We had more of the remains of the large chicken this evening as promised in a Vietnamese stir fry with Nuoc Cham.

Nuoc Cham is a hot pungent bright red sauce made with red chillies and garlic pounded with sea salt to a paste in a heavy pestle and mortar. The recipe suggested taking the seeds out of the chillies but as it was only going to be me who would be eating the sauce there didn’t seem much point. Once the chillies and garlic were ground down to a rough paste I stirred in some lime juice, caster sugar and fish sauce. That was put to oner side.

rice was cooked in some of the chicken stock I made on Sunday evening. I put with the water as it came to the boil a large chunk of ginger and a stick of lemon grass. These were fished out once the rice was cooked and a lid was put on so it could steam gently in on itself.

For the sir fry I heat oil in the bottom of the wok. I then threw in a finely sliced onion and some cooked green beans and cooked them on a high heat until the onion was on the cusp of browning. I then added the chicken and gave that a few minutes on the high heat.

By now it was time to start shouting at kids to clear the table and get out the forks and plates and whilst they were at it fetch me a beer from the basement.

Once the chicken was cooked through I stirred in the rice with some sliced spring onion and mint leaves.

The stir fry was then piled into bowls and eaten with forks. I ate mine slathered in spoonfuls of the red Nuoc Cham.

The recipe came from Diane Henry’s Food from Plenty. I must cook some more Vietnamese food. I really enjoy the pungent with the hot and the sweet and the sour.