A Blog of Salt

Ca Chua Nhoi Thit - Pork-Stuffed Tomatoes

2013-05-22T17:58:00.003-04:00

I adore this dish because it's beautiful and delicious. The sauce produced by marrying all the ingredients together is so divine. It's salty and sweet; tomato, sugar, and fish sauce equals the best sauce EVER!

This is quite a popular recipe on the web so I was a little reluctant to write an entry on it. I mean there are already so many great recipes out there, I should just focus on something else? Well the bag of tomatoes I brought last week sitting in the refrigerator beg to differ.

For this recipe you want to use firm tomatoes and try to pick out the flattest one if you want a pretty presentation. You'll want to remove the core of the tomatoes but save them for the sauce. For the pork mixture I used wood ear mushroom, minced garlic, minced green onions, paprika, chili powder, soy sauce, mushroom seasoning, salt, and vegetable oil. Adding vegetable oil to the pork mixture will help it stay soft and moist after cooking. The sauce is a combination of fish sauce, sugar, chili powder, ketchup, the core of the tomatoes, and green onions. I often add chili powder to my recipe for that extra kick, omit if you prefer a mild taste. Once you have mix all the ingredients together for the pork mixture, refrigerate this mixture for a couple hours. Refrigerating the mixture help it bind together and it will less likely fall apart during the cooking process.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of ground pork

6 medium size tomato

1/2 cup of wood ear mushroom (rehydrate and finely chopped)

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of minced green onions

soy sauce

fish sauce

salt

sugar

chili powder

paprika

mushroom seasoning

vegetable oil

chopped green onions

1. Prepare the pork mixture by mixing together the pork, wood ear mushroom, garlic, green onions, 2 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning and 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Combine and refrigerate for a couple hours.

2. Cut the top of the tomatoes off and remove the core of the tomatoes. Save the core and top part of the tomatoes for later use. You'll want to cut them into smaller pieces.

3. Fill the tomatoes with the pork mixture.

4. Heat up cooking oil in a pan.

5. Place the tomatoes top down into the oil and let brown. Let this brown slowly because you'll want the pork to cook all the way through.

6. Once the meat has brown flip the tomato over. We can begin making the sauce.

7. Add about 4-5 tablespoon of fish sauce to the pan ( you can add more if you would like to make more sauce). Add the rest of the tomatoes, 3 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of ketchup. Just let it simmer on the stove on very low heat. This will produce the sauce and the tomatoes will soak up the sauce as well. You want to make sure the bottom of the tomatoes doesn't overcook and burst. Just be patience and let this cook on very low heat. Add the green onions at the very end.

Best eaten with steamed rice, enjoy!

Bun Hen - Baby Clam Vermicelli

2013-05-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

I've recently been introduced to this lovely dish, originated from the city of Hue. My parents never had this dish while they were in Vietnam, which led to my late meeting with this dish as well. It's crazy how vast the Vietnamese cuisine is for my parents in their 60's have not had this dish. Being from the North and migrated to the South when they were very young may have an impact. I am truly overjoyed that we have finally met because I know we will be friends for a very long time.

This dish can be eaten with rice noodles or rice, but I always prefer noodles over rice. In Vietnam, the baby clams are picked right out of the freshwater and steamed with lemongrass. I can imagine how fragrance and fresh the baby clams taste. Unfortunately, we do not have that luxury here in the States, often have to settle for canned our frozen clams. Even so, I still love eating Bun Hen. I love that this dish requires fresh vegetables and herb, and can be eaten with sesame rice cracker. The clams is sauteed and seasoned with shallots, garlic, and black peppers. Like most bun dish, there needs to be a sauce. It's not he limey fish sauce that we have become familiar with. For this dish, we make the sauce from fermented fish paste (mam ruot) and the clam juice. The sauce is salty and pungent, but is needed to bring this dish together.

I've tasted Bun Hen made by different people, and there are certainly some differences. Some seasoned the clams a lot more and some makes a lighter sauce than others. But no matter how different each Bun Hen taste, the one thing that makes the dish so delicious is the vegetables and herbs. I always tell people that herbs is an essential ingredient to Vietnamese cuisine. I cannot claim that this recipe is authentic, but this what I have come up with after tasting different Bun Hen. Perfect dish for the summertime, enjoy!

