If you're looking to spice up your weekly dinner routine, Vietnamese cuisine can add a light, fresh option that's simple to prepare after you've added a few basics to the pantry. Oh, and did we mention it's delicious? With its tropical flavors of lemongrass, cilantro, chiles and ginger, Vietnamese cuisine can transform a cheap cut of beef, chicken or pork and some fresh vegetables and herbs into a fast feast.

	Caren Alpert Pho Noodles with Beef, Hanoi Style (pho bo), is one of the dishes featured in "Quick & Easy Vietnamese," a cookbook by Nancie McDermott. Click photo for larger image.

In a new book released this month, "Quick & Easy Vietnamese," Nancie McDermott demystifies this exotic cuisine and streamlines traditional Vietnamese dishes for the busy American kitchen. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, Ms. McDermott is a food writer and cooking teacher who specializes in the cuisines of Southeast Asia, and she makes an effort to guide readers toward the essential ingredients, tools and skills they need without forcing them to spend a fortune in money and time learning a new way of cooking.

Most ingredients needed for cooking Vietnamese dishes now can be found in the produce, dry goods and ethnic foods aisles at your local grocery store. Asian groceries such as Asian Foods on Penn Avenue in the Strip District stock less-common ingredients, as well as Asian cooking equipment and serving dishes.

Essential ingredients that you should have on hand (or in the case of perishables, buy regularly) if you plan to cook Vietnamese food occasionally include: chile-garlic sauce or dried red chile flakes; dried rice noodles; fish sauce; fresh herbs such as cilantro, mint and dill; garlic; green onions; lemons or limes; roasted and salted peanuts; soy sauce; and standard pantry items such as salt and pepper, sugar, vegetable oil, white vinegar, onions, rice and eggs.

	Caren Alpert Cha Ca Fish with Fresh Dill, Hanoi Style (cha ca ha noi) is named for the popular Cha Ca La Vong restaurant in Hanoi that created the dish. The recipe is featured in "Quick & Easy Vietnamese." Click photo for larger image.

If you plan to make the cuisine a more regular part of your cooking routine, there are other important ingredients that will start filling your pantry and refrigerator -- ginger, lemongrass, oyster sauce, unsweetened coconut milk. But those can be added as you need them, depending on what recipes you choose to try.

As for equipment, Ms. McDermott suggests at least four big noodle bowls and several tiny porcelain saucers and small shallow bowls for the dipping sauces and condiments that often are served separately to each person.

You should also have a sturdy cutting board or two (preferably a plastic one for meats and a wooden one for vegetables and herbs to prevent cross-contamination), a good paring knife, and either a big Chinese cleaver or a 10-inch chef's knife. It will be helpful to have a double set of long and extra-long stainless steel tongs for stir-frying or grilling, and a sturdy spatula and a slotted spoon for turning and scooping foods.

A bamboo steamer (available from most kitchen-supply stores for about $10) or metal steamer insert is great for protecting nutrients while cooking vegetables, while a blender or food processor is important for making marinades and sauces. And a carbon steel wok, which gets very hot, is useful for flash-frying food and keeping stir-fried vegetables crispy, although any large, deep skillet will serve and a big Dutch oven with a lid will work fine for curries.

Most people have that basic equipment in their kitchens, or can easily improvise. And for those unfamiliar ingredients, a shopping trip to an Asian grocery will only fuel your interest in exploring this fascinating cuisine.

Delicious lemongrass burgers with beef or pork (bo nuong xa; cha heo)

If you're new to cooking Vietnamese, this is a fun, easy way to get started by trying some quintessential Vietnamese flavors in the most familiar of American foods: the hamburger. If you use beef, you're making a traditional Vietnamese dish called bo nuong xa that's part of a special-occasion feast common to the mountainous northern region of Vietnam. If you use pork, you're making cha heo, a snack enjoyed as street food throughout the sultry Mekong Delta in the country's southern region.

This recipe makes two dozen miniature burgers, which are delicious sprinkled generously with cilantro and mint, wrapped with lettuce into little bundles, and dipped into Everyday Dipping Sauce. If you prefer, the recipe makes two regular burgers, and can easily be doubled or tripled to make more.

