laocook

Its been a while since my last update, since then I have enjoyed some holiday time that was spent fishing (or feeding the fish, depends on which way you look at it!), and visiting friends and family in London.

Whilst I have been “chillin´”, there have been some works in the restaurant dining room and kitchen.

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The restaurant is being extended so that we can fit in around 25-30 more diners. The space being converted was our unused terrace.

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The walls have been knocked down and the entire terrace will be covered. These works took place during the day time so that the restaurant could still open during the evening.

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This is the same view as the previous photo. The large windows give us an uninterrupted view of the landscape.

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Now that most of the construction has been completed, the room will be turned over to our interior designers. I will post more photos when the project is completed.

Its not only the restaurant that has had works done, the kitchen got some treatment too.

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The kitchen was closed for a day whilst we had our open window installed/ built.

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We also rearranged the kitchen work tables and fridges and changed the position of the “pass”.

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This opening allows the food to be passed directly in to the dining room, making it much easier for our Service team. It also gives our diners the chance to see their food being prepared.

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The window and rearrangement of the kitchen was completed in one day. Cutting through the wall left the entire dining room (and kitchen) covered in dust, which had to be cleaned up before the evening service!.

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With such a view in to the kitchen, its means no more swearing or throwing a tantrum!

Now that everyone has gotten used to the new-look kitchen, its back to work as usual. Cooking.

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Unwrapping the Autumn Terrine which is made from Foie Gras, Corn Fed Chicken, Iberian Pork Loin, and Sun Dried Tomatoes all held together by Pho Jelly.

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The Lao Pizza. Our Tomato Chutney (“Jeow Mhak Len”) is covered with Lao Sausage meat, chopped Spring Onion tails, a sprinkle of Parmesan and a small drizzle of Sour Cream. The cooks eat three or four of these every night!

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Curry Crisps are ready to be served as a pre-dinner snack.

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These are a great way to start a meal, salty, spicy, sweet and crunchy. Hmmmmm.

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In February 2011, a friend of mine will be taking a cycling challenge to raise money for people with Cerebral Palsy.

Tim Driver will cycle through Laos to Cambodia, more than 700km in just over a week for UK based charity Scope.

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Tim says about the adventure, “The challenge will involve covering 702km (436 mile) in 8 days.  That’s a scary 54 miles a day.  In humid heat.  But it’ll be fun, it’ll be a challenge, and most importantly it’ll raise a good chunk of money for Scope’s work with disabled adults, children and their families.  I hope you’ll help me in reaching my fundraising target.“

“The money raised from my cycle challenge will allow Scope to continue running their vital services which are designed to support disabled people in every aspect of their lives from birth through to adulthood.”

If you would like to show your support for Tim and this important cause please click here.

Good luck to Tim on behalf of the whole Laocook Team!

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I have a great appetite for reading and have a huge library of cookbooks, the books occupy a whole room in my house. I have books relating to Thai, Indian, French, Spanish, British, Modern, Traditional, Sous Vide, Pâtés, Japanese, Canapés, Desserts, Tapas, Sweets, Breads, Baking, Snacks etc.. etc.. You name it, I probably have it.

One corner of this repository houses my tiny section on Lao Cuisine.

Neatly arranged on the shelf are Phia Sing´s Traditional Recipes of Laos, which was put together by the late great “foodie” and former British Ambassador to Laos, Mr. Alan Davidson from Royal Lao Chef Phia Sing´s notes.

Mr. Davidson was also responsible for the book, Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos. Not only has he catalogued the various fish species that are found in the region, he also includes recipes. Both these books (and the impressive Oxford Companion to Food) are illustrated by Lao artist and family friend Mr. Soun Vannithone. Though Mr. Davisdon has many food related books published, you can clearly see his love for his adopted country.

Daovone Xayavong´s Taste of Laos: Lao/Thai Recipes from Dara Restaurant showcases food from her restaurant in Berkeley, California.

From the East Coast, Penn Honthong´s Simple Laotian Cooking includes more than 170 recipes.

Though not strictly a cookbook, Natacha Du Pont de Bie´s Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos includes some recipes from her very interesting travels through Laos.

