All language subtitles for Eva.Paus.Asian.Kitchen.S01E04.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

For marinades to stir fries,
grills and glaze,

seasoning or drizzling,
flavours that bind by Lee Kum Kee,

proud sponsor
of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.

My name is Eva,

and I'm very excited to welcome you
into my Asian Kitchen.

In this series,

I'll share the secrets behind
cooking authentic, fresh,

delicious Asian food at home.

Recipes to breathe a bit of fresh air
into your weekly meal plan.

I can eat this every day.

To me, food and family
are inseparable.

My mum and dad are from China,

but we've lived in Ireland
since I was one month old,

so I'm a true blend of East and West.

I grew up running around
my parents' supermarket,

so my life has always been
about food, food, food.

I'm not a professional chef,
but cooking is my passion.

So when I'm not working,

I'm at home experimenting
with food or thinking about it.

I collect cookbooks and read them
like other people read fiction.

I'm very lucky that I get to travel
to Asia a few times a year.

I visit my granny in Hong Kong,
who is still cooking at 93,

and I keep up
with all the food trends.

So join me as we recreate the bold
and vibrant flavours of Asia.

♪ ♪

Today, we're going to dive
into the wonderful world

of Asian herbs and vegetables.

There are a lot of treasures here.

So first up, we have a lotus root,
which is the root of a lotus flower.

And I usually use this
for making soups,

or you can deep-fry them as well.
They go really nice and crispy.

We have taro from the potato family,

a white radish,
which is also known as the daikon,

great for braising
and adding into soup stock.

Lovely.

Then here we have our Korean pear,
which is so big,

and it's really nice
and juicy inside.

So we have a large papaya, which
has a gorgeous orange flesh inside.

And this is the one
that we have as a fruit.

So you scoop out the insides and
then you slice it and it's gorgeous.

This is dragon fruit.
This is the pink one.

This is the yellow one.

But the flesh inside
is just, like, white

with little black dots and seeds,
and it's sweet. It's gorgeous.

But today we are here to pick up
some fresh herbs and vegetables.

Thai basil,

which is very different
to sweet Italian basil.

Also some perilla leaf,

which has a slight liquorice flavour

and some edible flowers,

all of which will feature
in my Vietnamese summer rice rolls.

And a normal cucumber,

which I will transform
in my Asian cucumber salad.

A green papaya for my addictive
prawn and papaya salad.

A taste and flavour explosion.

But we can't talk
about Asian vegetables

without talking about mushrooms.

I'm using shimeji,
shiitake, and oyster mushrooms,

three of my favourites
in today's first hearty dish,

crispy tofu with Asian mushrooms.

♪ ♪

Let's start
with our Asian mushrooms,

and I've just given them
a gentle wash.

You don't want
to soak them in water.

So we're gonna start by chopping off
the base of the shimeji mushrooms.

They just look so beautiful.
They're like bouquets of flowers.

And then some of my fresh
shiitake mushrooms.

You just want to take off the stalk
and then slice it.

The shiitake mushrooms give

a really nice, rich,
bold flavour to your dish.

Now, if you can't get fresh,
you can use dried ones.

And all you need to do there is just
to rehydrate them for 30 minutes,

and then they are ready to go.

These oyster mushrooms are great.

They have a lovely texture,

and they will soak up
the lovely sauce

that we're going
to have with this.

Now we're gonna move on to our tofu.

I have a fresh tofu here,

but you can get egg tofu,
silken tofu, tofu sheets.

The list could go on.

This firm tofu
is actually made fresh in Dublin

by a lovely Vietnamese family.

To prepare the tofu,

season some plain flour
with salt and white pepper.

Mix well and then
gently coat each piece.

Okay, let's prep our greens.

So we have two different
varieties here.

There is the pak choi,
which is the one with the white stem

and the darker green leaves.

And we also have the bok choi,

which has the greener stem
and the green leaves.

Now, to tell whether they're fresh,

you want them to be
still nice and green.

And if you see yellow,
it's not a good bok choi.

So I'm gonna start with the bok choi.

And you need
to take the ends like that,

and then I'm gonna slice it in half.

