A Hanoi Tea Party

Ok, I know. It's been ages since I posted anything. That's partly due to my mind being somewhat distracted by other things, partly because I temporarily lost my urge to cook (I know, what? Don't worry, it's coming back!) and mostly due to sheer laziness. I'll try to be better.

A few weeks ago my friend Jacqui of Fashion & Pho had a tea party at her apartment. She made these delicious cheese scones which we ate with butter and more cheese.

  

A tea party is not right unless everyone is wearing a hat, so while ours were not exactly Ascot-style, we did manage to look quite elegant in the hats Jacqui had available.

My contribution to the evening was this pizza dip, which was absolutely deliciously cheesy.

  

It's made with a cream cheese/sour cream (I used plain yogurt)/cheddar cheese base, with tomato sauce spread over that, then a layer of salami, green pepper, and mushroom, topped with more cheese and the last few slices of salami. We baked it in the oven for about 15 minutes until it was toasty brown on top.

I somehow completely forgot that Jacqui was making cheese scones and bought a couple of baguettes to go with the pizza dip. We dipped chunks of bread in and scooped out ooey gooey cheesy tomatoey salami goodness until we were so stuffed we couldn't possibly eat any more.

Note Jacqui's awesome crown & skull tablecloth!

  

And now, the moment you've been waiting for.....my hat!

I know, I didn't look quite as elegant as Sam.

So I just realized that although this was a tea party, it was really all about the food! And cheese. Lots of cheese.  



Staff Class Cooking Day Part 1 - Western Food

Many of you know that I am an English teacher here in Vietnam. One thing my university has done occasionally is provide English classes for not only the students, but also the Vietnamese staff that work there. Most of them already speak very good English, but of course there is always room for improvement! 

I was assigned to teach one of these classes last September. It's difficult for the students to find the time to come, so there wasn't a huge turnout, but I ended up with a core group of 4-5 young women that showed up fairly regularly, and we began to have a lot of fun!

The class was held at the end of the day, so you can imagine that by the time it was over we were often feeling pretty tired and hungry. It was around that time that I started this blog, and one of my first posts was the Spooky Monster's Fingers that I made for Halloween. I took a few of these to class to share with the girls, and they were a big hit! This prompted a discussion about how much they would like to learn to bake delicious cakes and other western food, and about how much I would like to learn to cook Vietnamese food. Thus the idea was born: Staff Class Cooking Day!

After much discussion about the menu, ingredients, cooking equipment, and scheduling, delays due to holidays and family visits, plus one cancellation due to an ache in my tooth, we finally got to have our day! 

Tu, Xuan, and 3 Vans (from now on referred to as LSU Van, ELRC Van, and Van Comm) came over to my place at about 9am on a Saturday. I had already bought most of the things I needed for "my" dishes (the Western ones) but we still needed a lot of vegetables. Luckily there's a market RIGHT outside my door! I watched as they negotiated prices for various vegetables, bought more garlic than I would ever imagine we would use, and negotiated for tofu, chicken, beef, pork, and live shrimp. I never buy meat in the market. For some reason I'm much more comfortable buying it at a supermarket, but the girls were adamant that the quality of the meat in the market is much better!

 The first order of business was to make a Mango Mousse Cake. I'd never made such a thing before, but it was Xuan's birthday the day before, and this was the birthday cake she requested. I wouldn't normally teach people to make something I've never made before myself, but after perusing some recipes I came up with some ideas I could work with, and we decided to give it a try.

LSU Van beating eggs for the sponge cake base.

They were so excited, I couldn't even get in to supervise!





ELRC Van preparing mango to be pureed.

They learned the most important lesson of baking - always lick the beaters!

And they learned it from the master.

When the mango mousse cake was done, it went in the fridge for the rest of the day to set.

We spent most of the rest of the day whipping up some Vietnamese food....look for my next post for details about that!

The other Western style dish we made was lasagna. Again, it was Xuan's request, as she was the only one who'd ever had it before! It was a bit questionable at first as to whether I'd be able to find the ingredients (you can get things here, but you can't always count on being able to get what you want when you want it!) but at the last minute I was successful!



Cheesy lasagna!



Vietnamese people don't tend to eat a lot of cheese, so the amount of cheese that goes into my lasagna was a bit of a surprise to them! Especially to girls who have never seen a cheese grater before! ("Jenny, how do you do this without grating your fingers?")

Tu, Xuan, and LSU Van enjoying their first taste of lasagna!
Too bad we were SO full by this time we couldn't eat very much!

After the lasagna, it was finally time to take the cake out of the fridge. We all crossed our fingers that it would be set!

Birthday wishes

The moment of truth.
Is it set?

Yes! Perfect!

Stay tuned for Staff Class Cooking Day Part 2 - about the Vietnamese dishes we made!

Chicken Fiasco!

One thing that I think is important for all men to know is that women (at least, I think all the women I know) LOVE a man who can cook. While I myself enjoy cooking, a man who can put a delicious meal in front of me and introduce me to new food and recipes is REALLY appealing!

Once upon a time, many years ago, I had a boyfriend who could cook. He seemed to know about ingredients and flavours I had never heard of, having grown up in a family where the most exotic thing we ate was tacos and the same dishes were recycled every week or two (Sorry, Mom, your food's great, but I've since learned about SO many other kinds of food!) Looking back, I'm not sure that boyfriend really knew all that much, but it impressed me at the time!

On our first date, he made me Chicken Fiasco. This is not a dish that anyone else would recognize by name, because he copied it from something he'd eaten in a restaurant and gave it his own inventive name! It is, however, a pretty common combination of flavours.

Although the boyfriend didn't have any staying power in my life, the dish did. Chicken Fiasco is still something I make regularly, all these years later, and yes, I do still call it that!  

I hope I haven't made this sound too fancy. It's not. It's a simple sandwich, but the combination of crunchy fresh toasted bread, tender garlicky herbed chicken, tangy tomato, creamy, gooey melted cheese, and delicious pesto sauce makes my mouth water just thinking about it! Are you hungry yet?

Start with a chicken breast, and cut it into flat medallion-type pieces as much as such a thing is possible. Fry it up in a pan with some olive oil, garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt and pepper until it's just cooked. (Don't overcook, as it still has to go in the oven and you don't want it dry!)

While that's cooking, cut a thick slice of fresh bread, and spread it with pesto sauce. I like to use plenty!

Top it with a layer of the cooked chicken. I like how it seems to fit together like a puzzle!

Top that with a bit more pesto sauce, then a layer of sliced tomato.

I grate some cheddar cheese onto this for an extra flavour.

Then add some thinly sliced mozzarella cheese on top of that, for gooeyness.

Here's what it looks like from the side:

Put this in the oven to bake until the cheese melts. You may have to turn on the grill at the end so the cheese crisps up a bit on the top!

Just like that boyfriend did the very first time I had it, I usually serve this with a salad. This time it was a simple one of spinach, red pepper, button mushrooms, bean sprouts, and ranch dressing.

I eat this sandwich with a knife and fork. Try it! It's easy and sooooo good!