Welcome to my website. I am the author of ‘Vietnamese – Simple Vietnamese Food To Cook At Home’. I am a photographer and film maker. You can book into my supper club, Vietnamese cooking classes, buy my book, check out my photography and lots more here.
Please follow me on instagram @loveleluu – Thank you so much for visiting x
Food Photographer
The supper club is held in my home in London Fields, Hackney. It is like a dinner party in the tradition of a Vietnamese feast with homemade Vietnamese food.
Vietnamese food is about the balance of flavours, of sweet, salty and sour – there is no measuring device that can ever match your own taste buds.
Thanks to Katto Knives, for gifting me a lovely chef’s knife – its great for these chopping and slicing jobs
Recipe from my book Vietnamese
Serves 3–4
40 g (11⁄2 oz) ginger root, roughly chopped 2 lemongrass stalks, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 round shallots, roughly diced
500–600 g (1 lb 2 oz–1 lb 6 oz) chicken thighs,
de-boned and excess fat removed, skin on,
cut into large bite-sized pieces
3 tsp Vietnamese or mild curry powder
400 ml (13 fl oz/generous 11⁄2 cups) coconut milk 100 ml (21⁄2 fl oz/scant 1⁄2 cup) water
1 chicken stock cube
400 g (14 oz) potatoes, cut into 2 cm (3⁄4 in) cubes 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) Delicata squash, cut into
4 cm (11⁄2 in) chunks
50 g (2 oz) mangetout (snow peas), sliced,
or green garden peas (optional)
11⁄2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp caster (superfine) sugar or maple syrup freshly ground black pepper
For the garnish
15 g (1⁄2 oz) Thai basil or coriander (cilantro) leaves 2 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
2 fresh red chillies (optional)
1⁄2 lime
Using a hand blender or mortar and pestle, blend the ginger, lemongrass and garlic together with
a tiny splash of water until smooth.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or shallow casserole dish (Dutch oven) over a medium–high heat and cook the shallots until golden, then add the chicken to brown off for a couple minutes on each side. Add the garlic, ginger and lemongrass mixture and stir to combine.
Evenly sprinkle over the curry powder, stirring well to coat the chicken. Then add coconut milk, water and chicken stock cube, bring to a gentle boil, then add the potatoes and squash and stir to combine. Turn down the heat to low, cover and continue
to simmer for about 15–20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
Add the mangetout or peas. Season the curry with the fish sauce, sugar and a good pinch of black pepper and cook for a further 8–10 minutes.
Garnish with Thai basil and/or coriander, spring onions and red chillies, if using. Squeeze over some fresh lime juice.
Serve with steamed rice (page 195) or I like it best with a fresh baguette (pages 114–117) and butter.
I have been hosting my Vietnamese supper club in Hackney for over 10 years but due to the pandemic, I have had to change things up. I am now making fresh home made Vietnamese food for everyone to eat at home.
Every Saturday.
A small menu will change weekly. Orders can be picked up at Regent Studios in Hackney, just off Broadway Market at 1pm and 6pm. Then in Crouch End at 730pm. We can do local deliveries in these areas: N8, N6, N5, N4 please just ask if you are unable to pick up.
You are welcome to arrange your own courier should you not live in these areas.
We will try to work on our delivery system and offer this as we go on. We will aim to do more days by the end of September.
You can book here https://luuluu-s-vietnamese.myshopify.com
Please tell your friends and family who have enjoyed the supper club in the past and wish to order food. Thank you!
About the food
These are some of the Vietnamese classics that can be had in Vietnam in any household or every street corner. But when we arrived as refugees in the UK in the early 80s, we didn’t even think we could find rice. But of course, if you look hard enough, you can find anything and my mum used to make these for us to have as weekend treats, not only because they are so good and would make us so happy, it reminded her and us of home and the family we had to leave behind.
About the production
My mum has been lovingly growing all the fresh Vietnamese herbs in her garden in Dulwich and some of the vegetables are also homegrown by family and friends in their garden and allotments.
We buy free-range meat from a good quality butcher where animal welfare is top priority and that they are farmed with traditional methods.
Prep and cooking is done in Hackney at my kitchen studio.
Re-use/ Recycle
Please bring your own bags upon collection where possible.
I am very environmentally careful about the packaging that we use and recommend that you clean, reuse plastic tubs and recycle them. The paper boxes and bags are bio-degradable.
For something deliciously different for your brunch, try food writer Uyen Luu’s egg banh mi – a Vietnamese sandwich with soft herby omelette in a crusty baguette with pickled carrot, cucumber and chilli.
Ingredients (serves 2)
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
Juice of ½ lime
1 tsp caster sugar
1 M&S baguette
1 tbsp cooking oil
50g leeks, finely sliced
1 shallot
40g peas
40g spinach, sliced
40g cabbage, sliced
4 eggs
4 tbsp M&S teriyaki sauce
Butter
Sliced cucumber, coriander, sliced spring onion, sliced chilli, to serve
Mix the carrot with the lime juice and sugar in a bowl and set aside.
Separate the egg yolks and whites into two bowls. Add the spinach and cabbage to the yolk bowl with the teriyaki sauce and mix. Whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold into the yolk and greens.
Cut the baguette in half and scoop out some of the dough. Stuff the hollow baguette with the garnishes and carrot pickle.
Cook the leeks, peas and shallots in a large pan over a medium heat with one tbsp oil until soft. Pour over the egg mixture. Every 30 seconds, fold the whipped omelette over in half and keep folding in all directions until cooked. Stuff the omelette into the baguettes.
Photo by Tara Fisher
Written for Waitrose Magazine. I am so pleased that so many have written to say that they have been using this recipe again and again . Its one of my favourites!
Serves 6
Prepare 20 minutes
Cook 1 hour 30 minutes
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, sliced into quarter rings
3 garlic cloves, crushed
30g fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1kg pork belly, skin removed
1 tbsp chilli flakes (more or less, depending on how hot you want it)
400g can coconut milk
2-3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp honey (optional)
200g cavolo nero or kale, tough stalks discarded and sliced into 2.5cm pieces
1 Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic over a medium heat for about 6 minutes, until softened; tip onto a plate and set aside.
2 Meanwhile, slice and prepare the pork belly, trimming off any excess fat but leaving some for taste and texture. Cut into 2.5cm chunks and add to the pan to brown off on all sides, about 10 minutes in total (you may need to do this in batches). Return the onions and garlic, add the chilli flakes, mix well and continue to cook for about 10 minutes.
3 Add the coconut milk and simmer to reduce for 30 minutes. Then add fish sauce and continue to simmer for a further 30 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
4 When ready to serve, mix through the honey (optional), season with plenty of black pepper, and add the cavolo nero. Cook for 5 minutes with the lid on, then serve with steamed rice.
If you are using tofu, slice into 1.5cm x 3cm cubes, gently fry in a shallow oil with a pinch of salt until golden on each side then marinade as above.
For more Pho recipes, visit The Guardian – here are 6 of my best Pho recipes
Above photography by for The Guardian by Uyen Luu, Food Styling by Joanna Resiak. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins
