Review of "Quick & Easy Vietnamese" by Nancie McDermott

[BigFatMeanie]

We found the cookbook Quick and Easy Vietnamese by Nancie McDermott at our local library. We checked it out for two weeks, tried some of the recipes, and liked the overall cookbook so much that we bought it. Overall I would rate this cookbook as outstanding. The recipes are fairly easy to follow, the flavors are bold and varied, and the ingredients list and notes that McDermott puts in the book are valuable and entertaining. Although some of the recipes are better than others, there hasn't been a single recipe that we disliked. We make a dish from this book at least once a week and sometimes three or more times a week. This book is worth every penny you pay for it.

In general I would say that the various optional accompaniments listed in the recipes should be considered mandatory unless they are hard to get/make. The accompaniments add lots of flavor and really give the dishes their zip. I would also generally recommend making a double batch of whatever dipping sauce is specified - you can always put the sauce on other things if you end up with too much. My philosophy of "you can never have too much dipping sauce" hasn't led me wrong yet.

The following is my review of the recipes we have tried:

Appetizers

Summer Rolls with Shrimp and Mint (goi cuon) - Outstanding
These are excellent and easy to make but the prep work and assembly is time consuming. I personally like these best with the every day dipping sauce (a garlic/chili/lime/fish sauce dipping sauce) rather than peanut dipping sauce but the peanut dipping sauce is good too. We make these regularly.

Pork Meatballs with Fresh Herbs and Rice Noodles in Lettuce Cups (nem nuong) - Good
These are pretty good but they are very similar in concept to the grilled pork patties (see below) which are outstanding so you might as well just make the grilled pork patties every time.

Submarine Sandwiches, Saigon Style (banh mi) - Good
These are pretty good but I'm not big on pate so I didn't make it with those and it just didn't seem to have the flavor I expected based on McDermott's description. Still, a decent take on a sub for when you are in the mood for something a bit different.

Soups

Meatball Soup (bo vien) - Very Good
This soup is surprisingly good. I would get super extra lean ground beef or else you end up with a bit too much oil in the soup but overall the soup is very light and has an excellent flavor. We make this regularly.

Sweet and Tangy Soup with Pineapple, Tamarind, and Shrimp (canh chua tom) - Good
This is very similar to Thai Tom Yum soup but is sweeter because of the pineapple. Overall I prefer Tom Yum better - it just seems to have a more robust flavor that this soup but this soup is good as well.

Main Dishes

Lemongrass chicken (go xao xa ot) - Good
I like the flavors of this but the recipe seems a bit dry to me when eating it over rice - somehow it needs more sauce. Also, the lemongrass tends to be a bit stringy even though it's minced finely. I'm thinking of ways to improve this recipe a bit but it's definitely worth making as is. We make this dish about once a month.

Hainan Chicken and Rice with Ginger-Lime Dipping Sauce (com ga; nuoc mam gung) - Very Good
This dish reminds me a lot of Thai style Khaw Mun Gai. It's a little bit harder to make but it turns out well. My children love the rice. I like to serve it with the red chili sauce (the rooster bottle with the green lid) to give it some kick.

Chicken Simmered in Caramel Sauce (thit ga kho gung) - Good
The flavors in this dish are great but, like the lemongrass chicken, it seems a little dry to me. It's hard to get the nice dark-looking chicken shown in the picture inside the book and by the time the sauce darkens up enough most of it has evaporated. I need to do some more experimenting with this dish but it's still worth making as written.

Shaking Beef with Purple Onions and Watercress (bo luc lac) - Good
We used a mixture of spinach and watercress so that the bite of the watercress wasn't so strong. I like the red onions in this dish but Thai style Nam Tok seems to have more "zing" than this dish. It's worth making as is but it could be spiced up a bit.

Grilled Pork Patties with Lettuce, Noodles, Peanuts, and Mint, Hanoi Style (bun cha ha noi) - Out-Friggin'- Standing
This is my favorite dish in the book. The accompaniments are NOT optional - the pickled carrots, mint, peanuts, etc. all just create an outstanding flavor explosion in the mouth. The pork is tender, moist, and delicious. It's fairly easy to make although the prep work takes a bit of time. Be careful when cooking the pork because the brown sugar in it tends to make it burn quickly. I simply love this dish. My kids love it too but they are starting to get tired of it because we make it probably once a week.

Pork and Hard-Boiled Eggs Simmered in Coconut Juice (thit kho nuoc dua) - Good
This is a good dish but could stand to be spiced up a bit. The coconut juice (NOT coconut milk) may be a bit hard to find - we had to dig around in our local Asian store before we found it. Cut the onions into smaller lengths than 3" because 3" lengths just turn into long stringies.

Cha Ca Fish with Fresh Dill, Hanoi Style (cha co ha noi) - Very Good
If you can't get your spouse to eat fish because they claim it's too "fishy" then this dish is for you. This is very similar to the ground pork patties - only with fish. There is such a flavor explosion that it doesn't seem like you are even eating fish at all. We used tilapia in this dish but I think it would probably work well with mahi mahi also. Don't use salmon - salmon is good on its own so it doesn't need to be dressed up as fancy as this dish. If you want to make salmon then try the following:

Grilled Salmon with Chili-Lime Sauce (ca nuong gung; nuoc mam chanh) - Very Good
This is a very good recipe for salmon. The chili lime sauce gives it some kick but doesn't mask the flavor of the salmon. Quick and easy to make. We just serve this over white rice and my kids love it. We've used both wild Alaskan salmon bought at the fresh fish market as well as the frozen farm raised salmon you get at Costco and both turned out well.

Salads

Chicken and Cabbage Salad with Fresh Mint (goi ga) - Good
This is a nice good salad dish for summer time. I thought it might be too cabbagey but it wasn't at all - the mint offsets the cabbage flavor so the cabbage doesn't overwhelm you.

[Mrs. Meanie]

We make either Thai or vietnamese dishes every week, they are very good. I think they taste best when BFM cooks them I just wish he would do it more than once a month.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Looks great.

Any chance you could post the recipe for the pork patties?

[Jeff Lebowski]

What about the Thai version by the same author? Is it any good?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081...483113-5366328

[BigFatMeanie]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

What about the Thai version by the same author? Is it any good?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081...483113-5366328

We have that one as well. It is good but not as good as the Vietnamese version.

That being said, I'm probably too biased about Thai food in order to be able to make a fair judgement. Every recipe in the Vietnamese book is new and interesting to me. All the Thai recipes are stuff that I've had many times before so it just isn't as exciting to me. Also, I'm comparing the Thai recipes to the food I ate in Thailand and the Vietnamese recipes just to themselves so it's not really a fair comparison.

[BigFatMeanie]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

Looks great.

Any chance you could post the recipe for the pork patties?

Will do. But Mrs. Meanie took the cookbook back downstairs and I'm too tired to go down and get it and tomorrow I'm going to Orlando for a week so it may take a while...