Now, usually, I would
actually pick out all the leaves,

but today I'm going
to leave them in half

because I would like them
to decorate the plate,

but of course, we're also
going to be eating them.

A little bit of garlic
adds so much flavour.

We're ready to stir-fry our pak choi.

The wok is hot.

Add a drizzle of oil.

You want to stir-fry the garlic
so that the oil has a nice aroma.

You don't want it to brown.

And now, our bok choi.

Give that a little stir.

Add a drop of water and then lid on.

And you want to keep the lid on
for 2-3 minutes

to let it steam-fry.

The bok choi is ready,

and we have still kept
the lovely vibrant green colour.

Now for our tofu, we're
just gonna quickly pan-fry them.

So into this pan goes
a drizzle of oil.

You just want to have
this light golden colour on it,

about 2-3 minutes on each side.

So these are just gonna rest here
while we make our sauce.

We're gonna get the wok
on the go again

to make our beautiful mushroom sauce.

A little bit of oil.

And once it's hot, in they go.

You want to give that
a little quick stir,

and then some chopped garlic.

The reason I'm adding
in the chopped garlic now

is I don't want the garlic
to be crispy or golden.

I just want it for the flavour
in with the mushrooms.

I'm just going to leave these
to stir-fry,

and I'm gonna make
a very quick sauce.

Into a bowl, some corn flour.

So it's roughly a teaspoon
of the corn flour

to about two tablespoons
of cold water.

You definitely do not want
to be using any hot water,

or else you'll end up
with a very gloopy sauce.

Flavour this with two tablespoons
of oyster sauce,

and then a teaspoon
of sugar to balance it off.

And now that is ready to go.

A super quick sauce.

In Chinese, it's called da heen.

And now in this goes to my mushrooms.

You have to turn the heat down
and then slowly mix it in.

So this dish is inspired by one
of my childhood favourites,

Chinese braised mushrooms
in oyster sauce.

Now, that dish takes
a few hours to cook.

So this is my quick version.

My mushrooms are done.

Time to plate up.

So I'm going to set
my lovely bok choi on the edges.

This dish goes
into the middle of the table

and everyone serves themselves.

I'm getting hungry.

And a sprinkling of spring onion

and some white roasted sesame seeds.

It's ready to bring to the table,

but I'm going to have a little
quick taste with some Jasmine rice.

I have my Jasmine rice here.
It's great.

It has a lovely aroma,

and it's quite easy to pick up
with the chopsticks

as it's a shorter,
slightly sticky rice.

That is absolutely gorgeous.

The mushrooms bring a big,
bold umami flavour to this dish.

Also, it adds a little bit
of meatiness as well,

so you don't really miss the meat.

And it's paired
with that lovely oyster sauce.

It's really a match made in heaven.

I'm just gonna have
another quick taste.

♪ ♪

If you're looking for a perfect
starter, side dish, or light lunch,

Vietnamese summer rolls
with two delicious dipping sauces

are the answer.

♪ ♪

So the big difference between
a summer roll and a spring roll

is that it's not deep fried,
but still really super delicious.

Now, I'm gonna get
my vermicelli on the go.

These are super thin
Vietnamese vermicelli.

It's even thinner
than the normal vermicelli,

but the normal ones will work, too.

So I'm just gonna add some hot water.

It really just needs to soften,
not really cook for too long.

You want to put enough hot water

so that the rice vermicelli fully
submerges into the hot water.

Cover it for 2-3 minutes.

Over here, I have some
cucumber and carrot.

Cut them into roughly
two-inch pieces.

You want them slightly chunky
like this,

but the carrot is crunchier,
so chop it into thinner pieces.

And now, our lovely Asian herbs.

So we have here some mint.

I'm just gonna pick off
some of the mint leaves.

Now, mint is actually used
a lot in Vietnamese cooking.

It gives this lovely aroma.

Next, some Vietnamese
perilla leaves.

That just adds a lovely,

fragrant, aromatic taste
and smell to your summer roll.

Then some coriander.

I'd put coriander
into everything if I could.

The fourth herb I have here
is a Thai basil leaf.

They're very different
to the sweet Italian basil.

It has a lovely aniseedy
and liquoricy flavour.