Ingredients:
rice noodles
3 10 oz cans of baby clams
fermented fish paste
1 tablespoon of minced shallots
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
romaine lettuce
Vietnamese coriander
diep ca
cucumber juliened
sesame rice cracker
salt
sugar
chili powder
black pepper

1. Cook the vermicelli rice noodles and let it dry. If you are using rice, cook the rice a little bit dryer than usually. Mushy rice will ruin this dish.
2. Open the canned clams and drained the liquid, setting the liquid aside to make sauce.
3. Washed all the vegetables and herbs, and let dry. The lettuce and herbs should be chopped for easier eating. You can mixed the two together as well.
4. In a pan, heat up about two tablespoon of cooking oil. Add 1/2 of the shallot and garlic and cook until fragrance. Add the baby clams to the pan and sauteed together with the shallot and garlic. Seasoned the clams lightly with some of salt, sugar, black pepper and chili powder. I like to eat spicy food, therefore you can omit the chili powder if you do not like spicy food. Continue to cook this mixture, and if like it a little burned you can cook the clams a little longer.
5. In a small pot, heat up two table spoon of cooking oil. Add the remaining garlic and shallots and sauteed until fragrance. Add the juice of the canned clams (about 2 cups) to the pot, and then stir in 4-5 tablespoon of fermented fish paste. I added 2 tablespoon of chili powder for spiciness. Once the sauce has come to a boil, turn off the heat.
6. In a bowl, add rice noodles, vegetables, cucumber and herbs. Scoop however much of the sauteed clams you want on top. Add some sesame rice cracker and then add sauce to your liking. You can cut in additional chili if you like it really spicy. Mix everything together and enjoy!

Bo Kho - Vietnamese Beef Stew

2013-01-22T17:14:00.004-05:00

I had a holiday party around Christmas time and I made a pot of Bo Kho and Ca Ri Ga. I have to admit I don't make stews very often but I figure it would be a hearty meal and will definitely warm up my guests. That night I had many compliments on my pot of Bo Kho. My friends requested that I post the recipe to my blog with the exact measurements. So for this recipe I actually measured what I can out, but sometimes during the cooking process I forget. But I really want to emphasize the importance of tasting your food. It will help you improve your cooking skills tremendously.

Bo Kho would probably not make my top 20 of favorite Viet food to eat because it's simply too heavy for me. I prefer eating pho or bun bo hue over bo kho, but stews are great during the cold Indiana winter. The day after the party, I brought home some bo kho to my family. My sister-in-law showed me a great way to lighten a hearty bowl of bo kho and it made it so incredibly delicious. She squeezed two lime wedges to a bowl of bo kho and top it with lots of cilantro. The lime and cilantro added depth and tanginess to the broth. I didn't even care about the star of the dish, the shank, it was all about that broth. If you haven't tried lime and cilantro with your bo kho, you have to give it a try!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of beef shank
2 stalk of lemongrass (cut into 4 and then crushed)
1 can of coconut juice
1/2 can of 6 oz tomato paste
6-7 carrots (cut into 1 inch pieces)
vegetable oil
onion powder
garlic powder
mushroom seasoning
chili powder
fish sauce
sugar
minced garlic
minced lemongrass
bay leaf

Marinade for 2 lbs of beef shank:

3 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of chili powder (this depends on the spice level of your chili powder and how spicy you want it to be)
1/2 tablespoon of minced lemongrass
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 tablespoon of bo kho seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1. Cut up the beef shank into cubes. Keep in mind beef shank shrink during the cooking process.
2. Marinate the beef shank with the marinade over night if possible or at least 2-3 hours before cooking.
3. In a large pot, heat up a little bit of vegetable oil and pour the marinated beef shank in the pot. You want to brown the outside of the meat.
4. Once the meat has brown evenly, add about 80% of the tomato paste and leave the rest for later use. Coat the meat with the tomato paste.
5. Add enough coconut juice to cover the meat. Put a lid on the pot and let this simmer on low heat for about 20-30 minutes. The coconut will add sweetness to your broth and help tenderize the shank.
6. Add water about 12 cups of water to help dilute the seasoning. For a more flavorful broth, replace 8 cups of water with two cans of chicken broth.
7. Add two bay leaves and lemongrass stalk to the pot, season the pot with additional salt, sugar, mushroom seasoning. I added 1-2 teaspoon of salt, 3 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning. Remember to taste your food!
8. In a separate pan, heat a tablespoon of cooking oil. Add 1 tablespoon of the bo kho gia vi to the oil and let the gia vi cook in the oil. Be careful not to let it burn. Once the oil and bo gia vi marry together, add that mixture to the pot.

