Home cook: Pham Thi Diem Thu
Straight from the garden to the Leaf Kitchen here are some interesting dishes made with homegrown greens. I’m excited to share these three dishes that we prepared today. Nothing quite like harvesting your own homegrown produce and cooking up a delicious meal.
Sri Lankan Mint Sambol
Serves 3 persons
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
Mint leaves – 1 bundle of leaves (see photos)
Lime – Juice of 1 lime
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Sugar- 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Pepper – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Chili – 1 sliced green chili (remove the seeds if you prefer a milder taste)
Coconut – grated coconut – 1 handful (add more if you prefer a lighter green color to this dish)
Method
Wash the leaf bundle and pick the best mint leaves off the vine. Pound the leaves in a pestle and mortar until the leaves lose their shape and turn into a thick paste. Slowly add the other ingredients except the lime juice. Continue pounding to mix all the ingredients evenly. Then add the lime juice and mix it in well. Serve with steamed rice and other accompaniments.
Vietnamese Rau Càng Cua Salad
Serves 3 persons
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
Rau Càng Cua – 1 bundle of leaves (see photos)
Lime – 2 limes
Sugar- 1 1/2 table spoons
Method
Pick-off the seeds and wash the leaves (keep the stems).
Dry the leaves on a cloth.
Mix sugar and the juice of 2 limes (salad dressing).
Add the dressing to the to leaves and mix well. Serve with steamed rice and Honey Pork – recipe shown below.
Vietnamese Honey Fried Pork
Serves 3 persons
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
Pork / Wild Boar- 150g cut into slices
Salt – a pinch of salt
Green chili – 1 cut into small pieces
Garlic- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
Soya sauce – 1 dessert spoon
Honey – 2 table spoons
Coconut oil – 2 table spoons
Method
Marinate the pork, soya sauce, chili and garlic in fridge for 15 minutes.
Add oil to a pan and fry the meat until lightly golden brown on both sides.(remember to only add the meat and not the marination juice).
While the meat is being done add honey and water to the marination juice that we saved earlier.
When the meat is golden brown on both sides add the honey-mix and fry until the
water reduces to a thick sauce (this won’t take long so take care and keep an eye on the meat to ensure it doesn’t burn).
Cut in to slices and serve with steamed rice or noodles. 