Pop a few of those onto the plate.

Okay, the prawns.

You can keep the prawns whole,

or I actually like
to slice them in half like this.

I'm just using some cooked
tiger prawns here.

They give a lovely pinky colour
to the summer roll.

Now to our Vietnamese pork roll.

Now, this is probably something
you haven't seen before.

It's a cooked sausage meat,

so it's actually
really popular in Vietnam.

And what they do
is they add this into pho,

which is the Vietnamese
soup noodle,

or they add it into bánh mis,
which are the Vietnamese baguette.

And it will add a really nice
texture to your summer roll.

That's all my fillings.

Time to drain the vermicelli,
make some space,

and prep my dipping sauces.

So now we're gonna make our
first really light and fresh sauce,

add a little bit of rice vinegar,

then two tablespoons
of some sweet chilli sauce,

a few drops of fish sauce,

and then some fresh lime juice.

A half tablespoon.

So this is my really quick
version of this sauce.

It's very light and sweet and tangy.
Let me just have a quick taste.

The sweet chilli already
has a lot of sugar,

and it's really well balanced.

So adding just two tablespoons
in here makes all the difference.

So now for our second dipping sauce,
it's gonna be a peanut-based one.

A little bit
of crunchy peanut butter.

To that, I'm going to add
a little bit of hoisin sauce,

some rich umami flavour
into the sauce.

Then some rice vinegar.

I like to use white rice vinegar
and then some light soy sauce.

This sauce is a complete contrast
to the other light one.

This is much deeper
with bolder flavours.

A bit of sugar.
I'm gonna mix all that in first.

A little bit of warm water
to loosen down the dipping sauce.

And then a little bit
of crushed peanuts into the sauce

to give it even more peanut flavour.

Our two dipping sauces are ready.

I'm just gonna do
a quick clean down,

and then we're ready
to assemble our summer rolls.

♪ ♪

Whether it's breakfast,
lunch, or a quick snack,

Chiu Chow with Lee Kum Kea, proud
sponsor of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.

Lee Kum Kee, proud sponsor
of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.

It's time to assemble
our summer rolls.

So first off, we need to get
a damp tea towel

and set it
onto our chopping board.

Then we're going to get
a piece of rice paper

that we're gonna rehydrate
in some cold water.

So you want
to just quickly rehydrate it

and take it out
and set it on the damp tea towel.

Then we can add our little fillings.

So first off,
some lovely green herbs,

prawns.

And you really just want
to work in the middle part here.

Some cucumber, carrots.

Then some edible flowers.

The edible flowers
don't really have that much flavour,

but it's really pretty when you have
your summer roll all wrapped up

and you can see it
through the rice paper.

Finally, add some Vietnamese
sausage and rice vermicelli.

Then it's time to wrap.

We're gonna take the left side up

and then the right side.

Fold the bottom up,

and now it's time to roll.

Make it nice and tight.

So that is your
completed summer roll.

I'm gonna set it
onto a bed of lettuce

so that it doesn't stick
to the plate.

Let's roll another one.

You have to work quite fast as these
wet rice wrappers are quite sticky.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna go in for
a little taste now. Can't wait.

I'm going for the lighter one,
the sweet chilli one.

Mmh.

So you can really see the beautiful
colours in the summer roll.

The vermicelli, the carrot,
and it tastes amazing

with the lovely, aromatic herbs.

I'm gonna try
the peanut sauce as well.

Mmh.

It is so rich and deep.

It's a great contrast
to the light dipping sauce.

The summer roll, you can make
a lot of them ahead of time,

and you can share them
with family and friends.

But these are all for me.

♪ ♪

Next up,

I have two super quick salads,
both so refreshing.

I'll start with my cucumber salad.

I make this as a side dish
all the time.

It's perfect for Asian
or barbecue food,

and it is a yummy,
healthy snack to bring to work.

♪ ♪

I love this dish.

It's so quick and simple.

First, we need to get
our cucumber and smash it.

Take the ends off there.

Got a big rolling pin,
and here we go.

There is a difference
if you smash your cucumber

because as you can see,
when I'm cutting it,

the insides there
are all loosened up,

and that's the key
to a good cucumber salad.

