2010 Cooking Club Week 22: Vietnamese Roast Chicken with Lemongrass

I’ve been cooking these dishes for years ever since I bought a Vietnamese cookbook by Nicole Routhier. The dishes have become a family favourite. I have given three recipes for a complete meal – these are the combinations that Nicole suggests in the book. The roast chook is the main dish, it could be served with some plain rice and a salad, but if you fancy having a crack at the full menu, bring all the dishes to the table at once and allow diners to help themselves.

Vietnamese roast chicken with lemongrass

Ingredients

3 stalks fresh lemon grass or 3 tablespoons dried
6 cloves garlic, crushed
4 banana shallots, or 7 small shallots, peeled and sliced
2 red chili peppers, seeded
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons fish sauce (Thai fish sauce is fine)
2 tablespoons water
1 roasting chicken
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

If you are using fresh lemon grass, discard the outer leaves and upper half of the stalk. If you are using dried lemon grass, soak in warm water for 1 hour, then drain. Place the lemon grass, garlic, shallots, chilies, sugar, salt, fish sauce and 2 tablespoons water in a blender and blend to a paste.

Spatchcock the chicken and keep the backbone for stock. Carefully loosen the skin on the breast and legs, pushing your fingers between the skin and meat to form a pocket. Rub half of the lemon grass paste over the meat under the skin. Rub the remaining paste over the skin front and back. Let it stand for a minimum of 30 minutes; but this can be prepared 24 hours in advance.

Preheat the oven to 200c. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and cover loosely in tinfoil. Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180c and continue roasting for 75 minutes, basting the chicken with the oil and the pan juices. After an hour, remove the tinfoil to allow the bird to crisp up a bit. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before carving into joints – drumstick, thigh, wing and three pieces from each side of the breast. Arrange on a serving plate. Scrape the roasting tin for the crusty bits if they’re not burnt.

Chicken and mustard cabbage soup.

Ingredients

8 ounces of chicken wings in sections
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsps finely chopped ginger
¼ tsp salt & ¼ tsp sugar
4 tbsps fish sauce
8 ounces finely shredded mustard cabbage (Use Chinese cabbage or any other asian brassica – Pak Choi, Choi Sum etc)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

I use the backbone from the chicken in the first dish chopped into small pieces and the wing tips – and fry in a little oil to colour. Add a litre of water and a large piece of roughly chopped ginger. Cook for 40 minutes to an hour, strain and either skim off the fat; or keep in the fridge overnight – remove the hardened fat.

Fry the chicken wings in a little oil and add the finely chopped ginger when the wings are nicely coloured. Cook the ginger for several minutes before adding the other ingredients except the shredded cabbage.

Cook the wings for 20 minutes, add the cabbage and cook for a further five minutes. Taste and add ground black pepper and more fish sauce as needed.

Grilled Aubergine in tomato sauce

Ingredients

2 aubergines
4 banana shallots
4 cloves of garlic
400g chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsps fish sauce
½ pint chicken stock
4 spring onions finely sliced
Chopped coriander

Preparation

Cut the aubergine into 1 inch thick slices and grill on a ridge pan. Finely slice the shallots and garlic and fry until soft. Chop the cooked aubergine into small pieces and add to the pan with the salt, sugar, tomatoes, chicken stock and fish sauce. Cook until the aubergine is very soft and the sauce is thick.

Slice the spring onions and stir in, garnish with chopped coriander.

To complete the meal I made a dipping sauce from equal quantities of lime juice and fish sauce, to which I added finely chopped clove of garlic, a red chilli and a tsp of sugar. Mix until the sugar dissolves. Place in a small bowl at the table and use to add a extra punch to a salad or the chicken.

Serve with jasmine rice and a salad of shredded raw carrot, chinese cabbage, asian pear cut in batons and a few spinach leaves.

Photos to follow.