There should be more books dedicated to the culinary delights of our country, it would be sad not to have more written down on paper, especially in this high tech world where everything is available via a search engine.

All of the above books are a good resource for recipes, however my latest addition really stands out amongst the crowd.

Food from Northern Laos: The Boat Landing Cookbook by Dorothy Culloty and Kees Sprengers is a real eye-opener. You could be mistaken by thinking its another restaurant cookbook, however Dorothy has put (via pen to paper) together a wonderful collection of recipes from this region of Laos.

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Mr. Davidson writes in his Oxford Companion to Food that there are more than 56 different ethnic tribes in Laos, and Dorothy explains that there are an amazing 29 of these ethnic groups in the Luang Namtha province.

The Boat Landing is Luang Namtha´s Ecotourism Lodge, Guest House and Restaurant. Their menu boasts a collection of traditional regional cooking.

To learn from a Lao cook usually means to stand buy their side whilst they cook, and try to work out how much of a certain ingredient was added. Dorothy actually observed the cooking at the restaurant and nearby villages before replicating it in her kitchen and transcribing the amounts in to Western measurements, before retesting the recipes again. That alone is a huge amount of work!

Like any good host, Dorothy introduces us to the cooks, staff and people of the Boat Landing. Then she presents us to the rural areas and terrains including the ethnic inhabitants. All this absorbing information is highlighted with some wonderful photographs taken by her husband, Kees Sprengers.

Kees has managed to capture wonderful shots of different people in ethnic dress and their homelands whislt his wife explains to us their religion, eating habits and customs. You really get a feel for the culture before turning the pages and getting to the culinary chapters.

There are a few pages dedicated to the components of a typical Lao meal and how the meal is eaten, as well as some “dos and dont´s”, which can be very helpful for those who have never been invited to a Lao meal before.

Before we get to the recipes we arrive to my favourite part of the book. The illustrated ingredients.

One great thing about the book is that the author has taken the time to write the ingredients in English and Lao followed by the pronunciation of the Lao text in to English, or what is would sound like. This is really helpful to me as I  sometimes find some ingredient names (or translations to be exact) confusing, especially the diverse herbs and spices.

Examples include:

• Banana Flower: mak bpee
• Lao Basil: pak i tou
• Coriander: pak hom pom
• Cucumber: mak taeng
• Lemongrass: houa sikai

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This is great for those wanting to know the names of ingredients and will definitely come in handy for me next time I go to the Morning Market in Vientiane!

There are colour photographs of most of the ingredients as well as a description. One of the most interesting ingredients detailed is Fermented Fish Sauce: padek.

Padek we all know and love, but how many of us have made it as opposed to buying it? No problem, Dorothy includes not one, but two recipes for padek!

Preseeding the recipes is a section about the traditional kitchen as well as preparation techniques.

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The techniques that are illustrated are used all over the world by the older Lao abroad, however I had never thought about showing somebody how to “slice handheld vegetables and herbs: soi” in the manner that we do, or perhaps the way we cut our limes!

There are also sections on cooking techniques that are employed in our cuisine. e.g.

• Roasting in embers, grilling: jee
• Steaming: neung
• Frying: koua
• Parboiling, blanching: luak

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The book continues with some common names and description of Lao dishes. e.g.

• Lao dipping sauce: jeow
• Spicy meat or fish salad: lahp (which actually sounds better than the way I spell it “larb”)
• Parboiled salad: soop

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The recipes are dived in to sections and feature various dishes and description and include variations and substitute ingredients, below is a short summary of some of the recipes available:

• Noodle dishes: aharn bhaphet fer
  • Kao soi with parboiled vegetables: kao soi gap pak luak
  • Home style Vietnamese Pho: fer
• Lao dipping sauces: jeow
  • Tomato and Vietnamese balm: jeow mak len sai pak ki orn
  • Sawtooth herb: jeow pak hawm pan
  • Crab paste: jeow nam bpoo
  • Giant water beetle: jeow maengda

