Hoi An Cooking School – Quick and Easy Authentic Vietnamese Recipes

Our visit to Hoi An in central Vietnam was woefully lacking in activities. Not because we didn’t want to get out and see/do things, but because Hoi An was hit by typhoon Damrey the day after we arrived. Thankfully, we managed to see Hoi An Lantern Festival before the rains started. But for the next few days, the ancient town was completely flooded. Locals were actually offering boat rides to tourists starting at the edge of the flood zone. On one of the rainiest days, we decided on a perfect indoor activity for visitors to Vietnam – a Hoi An cooking school.

Vietnamese cuisine is possibly our absolute favourite in the world, even more so after we visited. A Vietnamese cooking class is high on the list of must-dos for many visitors to Vietnam. We learned how to make quick and easy, delicious and authentic Vietnamese food that anyone could cook at home.

This is part of our Vietnam 3 Week Itinerary post. Click here to see the whole Vietnam 3 Week Itinerary.

Choosing a Hoi An cooking school

You can choose from many a Hoi An cooking school, ranging from high end to low end. High end usually includes a boat ride and a trip to the market and costs around $25 per person. Due to the rains, we decided not to spend that much and went for a cheaper version. Our Hoi An cooking school took place at one of our favourite restaurants – Cafe 43. Located down a back street set back from the river, Cafe 43 has a wonderful local menu, top-notch service and usually, local fresh beer (Bia Hoi) at VND 3000 ($0.13). They also have a little orange and white cat, who is crazy affectionate and Tom promptly decided to name him Mr Lantern (Tom has a tendency to give weird names to animals).

Having eaten there a number of times, we enquired about the cooking school at the restaurant. The way it works is that you can choose your favourite menu dishes from a list, and they will show you how to cook them for the price of USD8 per person, plus the cost of the menu item itself.

Many other restaurants in Hoi An also offer this option for doing a cooking school, so if you find a favourite restaurant there, you may also find that you can cook your favourite menu items!

We decided to create two dishes at our Hoi An cooking school experience – chicken with chilli and lemongrass, and pork in clay pot.

For the first time, we have created an instructional recipe video, showing step by step what we cooked! The video is about 9 minutes long and you can watch it below.

Hoi An cooking school – the recipes

The recipes we learned for our Hoi An cooking school are also written here for your convenience.

Chicken with chilli and lemongrass

This dish is very light and contains enough lemongrass that the citrus flavour really shines through, with the heat of the chilli giving it an additional delicious warmth. It would be great as a lunch or light evening meal. You could serve also with rice.
This portion size will serve one, if you are serving more people then multiply up.

Ingredients:

• 6 sticks of lemongrass, finely chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely sliced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, finely sliced
• 1/4 red bell pepper, finely sliced
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• 200g of chicken breast per person, diced
• 1 teaspoon mixed garlic and shallots
• 1/2 teaspoon each black pepper and salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons oil

Method

Mix the chicken together in a bowl with the garlic and shallots, seasoning and sugar until all the pieces are mixed together. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the chicken and cook over a medium/high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add all of the remaining ingredients and cook until the lemongrass is browned (5-10 minutes).
Serve on a plate whilst still hot, with rice if you wish.

Pork in Claypot

This recipe has a greater depth of flavour than the chicken recipe above. Traditionally, it should be cooked in a clay pot, however, if you have a small casserole dish or even a saucepan, it can probably work just as well.
Again, this portion size will serve one person.

Ingredients

• 1/2 red pepper, finely sliced
• 1.2 onion, finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
• A small bundle of spring onions, halved (note, spring onions in Vietnam are tiny – if you can only get bigger ones then I would suggest to cut them into 1/4 or 1/8 strips lengthways at the bulbous part
• 200g pork, diced
• 1 teaspoon mixed garlic and shallots
• 1/2 teaspoon each black pepper and salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons cooking oil

Method

Mix the pork meat together with the ginger, garlic and shallots, black pepper, salt and sugar. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in the clay pot. Add the pork, and stir over the heat until it is medium cooked. Add all other ingredients to the pot except the spring onions. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the onions start to soften. Cover the pot and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the sesame seeds and the spring onions. Cover again and cook for another 5 minutes, and then serve directly from the clay pot.

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Finally

We cannot wait to try these recipes again ourselves! Both were completely delicious and very easy to prepare and cook. Hoi An cooking school is highly recommended by us as a way to recreate your favourite Vietnamese dishes yourself at home!

 

Do you have any favourite recipes or cooking school experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below!

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