Seafood
Eel in Lemongrass sauce
This dish is so quick you’ll be amazed. When I was little my mom thought I may not want to eat eel so she told me it was a baby fishies cut up. It’s almost as good as her story about babies coming from armpits as the topic of sex was never brought up in my upbringing. I remember looking at her armpits and wondering how the neck I could have come out of there!
Here’s a quick recipe that you can use with chicken or fish or even shrimps requested by one of our facebook fans.
1/2 lb eel cleaned and cut or shrimp peeled, & deveined or chicken cubed.
1/4 cut finely chopped lemongrass (you can get pre-chopped frozen ones from the Asian markets)
1/2 onion sliced into large chunks
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
salt/pepper to taste
In a large pan, heat up oil and sugar on high medium heat. Once the sugar turns caramel in color add, onions and lemongrass and cook for 2 minutes. Careful not to burn the sugar. Add the protein, fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5-7 minutes depending on the protein. Of course you can make it VietnamEazy by skipping the fish sauce. You can also add chili if you like.
That’s it! Serve with steamed rice and enjoy!
How I learned to appreciate high-end ingredients from Mom
I went to the market to get something pre-made salad for dinner when I walked passed the seafood section and was instantly inspired by these beautiful lobster tails as they remind me of my mom.
Even when we were young and my parents struggled to raise four kids on a shoe string budget, I never felt we were poor as Mom always made sure we ate well.
Unlike my girlfriends who had an outfit for every day of the week for months and months, I had about one and a half weeks worth of clothes and learned to rotate them accordingly.
But for some reason, I never felt “poor.” We’d have lobsters, shrimps, and crabs for dinner often.
As a grown up, I’d often wonder how Mom did it. When asked, she simply shrugged her shoulders and said as if it were no big deal,
“We were used to eating well, so I managed to at least do that for the family.”
She continued smiling at me,
“I liked watching you kids enjoy your food….it made me happy.”
Our values were never based on fancy clothes, but it was about being served beautiful dishes of food. Mom instilled this deep appreciation of high-end ingredients in all of us.
Here’s an easy recipe the next time you want to serve your family a fancy lobster or shrimps meal.
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 clove minced garlic
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
A Dash fish sauce
Salt/pepper to taste
Pour mixture over prepared lobsters or shrimps and roast in the oven for 5-7 minutes on high heat (550 degrees.) Don’t over cook your lobster!
I served them with broccolini cooked in olive oil and roasted potatoes to lend some healthiness to our meal.
I’m saving that pre-made salad for lunch tomorrow.
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