Felt like I spent another entire weekend in the kitchen. Loved every second of course! On Friday I cooked a feast for my vegetarian friends – cannelloni stuffed with tofu, egg, mushroom, cheese and spinach. The tofu/egg base had the same texture as ricotta, so I’ve found a cheaper and healthier alternative! I also made eggplant lasagne and a green bean and dill salad. It all went down a treat, especially since there are few decent Western veggie options in Hanoi.
After that feast was over, it was on to the Mexican fiesta, feeding 16 people, which took me two days of preparation, due to my preference to use dried beans for the chili and refried beans. I had a whole lot of masa harina to get rid of, which I had inherited from a former Mexican colleague. Corn tortillas are so much tastier that wheat ones. Can’t go back to the latter now, but where will I get masa flour in Hanoi?! Luckily I managed to put some guests to work making the tortillas and juicing 2kg of limes for the frozen magaritas and blended mojitos. Anyway, here’s what I ended up cooking:
- Three bean chili with pumkin and corn
- Refried beans (black beans, white beans & red broad beans)
- Grilled spiced chicken, eggplant and capsicum
- A mountain of home-made corn tortillas
- From the above, we made baked burritos and quesadillas
- A mountain of guac and chipotle roasted tomato salsa.
It was fun, it was filling. I was still in a food coma the next day. Here’s a photo of just a fraction food we had.