9. Let pot simmer on medium heat with lid on for about 40 minutes. At this point the broth should be at the right consistency, not too water but not too thick. The meat should be tender enough to eat but still stay in tact.
10. Add the carrots and turn the heat down low. If you put the lid, on the carrots will cooked pretty fast. You don't want to overcook the carrots and become mushy.
11. Heat up another tablespoon of cooking oil in the pan. You want to add the remainder of the tomato and more minced lemon grass tot he oil. You want the minced lemongrass to become fragrance and the tomato paste to color the oil. You will add this mixture to the pot and achieve the pretty red color and the lemongrass will fragrance the broth some more.
12. Prepare yourself a bowl of bo kho with French baguettes or rice noodles (hu tieu).
13. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions, squeeze a little bit of lime to your bo kho .
14. Enjoy!

Ga Xa Ot - Lemon Grass Chicken

2012-08-02T18:31:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of post everybody! I've been busy traveling here and there since May, yup that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I'm heading to Houston next week and I'm so excited! I try to go to Houston once a year and just eat non-stop for a whole weekend. If anybody is familiar with the Houston area, please do recommend some of your local favorites.

Over a year ago I caught Luke Nguyen's cooking show while eating dinner at my friend's place. He was making ga xa ot and by the end of the show our boyfriends complained why we never made them this dish. Truthfully my mom never made this dish for me growing up, we always had ga kho gung (ginger chicken). I was just about to make ga kho gung for dinner tonight, and then I realized I still need to make ga xa ot for my boyfriend to try. I promise I do not always put off things this bad!

Marinade:

1 whole chicken cut into smaller pieces

4 tablespoon of minced lemongrass (the frozen kind)

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1/2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning

1/2 tablespoon of chili power

4 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of onion power

1/2 cup of fish sauce

Other ingredients:

sugar

chile paste (ot sate)

2 stalk of lemongrass cut into inch peices

1. Marinade for as long as you can, but 2 hours should be fine.

2. In a pot caramelize at 4 tablespoon of sugar, this will give the chicken some color.

3. Add the chicken, marinade and all to the pot. Let this cook on low to medium heat.

4. Add the lemongrass stalk to the pot.

5. Add as much ot sate to your preference of spiciness.

6. Make sure you flip each of the chicken pieces so they get some color.

7. Cook until chicken cooks through and sauces reduces. If liquid reduces to quickly you can add little bit of water or chicken broth.

8. Enjoy!

Goi Du Du Kho Bo - Beef Jerky Papaya Salad

2012-05-15T01:45:00.001-04:00

My family is very fond of this salad, unfortunately we do not have access to good Vietnamese beef jerky in the Midwest. This recipe calls for a specific kind of beef jerky. It's red in color and it's wet not dry like what you would think. My aunt uses the Bach Cuc brand she get from out of state. I recently visited Seattle and notice the same brand at the Vietnamese market in Seattle. Even though it's $10 per package, I just had to get a few bag to bring home. Thai basil is also a must have for this dish, you cannot substitute basil for another herb. You only have to worry about three ingredients; Thai basil, green papaya, and Vietnamese beef jerky.

Hand downs, this is the easiest Vietnamese salad to make. There is literally no cooking involve, except to boil some water to make the sauce. You just prepare all the raw ingredients, cut the beef jerky into strips, and then prepare the sauce. The hardest part to this recipe is making the sauce, it's always the sauce! I've tried quite a few sauces from restaurants and my aunt, and it never quite satisfy my taste buds. So I've experimented a few time and came up with something I like very much and it was well received by my family. I hope you will enjoy this easy and refreshing salad, just in time for summer!

Ingredients:

1 green papaya julienned

Thai basil rough chopped

Vietnamese beef jerky

Sauce

1. Soak the julienned papaya in water. Papaya tend to very slimy, so you'll want to change the water a couple time.

2. Once the the papaya is clean and ready to eat, you'll want to squeeze all the excess water out of it. The best way is to use paper towel to help absorb the water. Place the already squeezed papaya in a clean container.