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• Stews and soups: soop, or/aw, gaeng
  • Bamboo shoot with pork: gaeng nor mai sai sin moo
  • Pickled bamboo shoots: gaeng nor mai som sai bpet
  • Puréed fish: poon bpaa nin
• Stir fried dishes: bpaphet khoua
  • Fiddlehead fern: koua pak goot
  • Cucumber, duck and oyster sauce: koua mak taeng sai pet leh nam man hoi
• Stuffed, steamed, grilled & fried dishes: bpaphet oua neung ping jeun
  • Stuffed bamboo shoots: oua naw hoke
  • Fish moke: moke bpaa
  • Crispy fish with garlic: jeun bpaa sai pak tiam
• Salads, yams and light dishes: bpaphet yam, soop pak, tam som
  • Rice noodles with spicy broth: kao poon
  • Lao papaya salad: tam mak hoong
• Lahp and sa dishes: bpaphet lahp leur sa
  • Spicy fish salad: lahp bpaa pak gap
  • Spicy pork salad, Muang Sing style: sa low sin moo
• Rice dishes: bpaphet kao
  • Sticky rice: kao niao
  • Luang Prabang fried rice: kao koua Luang Phabang sai jeow bong

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These are only a handful of the recipes in the book.

Thereafter follows a short section on desserts and drinks that are commonly found, followed by the indexes in Lao and English.

It is so very clear that this project has been a labour of love for the authors and as a cook and Lao person, I can only thank them for putting in so much effort to record this wonderful cuisine.

The recipes are clearly laid out and easy to follow, and the glossary of ingredients is very interesting to say the least.

For anyone who is remotely interested in Lao food and culture, I recommend that you too should have this on your bookshelf.

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Whew! I finally got a few minutes to sit down and update the site.

I expected the summer to be busy, but what I didn’t expect was how busy it would be! Proves we must be doing something right if the restaurant is fully booked every night.

Apart from serving dinners we have also been engaged in other activities. One such recent activity was an internal Cooking Competition between the hotel cooks. The idea behind this event was to bring everyone from the various kitchens closer, to build spirit and comradeship. Even though its a competition, everyone helped one another with ideas and preparation. The six judges were chosen from the various Heads of Department throughout the hotel resort.

The competition was based on two randomly chosen ingredients, which needed to be represented as  dual protagonists within a single dish.

The ingredients for this event were Chicken Breast and Garden Peas.

I was impressed and delighted that two members of the A-Team took both FIRST and SECOND place!

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Kittirat´s entry took the top spot.

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Homemade Pea Pasta, Countryside Chicken Breast, Ceps, Peas and Parmesan.

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Khamhoung took the Silver medal.

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New “Khao Mun Gai” with Fresh Pea Puree.

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Khamhoung cooked his corn-fed chicken crown “sous vide” before removing the breast meat. The rice is cooked with the chicken fat and stock. The stock was reduced to a Consommé and served separately.

Congratulations to all the cooks who entered!

Talking about corn-fed chicken, I have been using it on my Tapas menu, in the guise of Larb Gai.

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It is one of the tapas that is frequently ordered and has remained on the small menu for quite some time.

Another tapas is currently being tried and tested and should feature when the new menu comes out at the beginning of October.

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Laocook Gyoza.

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Gyozas are also unceremoniously called Pot Stickers. These dumplings are of Chinese origin and are enjoyed throughout Asia, especially in Japan. My ones contain king prawns, spring onion, ginger and seasonings.

They are pan fried until crispy before having some chicken stock added to the pan which is then covered to allow the dumplings to steam, hence providing a soft chewy top texture and crunchy bottom.

Seeing as we live out in the countryside, I don’t have access to any Asian stores where I can pick up a few packets of pre-made Gyoza wrappers, instead I have to make them by hand, which though easy, is quite time consuming in a busy kitchen.

I´ll need some time to make up a massive batch of wrappers before these appear on the menu. Because I have chosen to make these fresh on the day, only 30 dumplings will be filled, that’s 15 tapas per day.

The show goes on every evening, and cold soups served as Amuse Bouche are a great way to start a meal.

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Chilled Clear Tomato and Basil Soup always surprises our guests. They are now served in shot glasses.

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Its not all hard work and no play…. we still find time to party.

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My latest intern Niki gets ready to enjoy an after dinner shot at a recent BBQ.

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The mandatory group photo before we head off to another bar late at night…. Cheers!

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