Cooking class.

Back at the Homestay and the staff are busy getting all the ingredients chopped up for our cooking class.
We are making Vietnamese pancake, like a crispy crepe filled with pork, prawns and veges served with greens and a delicious dipping sauce.

First we have to grind the rice that’s been soaked for a few hours and the turmeric to make the rice flour. Luckily they had some prepared because you have to wait for the flour to settle and the water to evaporate off.

Next we cooked up the pork and prawns in a wok over charcoal, then the veges that were cut in little strips.
The chefs made the batter, with rice flour, coconut milk, salt and pepper, egg, water and beer. It must be serious business, they didn’t trust us with that. By this time we’d drawn a crowd from our fellow guests who all wanted to get in on the grinding action.

They gave us one demo on how to spread the batter in the wok, two scopes and swirl it all around to cover the wok. So we both had a go at that and managed to get it cooked and on the plate.

It looked delicious so we carved it up and ate it there and then. Both the chefs started laughing and we made a few more and then they showed us how we were supposed to eat it.

You use the greens to wrap it in and make a little roll then dip it in the sauce. Oh well both ways worked for us.

There was still plenty left and a few of the other guests had a go as well.Read more