3. Remove beef jerky from package and cut the jerky in smaller strips.

4. Prepare the sauce, recipe below.

5. Put some already prepared papaya in on a plate, top off with some chopped Thai basil and beef jerky strips. When you are ready to eat add the sauce to your liking, mix, and enjoy!

How to make the sauce:

1/4 cup of water

1-2 clove of garlic

2 tablespoon of sugar

1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce

3/4 tablespoon of rice vinegar

fresh chili or chili paste

1. Crush the garlic with a mortar and pestle (or a knife).

2. You'll want to cook the garlic into the water on low heat for 5-10 minutes.

3. Discard the garlic and just keep the garlic infused water. Remove to a bowl.

4. Add the sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar to the water. Mix everything together.

5. Add chili to your liking for some heat.

Banh Canh Cua - Crab Noodle Soup

2012-03-13T13:50:00.011-04:00

Even though I have already posted a recipe for Banh Canh Cua, this version is more authentic. The other version is like a quick fix, this version will take some time but it's definitely worth the extra effort.

The other day I went to our local supermarket looking for ingredients to make dinner. I wasn't really looking for any specific ingredients, kinda hoping something would jump out at me. As I was walking through the seafood section, I notice a sign, "wild caught stone crabs". They were running a stone crab claws special for $7.99 a lb. There were around 4-5 five claws per package and each package ran around $7-$8. I knew this is what I have to make for dinner, so I grabbed five packages with the largest claws.

After coming home, my sister-in-law looked through our freezer outside and dug up two dungeness crab parts. We use the meat a couple weeks ago to make Tamarind Crabs, and save the head with all the eggs for later use. There was no other option, these ingredients screamed Banh Canh Cua.

Instead of buying premade noodles, I wanted to make the noodles from scratch out of rice and tapioca flours. Again this took extra time but it's really not hard. It taste so much better than the premade noodles. The broth is a little tricky because I use some left over ingredients and then frozen stone crabs. The frozen stone crabs are already cooked so it's not going to give off a lot of crab flavor. Using mushroom will also give sweetness and lots of flavor to the broth. If you do not have access to stone crabs just use two whole dungeness crabs. On some occasion, Costo sells whole frozen dungeness crab for around $10 each.

For this recipe, I'm going to list what I did with my ingredients (5 lbs of stone crabs claws and 2 head parts of the two dungeness crabs). Since most people will not have the heads of two dungeness crabs laying around, I'm also going to list the procedure if you were going to use two whole dungeness crabs. I'll try not to sound confusing but please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Noodle:

3 cups of rice flour

2 1/2 cups of tapioca flour

1/2 cups to the side

boiling water

a big bowl

wooden spoon

rolling pin

1. Sift together 3 cups of rice flour and 2.5 cups of tapioca flour.

2. Slowly add boiling water a little bit at a time to the flour mixture. With a wooden spoon work the flour and boiling water together. You want to add enough water to form a dough that you can knead and then flatten.

3. Once you have achieve a texture where you can mold the dough, split the dough into smaller balls (about the size of racketball).

4. Use the rolling pin to flatten the dough balls and then cut the flatten dough in half. With a knife cut the half sheet of dough into 1 cm strips.

5. Store the noodle in a container and sprinkle tapioca flour in between noodles so it doesn't stick together. The additional tapioca flour will help thicken soup later too.

Broth:

2 lbs of pork neck bones

5 lbs of stone crabs

the hard shell and it's content to two dungeness crabs

1 teaspoon of of minced shallots

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

cooking oil

4 cup of mushroom quarters

salt

rock sugar

mushroom seasoning

fish sauce

green onions

cilantro

1. Steam the stone crab claws and save the liquid that is produced. Let the claws cool.

2. Preboil the pork bones with a good amount of salt. Re

move the pork from the dirty liquid and rinse under cold water.

3. Transfer the pork bones in a big pot filled with water. Let bones simmer in water up to 2 hours.

4. If you are using dungeness crabs, you want to remove the hard shell and scrape as much of the yellow content from the shell. You then would want to steam the crab meats and save the crab liquid for later.

5. Add the dungeness shell I just cleaned out into the broth. Add all the liquid produce from steaming the crabs.

6. Taste the broth with salt, rock sugar, and mushroo

m seasoning.

