Song Que Restaurant

This week's post is about Song Que our favourite Vietnamese restaurant in London (Shoreditch to be exact). L and I ate here last Friday night when we had surprise babysitters drop by (nice friends!) The food is so tasty and fresh, it was worth waiting the half hour in the queue.  The customer service has a lot to be desired but once you're seated and have placed your order, the food comes quickly. 

Having had the long wait, we were hungry and ordered the following:

Spring rolls  

Fresh roll with prawn and herbs wrapped in rice paper (my favourite)

Grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf 

Spicy soft shell crab 

Traditional crispy pancake, prawn and chicken with salad and herbs

Rare steak in noodle soup (a classic)

and 4 tiger beers! (we were thirsty)

What I love about Vietnamese food is that they use a lot of fresh herbs: mint, coriander, lemongrass, basil and a whole lot I can't name. There is always a handful of fresh lettuce and herbs with a complimentary dipping sauce on the side. The flavour and texture is so good and refreshing. It's such a nice way to eat that feels wholesome and healthy. I definitely want to cook more dishes like this over the Summer.

The prices are good too although our bill racked up with our over ordering. Nevertheless, we managed to eat most of it, oops.

I thoroughly recommend a visit, be prepared to wait for a table but it's definitely worth it.

Fresh spring roll wrapped in rice paper

Traditional crispy pancake, prawn and chicken with salad and herbs

Happiness 1

Happiness 2

Grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf

The restaurant - buzzing but nothing special from an interiors point of view

    

Ugai or Rougaille

Last week, I blogged about making roti so this week I thought I'd write about the spicey tomato sauce that we eat with it. My M-i-L calls it "ugai" but after a bit of internet research we think she means "Rougaille". We think it's her Chinese accent that's changed it which is one of the very quirky and endearing things about my M-i-L. 

The sauce is super simple, quick to make and tasty. You can also add onions and garlic to this dish but we keep it really simple with just 3 main ingredients.

Ingredients:
4 x large tomatoes
Chillies -  chopped in half and keep the seeds (as many as you can take)
Small bunch of Coriander (roughly chopped)
Salt to taste

Time: About 15 - 20mins

1. Use the same pan as the Roti. (This is important for some reason?)

2. Put the whole tomatoes in the pan with a little bit of oil on high heat and cover with a lid.

3. After about 5 minutess the skin of the tomatoes should have blackened and loosened. Turn down to lower heat and allow to cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the tomatoes have disintergrated.

4. Add the chopped chilli, salt and coriander, then allow to simmer for a further 2 mins while stirring.

5. Serve warm...

And eat wrapped up in a roti. Voila.

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How to make Roti

Roti is made and sold in the markets of Mauritius. It's a local favourite and is eaten with a sauce called Uguy (a spicy tomato sauce) and Butterbean curry. It's an Indian recipe and is also really popular in the Caribbean. My M-i-L tells stories of eating it in the market for a yummy snack when she was young and that she would only pay about 5 cents which is about half a penny.

Roti is simple and delicious with the sauces but does take some time to make. We made some yesterday when my M-i-L came over and this is how we did it.

Ingredients:
3 cups of white plain flour
6 tbsp sunflower oil
1.5 cups of warm water
Pinch of salt

Step 1: Sieve the flour and add the salt.Add the oil to the flour and mix in. Slowly add the water and mix in using your hands. Knead the mixture until you have a soft dough.

Separate the dough into balls about the size of your palm.







Step 2: Roll out the dough until you have a nice square shape. About 20 x 20cm and about 3 mils thick.

Step 3: Brush the dough with some sunflower oil.

Step 4: Fold the dough into itself by a third either side. This is done to get the layered pastry effect that everyone loves so much about roti.

Step 5: Roll the dough into a ball.












 Step 6: Repeat with all the dough balls and then set aside for 30 mins.

  

Step 7: After 30 mins, roll out the coiled balls into rounded square shapes again.















Step 8: Heat some oil in the pan and fry the roti until it bubbles up.

Serve warm with curry sauce. Recipes for the sauces to come.







This is also a good film of a Mauritian Auntie making fresh roti. (Thanks to Shamsulrosunally)

Mun Fan

I call this dish Chinese risotto because it's made in a similar way but with Chinese ingredients. My husband doesn't agree with me, he thinks it's totally different but you'll see what I mean when you see how to make it.

My M-I-L makes this a lot as it's quite easy to make, very filling and is a great comfort food - it's also great mixed with her delicious chilli but more about that another time.

We ate this on 23rd June 2011.

Ingredients:

Whole or half chick cut into chunky pieces including bones
Dry shrimp or dry scallop (about a small hand full) *Dried scallops are more expensive than shrimps.
Vegetable Oil (3 tablespoons)
Chinese mushroom (about 3 or 4 soaked and sliced)
Potato cut in to chunks (about 2 or 3)
Soya sauce
Oyster sauce
Spring Onion (finely sliced)

How to make it:
Stir fry the shrimp/scallops in the oil to flavour it for about 2 to 5 mins.
Remove the shrimps/scallops and set aside.
Add the chicken to the flavoured oil along with the sliced mushrooms and chopped potato. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce and oyster sauce and stir fry for 5 mins. Set aside.
In a big pot, add 3 to 4 cups of rice and double that amount of boiling water. Then add the stir fried chicken, mushrooms, potatoes and shrimps/scallops.
Bring to boil, then cover and reduce to simmer for about 20 mins until water is absorbed. (You could also do this step in a rice cooker)

Serve with chopped spring onion and chilli.

Fish and Aubergine Curry

Here is our first recipe for the blog:
This is more of a Mauritian dish with Indian influences rather than Chinese.

We ate this on 17th June 2011

Fish and Aubergine Curry

Ingredients:
Fish (in this case, snapper) 1 1/2 pounds
1 Large Onion (chopped)
2 Cloves Garlic sliced)
Vegetable Oil (2 tablespoons)
Curry powder (4 tablespoons)
Curry leaves (2 stalks - very important)
Tomatoes (1 can or 2 large fresh tomatoes chopped)
1 Aubergine (sliced)
Coriander (handful)
How to make it:
Make sure fish is scaled (ask your fish monger to do this).
Cut fish into fat slices.
Shallow fry fish, 4 mins each side.
Add onion and garlic while frying, make curry paste by mixing the curry powder with a little bit of water then add it to the fish with the tomato, curry leaves and aubergine.
Mix together for awhile.
Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 mins on low heat.
If the sauce is too thick then add more water.
Mix in the coriander but save a little bit as a garnish.
Serve with rice.