Bun Rieu

You don't need the fried tofu but my mum likes to add it as an extra filler!

Ingredients:
Prawn or Crab
Egg
Tofu
Tomato
Vermicelli/Buon
Tofu (fried)

In a bowl empty a can of crab or fresh prawns (roughly chopped). You can add both if you want. Then add about two eggs. Mix like you are making scrambled egg. Add seasoning; pepper, salt, MSG and fish sauce. In a pan boil some water add quartered tomatoes in the pan. Then add the egg until it bubbles to the surface. Add the pre-fried tofu into the pan. When ready to serve, taste and season the broth. Prepare some buon and place in a bowl. Add the broth and tofu.

Banh Xeo

Translated as sizzling cake its a crispy, crunchy treat! You can have as many or as little filling as you like, but this is the one my mum usually makes.

Batter Ingredients:

Half a packet /250g Bot Gao (Rice flour)
Half a packet Coconut powder
2 teaspoons of Tumeric powder
Tablespoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then add 2 rice bowls of warm water (ideally hot water mixed with a tiny bit of cold water). The consistency should be like single cream, so if it is too thick then add a bit more water. You won't be able to tell if the batter is right until you fry it up, so hold out on adding water until you have done a test run.

Filling ingredients:
Pork (bacon lardons or belly pork thinly chopped)
Prawns (de-veined and cut in half)
Carrots grated or thinly chopped
Beansprouts

Heat up a non-stick pan. Add some oil to a piping hot pan, leave the heat on medium high. lightly cook the pork and prawns, then pour some batter in and swirl around. It should make a sizzling sound. Add a small handful of carrot and beansprouts. Put a lid on top and leave until the underside is crispy. Put the heat on low-medium while waiting.

Won Ton Soup

Won Ton Noodle Soup

Use the BASICS: broth recipe to make the soup base. All you need to do is make the filling and won tons. You can buy the won ton wrapper in chinese supermarkets. Add these to egg noodles and serve.

Ingredients:
Pork (shoulder or mince)
Prawn crab meat optional
Chinese mushrooms
Thin Potato noodles/Mien
Carrot
Garlic
Onion

Blitz these in a food processor. Put in a bowl to spoon into the pastry. place the filling in the middle of wrapper. Bring the sides up and pinch in the middle. Add a twist to secure the filling. Once all have been made put some water in a small pan. Bring to the boil and add the won tons one by one. Wait until some have risen to the top and put in a colander. When ready to eat, heat up the broth add how many won tons you want. Once cooked through spoon into bowls. Serve with coriander to garnish. You can have noodles at the bottom of your bowl if you haven't made enough won tons.

BASICS: Broth

This is the base to most of the soup dishes. You can change the main ingredients to other sweet vegetables but limit to two or three maximum. This is a vegetable base but you can do it with chicken bones or pork ribs.

Ingredients:
Pork ribs
Carrots
Mooli
Water

Chop these into chunks and put into a pan of about 4 Cups water. Bring to the boil. Get rid of any scum on the surface and then keep simmering until the vegetables are soft.