7. Heat up some cooking oil in pan and fragrance the minced garlic and shallots.

8. Add the head/egg content of the two dungeness crabs to the garlic and shallots. Sauteed the egg content until fragrance.

9. Add the content to the broth, which will give the broth some color.

10. Add the mushroom.

11. Taste the broth with additional fish sauce if needed.

12. Crack the claws and remove the meat.

13. Rough chopped the green onions and cilantro for garnish.

14. Like the previous recipe, you should prepare each bowl individually. Whenever you want to cook up a bowl, transfer the broth to a separate pot. Once the broth comes to a boil add the noodle and then turn down the heat. Make sure you stir the noodle around with a spoon or it's going to stick to the bottom. The noodle and extra tapioca powder will thicken the broth so add additional broth if needed.

Thit Bo Xao Dua Chua - Beef Sauteed with Pickled Mustard Green

2012-03-11T03:43:00.005-04:00

My mom makes the best dua chua (pickled mustard green), I swear i'm not bias! I have eaten others and it never compares to my mom. It always lack one of the following; texture, color, or taste. Good dua chua must come out crunchy, if there is no crunch when you bite into it something went wrong during the pickling process. The color should be yellowish green, like an olive green. Finally it should taste sour and not too bitter. She knows I love her dua chua, so every time I visit she has a tub for me to take home.

There are a lot of different ways to use dua chua in Vietnamese cooking but my favorite is to sauteed it with beef. A while ago one of my reader asked me to post a recipe on canh dua chua (pickled mustard green soup). I will get to that recipe the next time I have access to my mom's dua chua.

For this recipe you want to use a fatty cut of beef with a little bit of tendons, I like to use beef chuck. Not only will it give the dish more flavor but I just love the chewy texture with the crunchy mustard green. During Lent I also like sauteing pickled mustard green with squids, I will save that for a future post.

I have to say there's something very addicting about dua chua. The dua chua give a sourness to your dish that is very pleasing to our taste buds. The liquid that is produce from the pickled mustard green and beef marry together and become this wonderful sauce. I can seriously just eat the sauce alone with white rice and you can still taste the beef and pickled mustard green.

Ingredients:

1 lb of beef chuck cut into thin strips

2 cups of pickled mustard green

2 medium tomatoes (cut into smaller chunks)

4 stalk of onions (cut down to 1 inch)

2 teaspoon of minced garlic

2 teaspoon of minced shallots

fish sauce

sugar

cooking oil

1. Marinade the beef with the garlic, shallots, and 3 tablespoon of fish sauce for about 30 minutes.

2. Heat up cooking oil in a pan/wok.

3. Once the pan is hot enough add the beef and stir. You don't have to cook it all the way through but enough to brown the outside.

4. Add the pickled mustard green to the beef and add 3 additional tablespoon of fish sauce.

5 At this point there should be a lot of liquid produce in the pan by the beef and pickled mustard green. Let the beef and pickled mustard green braise in the liquid on medium to low heat for about 10 minutes.

6. Add the tomatoes and let it cook down.

7. At the very end add the green onions.

8. Enjoy with a bowl of rice!

Ga Kho Gung - Chicken Braised in Ginger and Caramel Sauce

2012-01-11T21:33:00.004-05:00

Ga Kho Gung is a dish that brings a lot of laughs to my family. My mom goes to work really early in the morning and she usually wake up extra early to prepare lunch in advance for my the rest of the family. On occasion when she doesn't get the chance to cook in the morning my dad becomes the cook for that day. Even though my dad has great taste in food, he cannot cook. Whenever I come home after school and see fried eggs and boiled green beans on the dining room table, I know my dad made lunch that day. Sometimes it's edible, other times it's not. My dad likes to flavor his cooking with only one ingredients, salt. My mom and I always have a good laugh anytime my dad cooks.