It soaks up all
the gorgeous dressing.

We're gonna pop it into a sieve.

This is another key step
to your cucumber salad.

Sprinkle a good
pinch of salt all over,

which will draw out the moisture.

Leave this to rest
for 15 to 20 minutes,

and you'll see
that the cucumber water

will be dripping from the sieve
into the bowl you have here.

Next, finely chop some garlic,

a red chilli,

and some coriander.

So this dish is served
in many restaurants in China,

and they usually serve
with a little bit of jellyfish.

It's not actually
soft and jelly-like.

It's actually quite crunchy.
Almost there.

We're just going to add in
our seasoned rice vinegar.

Some light soy,

sugar,

some roasted sesame seeds,

and a pinch of salt.

Let's see how the cucumber is doing.

Perfect.

We're going to add it
into our dressing now

and give it a good mix.

So the salad
can be eaten straight away,

or you can leave it
in the fridge overnight

and let the cucumbers
infuse even more.

And it'll keep for two days,
but not this one.

Time to plate up.

♪ ♪

Mmh!

You get that lovely crunch
of the cucumber.

It's sweet, it's savoury, it's tangy.

I can eat this every day.

♪ ♪

Anytime I see this dish on a menu,
I just can't resist it.

It's a crunchy, complex salad,
and depending on your tolerance,

can be lovely and spicy, too.
And it's so quick.

Don't look away.

So this is an unripe green papaya.

Now, it can ripe and become
nice and juicy and sweet,

but I'm gonna be using it
as a vegetable today,

so I definitely
don't want it to be too ripe.

So first off,
you need to peel the skin.

An unripe papaya has
a mild flavour, but a lovely crunch.

Now,

finding the right tool
to julienne the papaya

into the correct kind of thin strips
is really important

because you don't want them
to be too thick

or else your salad is gonna be
quite hard to eat.

And I have a tool here
all the way from Korea.

It took me a while to find it,
but it's literally the perfect tool.

It gives you these lovely
fine shreds of papaya.

But these simple ones also work, too.

Next, shred in some carrot.

Traditionally, you would add dried
shrimp and long beans here,

but I prefer carrot.

I'm just gonna chop some chillies.

These are really hot,

so definitely do be careful
and don't put in too much of it.

And finally,
half some cherry tomatoes.

So I'm sure you've noticed
my really big pestle and mortar.

Now, these are used mainly
in Thailand and Laos,

and they're for making
this gorgeous papaya salad.

So first in, two cloves of garlic,

then my chopped chillies.

And you want to give
that a good mash.

So now in with my cherry tomatoes.

Give them a little bit of a mush.

Some fish sauce.

Fish sauce is
a real Thai pantry staple.

They use it to add the saltiness
into a lot of their dishes.

Next up, palm sugar syrup.

Now, palm sugar usually comes
in a big block,

and you can actually break in some
of the pieces to go into the salad,

but I really like
to kind of make it into a syrup

so it's smooth.

Next, some lime juice.

Give that a little stir.

Oh, my tastes are starting to tingle.
Let's add in the veg.

You can, of course,
use a small pestle and mortar

and just transfer
into a large bowl at this stage.

And we're going to mix all
the lovely papaya in with the sauce.

Time for the Prawns.

And that's it.

Look at all those
lovely pieces of papaya

mixed in with a gorgeous
salad dressing.

And a sprinkle of salted
or roasted peanuts.

Ready to taste.

Mmh!

Wow.

There's a real kick to this,

but it has a lovely crunchy texture
and that gorgeous sauce.

Delicious.

Definitely make more
than you think you'll need.

Well, I hope you can give one
of these spectacular taste explosions

a go this week.

They will delight and amaze all
who are lucky enough to taste them,

whether it's
Asian mushrooms and tofu,

the Vietnamese summer rolls,

or Thai Prawn
and green papaya salad.

Have fun with your cooking.

See you next time.

All the recipes from today's episode
are available at rte.ie/food.

♪ ♪

Subtitles: RTÉ 2025

For marinades to stir fries,

grills and glaze, seasoning
or drizzling, flavours that bind

by Lee Kum Kee,

proud sponsor
of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.