• 1/2 pound ground beef or pork
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped lemongrass
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
  
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Accompaniments:

• Everyday Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)
  
• Lettuce cups made of 12 tender Boston or Bibb lettuce leaves
  
• 1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro, trimmed to 3-inch sprigs
  
• 1 1/2 cups fresh mint, trimmed to 3-inch sprigs

In a medium bowl, combine the ground beef with the lemongrass, green onion, cilantro, garlic, oil, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper and mix well. Set aside to season for at least 15 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 1 day.

Build a hot charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill or the broiler. Divide the meat mixture into 12 chunks and shape each into a small patty about 2 inches in diameter.

Cook on the hot grill until done to your liking, 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

To broil, place in roasting pan and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side. Or cook quickly in hot pan with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil, turning once.

Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature with Everyday Dipping Sauce and other accompaniments, so guests can make small bundles for dipping into the sauce.

Everyday dipping sauce (nuoc cham)

• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon chile-garlic sauce (available in the Asian section of most grocery stores' ethnic foods aisle) or finely chopped fresh hot red chiles, or 1 teaspoon dried red chile flakes
  
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 3 tablespoons water
  
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Combine garlic, sugar and chile-garlic sauce in the bowl of a mortar and mash to a paste. (Or combine them on your cutting board and mash to a coarse paste with a fork and the back of a spoon.)

Scrape the paste into a small bowl and stir in fish sauce, water and lime juice. Stir well to dissolve sugar.

Transfer to small serving bowls for dipping. Can be refrigerated in a covered jar for up to 1 week.

Makes about 1/2 cup.

Cha ca fish with fresh dill, Hanoi style (cha ca ha noi)

This dish is named after the Cha Ca La Vong Restaurant, a family-run place on Hanoi's Cha Ca Street that created the dish. The fresh herbs and marinated fish in this recipe make for a light, refreshing meal that's flavorful without being overly spicy or hot.

For the marinade:

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger or fresh or frozen galanga (a member of the ginger family that resembles ginger but has a more citrusy flavor)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 pound firm-fleshed fish filets, such as catfish, monkfish or tilapia

Accompaniments:

• 1/2 pound thin, dried rice noodles, softened in warm water for at least 15 minutes, or angel hair pasta
  
• 3 cups shredded lettuce leaves, such as Boston, Bibb or oak leaf
  
• 1 cup fresh mint, cilantro or Asian basil leaves
  
• 1/2 cup chopped, roasted and salted peanuts
  
• Double recipe Everyday Dipping Sauce (see preceding recipe)

For cooking the fish:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 2 cups coarsely chopped fresh dill
  
• 5 green onions, trimmed, white part chopped and green part cut into 2-inch lengths

To marinate the fish, in a medium bowl, combine the fish sauce, oil, ginger, turmeric and salt and stir to mix well. Cut the fish into big bite-size chunks (2 or 3 inches square) and add them to the bowl, tossing to coat well. Set aside while you prepare the noodles and other accompaniments, or cover and chill to marinate for up to 1 day.

To cook the rice noodles, bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Drain soaked noodles well, drop them into the boiling water, and immediately remove pot from heat. Let stand for 10 minutes, drain well and set aside in a medium bowl. (If using angel hair pasta, cooking in boiling salted water until tender but still firm, drain well and set aside.) Prepare the accompaniments, if desired, so that you can serve fish at once.

To cook fish, place oil, dill and green onion by stove. Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat until a bit of dill sizzles at once. Add the fish to the pan and cook on one side for about 2 minutes. Gently turn and let the fish cook for another minute. Add the dill and green onions to the pan and cook for another minute, tossing gently to wilt the herbs. Transfer to a serving platter.

To serve this dish in the classic small-bowl way, start each guest with a small bowl holding a portion of each accompaniment: noodles, lettuce and a few leaves of mint, cilantro or Asian basil. Top with a piece or two of fish with dill and green onions, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and drizzle with a spoonful of Everyday Dipping Sauce. Invite guests to continue serving themselves this way.

To serve the big-noodle-bowl, divide accompaniments, fish, dill and green onions among 4 noodle bowls or pasta plates. Season each bowl with Everyday Dipping Sauce and serve.

Serves 4.