Jan 28, 2008
I once ate a spectacular grilled lamb at a local Thai restauraunt one night and I wanted to do something similar from home. Call me stingy if you want, but when I saw a small rack of lamb on special at the supermarket one day I decided to give it ago.
This dish features lemongrass, a popular flavour in Vietnamese cuisine. The original recipe called for a tamarind sauce, but I gave it a miss as I was too lazy and it tastes great on its own or with any other sauce really.
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 2-3 hours marination
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and minced
- 4 shallots, peeled
- 2 small hot chillies
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon oil (vegetable, peanut)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 small racks of lamb, about 500grams each, cut into riblets
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Combine lemon grass with shallots, chillies, sugar and oil in a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Being poor I don’t have either of these so I minced it finely with a knife. Add fish sauce. Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper and marinate it in this mixture for 2 to 3 hours, wrapped and refrigerated.
- Grill under high heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turning as necessary to avoid it turning into a giant blob of char. Serve it smokin hot with rice and your favourite dip baby!
Tags:
grill,
lamb,
lemongrass
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Jan 27, 2008
I recently returned from a holiday to Vietnam, where for five days we had the pleasure of staying in the small and exquisitely beautiful fishing/tourist/beachside city of Nha Trang. One one particularly overcast day, we decided to charter a boat to take us around the islands for some touristy fun. I hopped on a jet ski and sped around the bay, did some parasailing and of course dined on some fresh from the ocean seafood.
And by fresh from the ocean, I really mean it. The boat stopped at a floating platfrom where all sorts of seafood was being kept in cages in the ocean. Pick the stuff you like, take it to one of the restauraunts waiting by the shore and they will cook it up for you. Can’t get any fresher than that.
Photos:
View from the hotel roof. Beautiful mountains in the background with lovely white beaches and blue water.
Houses a little way out of town, you can see a group of fishing boats parked in the cove.
Cruising by one of the many islands around the area.
The platform where one can select the seafood of their choice. Here we have lobster and crayfish, these guys also had cuttle fish and a billion varieties of fish.
One lobster dish. I’m not the biggest fan of ginger but it tasted nice.
This second lobster dish was much nicer than the first. I love pepper.
The fish was a bit tough I’m sorry to say, kind of like chewing on a car tyre…. Ok it wasn’t that bad.
I’ve never had cuttle fish before, not surprisingly it tasted and had a texture similar to that of squid.
The whole meal, minus the tempura cuttle fish bits.
Tags:
cuttle fish,
fish,
lobster,
Nha Trang,
seafood,
Vietnam
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