One afternoon I came home from school to a huge pot of ga kho gung. It was incredibly good! When my mom came home from work I complimented her pot of ga kho gung. She, however, did not make the ga kho that day. We both thought for sure it cannot be my dad, but who else could it be? The next day, I praised my dad on his ga kho. It made him really happy to hear that both my mom and I love his ga kho. When I came home after school that day, my dad had made another pot of ga kho. Again it was delicious. The next day I told him again he did a great job on this chicken. After school of that day, again there was another pot of ga kho. My dad made ga kho FIVE days in a row! Even my brothers, who never really have much to say about food were getting tired of chicken. That weekend we had an emergency family meeting with my dad. No more ga kho please! My dad learned a valuable lesson that day, less is more. Recently, my sister-in-law reported that my dad had pulled another ga kho week at home. It made me laugh but that's my dad!

The process to make Ga Kho Gung is very similar to Thit Heo Kho. You basically braise the chicken in the same caramel sauce and then add ginger. The ginger turn the caramel sauce into a totally different flavor. This is a great recipe if you like spicy food, adding chilli powder to the chicken elevate the flavor even more.

Ingredients

1/2 chicken (fat trimmed , chopped into smaller chunk with the bones)

1 small knob of ginger (julienned)

1 shallot (minced)

sugar

fish sauce

mushroom seasoning

black pepper

onion powder

chicken broth or water

chili powder (optional)

1. Marinade the chicken with the minced shallot, 4 tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 teaspoon onion powder, 2 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning, and 1 teaspoon of chili powder. Let chicken marinade for an hour or so.

2. Heat up a pot on medium heat.

3. Once the pot is hot, add 2 tablespoon of sugar. Let he sugar melt and caramelized.

4. Add all content of the marinaded chicken to the caramelized sugar. Make sure every pieces of the chicken is coated with the sauce. The caramel sauce should give the chicken some color.

5. Add enough liquid to the pot to braise the chicken (enough liquid to barely cover the chicken). I like using chicken broth or you can use water.

6. Add the ginger and turn the heat down a bit to let the chicken simmer in the liquid.

7. Let the liquid reduce into a rich sauce.

8. Once the cooking process is done, top some black pepper on top.

Serve with white rice and enjoy!

Thit Ga Ham Khoai Tay Ca Rot - Chicken Soup with Potatoes and Carrots

2011-10-03T20:21:00.006-04:00

Yet another dish that takes me back to my childhood. This soup is the epitome of Vietnamese comfort food. The broth is simple and clean, flavor by the sweetness of the vegetables and bones. I love eating this soup when I'm feeling under the weather, it make you feel like everything is going to be alright.

This soup is quite versatile because you have a lot of choices for ingredients. For the meat you can use chicken, pork, or beef. I prefer using pork neck bones but I had some left over chicken from another dish. You can also use ground beef or pork instead of bones. Choices of vegetables can also varies depending on your taste or whatever you have available at home. My mom usually makes it with potatoes, carrots, and sometimes beets. Beets has to be my favorite, it's incredibly sweet, but unfortunate beets are not on my weekly grocery list. For this recipe I used carrots, red potatoes, and cauliflower. Play around with the ingredients, you really can't go wrong with this recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 chicken
3 red potatoes
3 carrots
1/2 cauliflower
1/2 an onion
cilantro
salt
rock sugar
mushroom seasoning
fish sauce
black pepper
water

1. Rinse your chicken and remove some of the fat if needed.
2. Place the chicken in a pot, add about 5 quart of water an half the onion. Add half a tablespoon of salt and let the pot come to a boil. Remove the excess scum from the pot. Once the scum has been removed, turn down the heat to medium heat until chicken get cooked.
3. Wash the vegetables and cut them into desired size. I like my vegetables pretty chunky so it doesn't overcook as easily.
4. Throw in a quarter size chunk of rock sugar and a couple teaspoon of mushroom seasoning to he broth.
5. Once the chicken is done, remove from pot and let it cool enough to handle.
6. Taste the broth with 2 tablespoon of fish sauce and a couple dash of black pepper.
7. After tasting he broth throw in the carrots first and then potatoes. The vegetables should be soft enough to eat but should still have texture. Throw in the cauliflower at the very end.
8. Last minute tasting with more sugar and fish sauce if needed.
9. Serve with chopped cilantro and more black pepper.

Dau Hu Nhoi Thit Sot Ca - Tofu Stuffed w/ Pork in Tomato Sauce

2011-09-20T11:57:00.004-04:00

I love tofu in every form; soft, firm, extra firm, fried, and so on. One of my favorite recipe is Dau Hu Nhoi Thit Sot Ca. You stuff fried tofu with a minced pork mixture. