A friend
introduced me herbal Rooibos tea few months back then and I love it since.
Rooibos tea, also called red bush tea, is a herbal tea derived from the leaves
of the rooibos plant. Though consumption of the tea was once confined to the
South African regions in which the plant grew, rooibos tea is becoming more
popular in Western countries due to its robust taste and numerous health
benefits. You can find them easily in the health shops in bag or lose tea. It's
the perfect tea for making iced lemon tea and I came up with this recipe:
Recipe:
5 cups water.
3 Rooibos tea
bags.
2 lemons.
1 lime.
4 or 5 table
spoons sugar.
Boil 2 cups of
water and add in the tea bags. Leave the tea bag to brew and let it cool for
few hours or over night will give it intensive taste. Sometimes I use the left
over tea and it's still perfect.
Extract juice
from lemon and lime, add in sugar and 3 cups of water to dissolve the sugar.
Since my two son
are diagnosed with autism, I make sure they won’t eat anything I think contains
artificial ingredients. One of the essential ingredients in my house is spiced seasoning salt. I use this salt to replace stock cubes that contain a lot of artificial
ingredients. I always make them in
big batches to ensure sure I never run out.
The idea of this
spiced salt come from a very famous roasted dried shrimp salt in Vietnam called
Muối Tây Ninh. This salt is a combination of roasted salt with dried shrimp and
spices like black peppers, garlic, dried and fresh chili that have all the
elements to satisfy your taste buds with strong umami flavour. I replace the shrimp with more spices in my recipe to keep the authentic flavor.
The roasted salt
has wonderful flavour which make any dish taste stronger.You can add it to soup, roasted
potatoes , it also could be used for both vegan and meaty dishes.
Ingredients:
1/3 cups sea
salt flakes and Himalayan salt.
1 table spoon
whole black peppers.
3 cloves garlic ( ginger, onion optional).
1 small chili.
1 table spoon
mixed seeds ( Linwoods brand).
1 and 1/2 table
spoons brown sugar.
1 tea spoon
ground nutmeg.
1 tea spoon
mustard powder.
Methods:
Crush the chili
and garlic together, the finer the better ( if you like onion flavor then chop them finely and add into the salt mixture 3 minutes after roasting).
Combine the
salt, chili, garlic, black peppers, and place on pot or frying pan( avoid using
the nonstick pot and pan because the salt will damage the coating).
Roast on medium
heat for gas and low heat for electric cooker. Toss the mixture constantly.
After 8, the
garlic and chili turn dried add in the mixed seeds, mix well for 2 minutes. You
will find the aroma is released and the salt turns brown.
Quickly transfer
into a mortar and use the pestle to crush all the mixture together.
Transfer back to
the pot, add in sugar, mustard and nutmeg powder and roast for another 1 minute
to make sure all the spices are infused together.
Keep in a
airtight jar and it will last as normal salt.
Chinese chefs often make their own seasoned salt. In this video chef Lupe Liang makes his which used in Chinese cooking.
Chef Andrew shows you how to make seasoned salt using fresh Western herbs
On a trip to Saigon by bus from my parents house in the country I stopped by a fruit market in China town. It's located right next to the
bus station in Mekong Delta routes. The fertile soil of Mekong Delta is not only famous for producing rice but also yields some of the sweetest, most delicious tropical fruits. The fruits at the market are fresh and
cheap as they are carried by bus which is very inexpensive for locals. We
always carry fruits with us when we travel for something to eat, to kill time,
to socialize. Fruits is part of everyday life in Vietnam and you will find them everywhere and all year round.
A young man
making pork patties for his stuffed Banh Mi, making joke with his neighbour
fruit sellers. The place is colorful and full of laughter and joy.
Cabbage is cheap and it has so many health benefits. Head cabbage and Chinese cabbage are two common cabbages used in Vietnam. The French brought cabbage into Vietnam in the 19th century along with other Western ingredients such as: potato, broccoli, cauliflowers, artichoke, strawberry, coffee beans, rubber tree and many other plantations from Brazil and Africa. French influence shows the most in our Banh Mi ( French baguette) that is one of famous Vietnamese sandwich.
There are so many health benefits from fresh cabbage like detoxing, cleaning and healing your body. In Ireland, I've heard in the past time, the Irish would use cabbage juice to heal many illnesses and coleslaw is the most beloved salad dish along side with bacon and cabbage. I make this Vietnamese cabbage salad very often to clean my body after consuming too much meat or I feel a bit heavy in my stomach. My daughter also loves it and we wrap it with rice papers to make it more enjoyable. Dunnes is selling Vietnamese rice papers and it's so handy to make this dish and turn it into spring rolls.
There is a saying in Vietnamese: it's more important who you dine with than what you dine. I want to have both so I met up with my best friend Naomi for a buffet to spend a day together with good food before I headed home to my parents house with my kids in the afternoon. Naomi has been living in Saigon for 16 years and she is a food lover and an excellent cook just like most of Vietnamese women. There are many choices she asked me to pick : 300 dishes buffet, Western buffet, Korean or Japanese buffet, vegan buffet. I was so surprised to hear that many options and finally we decided to check out this lunch buffet place in Binh Quoi , a park along side Saigon river. The buffet takes place every Saturday with MeKong Delta reclamation theme for the price €11/person.
