Recipe
Goi ga — chicken salad with rau ram
- Herb:
- Vietnamese coriander Persicaria odorata
- Method:
- Culinary use
- Plant part:
- Leaf
About 25 minBeginnerRecipe science profile
Procedure
- Shred 300 g of cooked chicken; cut half a white cabbage and a carrot into fine strips, salt them and squeeze out after 10 minutes.
- Mix the dressing: 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 garlic clove and chilli, finely chopped.
- Toss the cabbage, carrot, chicken and thinly sliced onion with the dressing.
- Just before serving fold in a handful of torn rau ram leaves and scatter with roasted peanuts.
Extraction
- Herb:
- 1 handful (about 20 g) of fresh rau răm leaves for 4 portions of salad
- Solvent:
- none; tear the raw leaves into the salad just before serving
- Shelf life:
- eat immediately; salad without the leaves keeps for 1 day in the fridge
- Target compounds:
- essential oil aldehydes (decanal, dodecanal) are fragrant only in the fresh leaf; they are lost with heat
Notes
A classic Vietnamese salad; rau ram is a seasoning herb, added raw and never cooked. No health claims.
Why it works
The scent of rau ram — coriander-like with a citrus and peppery note — comes, per the analysis by Dung et al. 1995, mainly from the aliphatic aldehydes decanal and dodecanal, which are volatile and break down with heat, so the herb is added only raw and at the end. The Vietnamese folk belief that rau ram 'cools' and dampens desire is not clinically documented; it is a flavouring herb.
Literature
- Dũng NX, Hac LV, Leclercq PA (1995): Volatile Constituents of the Aerial Parts of Vietnamese Polygonum odoratum L. Journal of Essential Oil Research 7(3):339–340 — Essential oil composition: the aliphatic aldehydes decanal and dodecanal predominate.
Related
Vietnamese coriander — Herb card
Culinary use — Processing method detail