml. We are open 8am till late daily. It has a very long shelf life (a couple of years) and makes ordinary dishes taste extraordinary with an Asian twist. 

So the bottom line is to be super careful to scrutinize the ingredients of your condiments. When I do pantry raids at clients’ homes, I find that the condiments in their fridge door and pantry are what lets many people down even those who have converted to a largely clean, unprocessed, nutrient-dense, whole foods diet. Condiments are often neglected as not being important but let me tell you that most commercially mass-produced condiments, dips, dressings and sauces are a storehouse of artificial ingredients and/or sugar in its many guises. 

I'd like to share my Vietnamese Pho soup recipe that uses Red Boat fish sauce. This is always a crowd pleaser at dinner parties and at my recent bone broth workshops. I like to ask people to assemble their own Pho in their bowls with a few basic instructions. They love doing that. There's something about using your hands that people (especially kids) really love. Traditionally made with beef broth, Pho is a light and fragrant soup. The Asian flavours are so aromatic that it is sure to please even the fussiest eaters (even kids!). And it only takes a few minutes to make.

Vietnamese Pho soup

Ingredients:

1 cup home-made salted beef broth/stock
200g of very thinly sliced raw beef sirloin, rump or eye fillet
dried or fresh rice stick noodles (optional)
½ tablespoon (2 tsp) Red Boat fish sauce
handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
handful of Thai basil
handful of Vietnamese mint
handful of bean sprouts
handful of spring onions, thinly sliced
a few thin slices of red onion
a few very thin slices of red capsicum
chilli flakes or thinly sliced fresh chilli (to taste)
½ lime, cut in half 

Directions:

1. To make slicing the meat easier, place in freezer for a couple of hours.

2. Cook noodles according to packet instructions then add to bowl. Top with sliced raw beef.

3. Heat stock in small saucepan until hot. Turn off heat. Add fish sauce and the juice of ¼ segment of lime and stir through.

4. Pour hot broth into the bowl (the heat will gently cook the raw meat).  Add the rest of the ingredients. Add the remaining ¼ segment of lime into side of the bowl.  

Serves 1

sticky beef spare ribs

Who doesn't like sticky ribs? My kids and I devoured these for dinner tonight.The kids love gnawing on the rib bones and dipping the meat into the sticky sauce.

Super simple to make, ridiculously delicious and nutrient-dense (these are my 3 key cooking criteria!).

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

2x pastured beef spare ribs (approx. 500g in total)

For the marinade;

15g garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I like the Melrose brand as its the cleanest).
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp salt
cracked pepper

Directions

Blend the marinade ingredients with a hand held (stick) blender well mixed. Pour over the ribs in an oven proof baking dish. Allow to marinate in the fridge for 2+ hours if time permits. Before popping into the oven, brush the ribs with the marinade mixture from the bottom of the dish with a cooking brush. Cook covered at 80 degrees Celsius for 8+ hours (or higher temp for shorter time. Don't cook above 120 degrees as high temp cooking denatures fats and proteins and causes inflammation).

Once or twice while the ribs are cooking, baste them with the marinade mixture from the bottom of the dish. Baste again just before serving.

Serves 2-3 (2 ribs served me plus 2 kids with some left overs - the one I bought were HUGE).

I teamed this with some steamed Asian greens and a cup of home-made chicken broth.

For the greens I steamed boy choy until soft and dressed it with olive oil, a splash of tamari (wheat free soy sauce), a handful of roughly chopped mint and scattering of activated  sesame seeds.

If you try this, let me know what you think! :)

Crustless creamy chicken pie / Shepherd's pie

This one's for you Melissa! "I want to make a chicken pie, but what do I do about the crust?"

I often get asked this question. Mashed potato topping is my crust substitute! Gluten-free and no fiddling with pastry! Boy, what a relief those days of laboriously making sourdough pastry and rolling it out by hand are behind me! Here's the recipe for my crustless creamy chicken pie which my kids and I enjoyed tonight. Very easy and befitting of a winter's evening:

Pie filling ingredients:

• 300g left over cooked chicken pieces (e.g. reserved from making bone broth- yes another way to use up that darn chicken meat!!)

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 knob of garlic, diced

• ¼ cup tomato puree

• 2 carrots, chopped (approx. 200g)

• 1 small sweet potato or piece of pumpkin, chopped (approx. 200g)

• A few florets of cauliflower, chopped (approx. 145g)

• 1 ¼ cups frozen peas (approx. 170g)

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaf

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/8 teaspoon paprika

• Handful of fresh parsley or coriander, chopped (approx. 30g)

• 2 tablespoons butter for sautéing

• 200ml full fat cream

• Unrefined salt cracked pepper

Mashed potato topping:

• 4 potatoes, chopped (approx. 480-500g)

• 80g butter or cream

• unrefined salt

• cracked pepper

• Gruyere OR reggio cheese, grated (approx. 60g)

this is what pie looks like pre mashed potato topping

Directions:

Sautee onions, garlic and dried herbs in butter on low heat, covered, in a large frying pan until soft (5 -10 minutes). Add parsley, tomato puree and frozen peas. Sautee for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Steam carrots, sweet potato/pumpkin and cauliflower until soft. Add vegetables, chicken and cream to onion mixture in frying pan and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to an oven proof baking dish.

To make mashed potato, steam potatoes until very soft. Place in jug or canister and add butter/cream, salt and pepper and blend with hand held blender until smooth. Spread mashed potato on top of pie and top with grated cheese.

Place dish on an oven rack just above the middle of the oven under a heated grill element to melt the cheese and brown the top of the pie. This will only take a matter of minutes. Be careful to ensure that it does not burn. Because the ingredients in the pie are all cooked the pie does not need further cooking in the oven, unless you have prepared the pie ahead of time and need to heat it up.

To make a Shepherds'  pie simplysubstitute cooked beef or lamb pieces (eg reserved from making beef bone broth) instead of chicken and omit the cream.  

Kali Orexi!