Victoria Day Hours

Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Victoria Day, May 24. We are quite certain the Queen would approve of being able to pop by to shop for cookbooks .

The Songs of Sapa

I have always been drawn to the vibrant flavours of Vietnamese food. Not unlike the cuisines of other South East Asian countries, Vietnamese cuisine is also a play on balancing sweet, hot, sour and salty flavours. What sets it apart is the profuse use of different fresh herbs and the interplay of the many diverse cultures that have had an influence on Vietnamese culture and food.

We recently received copies of The Songs of Sapa: Stories and Recipes from Vietnam by Luke Nguyen. It was one of those stunning books that I had to read from cover to cover. Nguyen, owner of Red Lantern Restaurant in Sydney and author of Secrets of the Red Lantern, takes readers on a personal and culinary tour of Vietnam. Starting in the northwest of Vietnam, in the villages and hills around Sapa, he explores the roots of traditional cooking as well as the many regional cuisines influenced by various cultures that make up Vietnam.

The vibrant photography, engaging tales and delicious recipes will keep me reading this book over and over.

Cho Lon's Lemongrass Chilli Chicken

1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) chicken Marylands (chicken leg quarters), chopped through the bone into 3 x 4 cm pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 lemongrass stem, white part only, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 bird's eye chillies, thinly sliced
125 mL (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) young coconut water
1 small onion, cut into thin wedges
2 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 bird's eye chilli, sliced

In a bowl, combine the fish sauce, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground pepper, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken pieces and turn them to coat in the marinade. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes.
Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the oil and fry the lemongrass until brown, then add the garlic and chilli, stirring until fragrant. Now add the undrained chicken and stir-fry for 10 minutes. Pour in the coconut water and bring to the boil. Add the onion, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the spring onions and chilli. Serve with jasmine rice.

Serves 4 to 6 as part of a shared meal

From The Songs of Sapa by Luke Nguyen

Pretty in pink, and yellow, and caramel...

At our first Saturday morning class in May, Chef Wendy Boys took the mystery out of making macarons. We watched closely, listened carefully and diligently took notes so that we too could create these delicious (and oh so popular) confections at home.

First, Wendy set the record straight on macaroon vs macaron. Macaroons are dense cookies, or small sweet cakes made with a coarse almond paste or coconut. A macaron is a meringue-based confectionary whose name is derived from ‘ammaccare’, meaning crush or beat, to reference the principal ingredient – almond paste. It is made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour and granulated and confectionary sugar. They are often filled and come in a rainbow of colours.

Making macarons are definitely a ‘roll-up your sleeves, clear the counter kind’ of an endeavour. Sure they’re fussy, and no two batches are ever the same, but that’s part of their homespun charm. There are no mistakes, just new creations.

I’ve pulled from Lawren and my notes to give you some of Wendy’s tips for making macarons:

1. In addition to the ingredients specified in your master recipe you will need lots of parchment paper, as many staging trays and the flattest baking sheets you can get your hands on. Clear your morning, this is batch baking at its finest.
2. Buzz your ground almonds and icing sugar together in your food processor first, then sift them together to incorporate them. They’ll be finer that way.
3. Either purchase egg whites, or leave them on the counter for a day or 2 so the water can evaporate and they can warm up. Or, give them 10 seconds in the microwave.
4. Use only gel food colouring and powdered flavourings (i.e. Espresso powder for coffee) so that you don’t add any extra unwanted moisture.
5. For the sugar syrup start with everything cold. When you warm up your sugar and water to @116 c it should be clear, don’t let it crystallize. If it does wash your pan making sure it is super clean and try again – it happens to the best of us, even Wendy.
6. You want your meringue to be voluminous and fluid and the best way to get that consistency is to gently beat the egg whites on low for 10 or more minutes (don’t be tempted to rush them or they will be less stable).
7. To get your parchment paper nice and flat (on your flat tray), dab a drop of your meringue onto each corner to ‘glue’ it in place.
8. There are no size rules with macarons, but Wendy likes to use an Atico #802 pastry tip to get the optimum ‘quarter’ size that she likes to pipe.
9. After piping your macarons let them dry on trays for at least ½ hour (or even overnight depending on the humidity that day). You want them to form a light crust before baking.
10. Play with your oven temperature. If you have a convection oven (lucky you) bake at 140 c for 4-5minutes. For a conventional/still oven try 300-325 for up to 12 minutes. If your oven is too hot your macarons will crack and won’t cook evenly. Ideally, you want them smooth and round on the top, with little crackling ‘ballerina’ feet along the edge. Remember nothing wrong with a little, rough around the edges hand-made look. And remember, macarons will actually soften and improve their texture if left sitting a few days.

Wendy made Italian style macarons - a crunchier, more stable and even macaron that you get by adding warm sugar to cold egg whites. (French style is cold sugar to cold egg whites). Wendy made 3 flavours for us: Red Raspberry with Chocolate Raspberry filling, Coffee with Burnt Caramel filling and Plain with Lemon Curd. For the fillings she used her own sauces from her Cocolico line (available for a limited time at our shop). Or visit Wendy’s website at www.wendyboys.com.

Guests to Wendy’s class took home a copy of I Love Macarons by Hasiko Ogita, along with a beautifully packaged box of their very own macarons – tres agreable!

I Love Macarons by Hasiko Ogita

$17.95