Social-Feeds-Cookbook-2016

VietnamEse ChiCkEN Coles Law
By @feedmeichi
Cooking difficulty: easy
45 minutes
Serves 6
“I grew up eating my mum’s constantly changing variations of this salad so it’s like
comfort food to me. The dressing in this recipe is what pulls everything together and,
just like how my mum and my grandma used to make it, you have to keep tasting to get
the right balance of flavours. We used to always have a jar of this in our fridge, ready to
use as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or to drizzle over a steak on rice.”
Ingredients
Pickled Carrots
1 large carrot, peeled
¼ cup caster sugar
⅓ cup water
⅓ cup white vinegar
½ tsp salt
Dressing
3 tbs good quality fish sauce
3 garlic cloves
1 – 2 birds eye chilli
2 – 3 tbs white vinegar
6 tbs water
Maker’s note
Salad
5 medium sized chicken drumsticks
¼ purple cabbage, finely shredded
150g rice vermicelli
1 cup coriander, roughly chopped
½ cup Vietnamese mint, roughly torn
½ cup Thai basil, roughly torn
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
Toasted peanuts, roughly crushed
Fried shallots
Pickled Radishes
2 tbs vegetable oil
3 small radishes, ends removed and
thinly sliced with a mandolin
3 tbs caster sugar
4 tbs rice wine vinegar
3 tbs water
“Vietnamese food is one of the staples of the Melbourne food scene – it’s always easily
found around town, good value and rewards you with tasty, fresh flavours.”
Method
The pickles need to be made a few hours
beforehand.
To make the pickled radish: mix sugar,
rice wine vinegar and water together until
the sugar is dissolved. Add radishes to the
mixture and refrigerate until needed.
To make pickled carrots: using a
vegetable peeler, peel the carrots to
create long ribbons. In a bowl, dissolve
salt and sugar in the white vinegar and
then submerge carrot ribbons in the
pickling mixture, refrigerate until needed.
To cook chicken: place chicken
drumsticks in a pot of cold water and
bring to just under boiling. Turn heat
down immediately to low and simmer
for 5 minutes. Take the pot off the stove
and set aside with the lid on and the
chicken will continue to cook. Remove
a drumstick after 10 minutes and check
to see if it’s cooked through. Once ready,
remove chicken drumsticks and set aside.
When the chicken has cooled enough to
handle, remove meat from the bone and
tear into large pieces.
To make dressing: using a pestle, crush
the garlic and chilli in a mortar. Add fish
sauce, sugar, lemon juice and water – stir
and adjust sauce by adding extra fish
sauce, sugar and lemon juice to get the
right balance of sweet, salty and sour.
To cook vermicelli: place the noodles in
a large bowl and cover with boiling water.
Place a lid on top for 5 minutes or until
the noodles just soften. Once noodles are
ready, drain and refresh with cold water
before setting aside.
To assemble salad: drain the pickled
radish and carrot and add to a large salad
bowl with cabbage, herbs, vermicelli
and chicken. Sprinkle a few tablespoons
of dressing and mix the ingredients
thoroughly. Sprinkle peanuts and shallots
over the salad and drizzle more dressing
over the top. Toss well before serving.
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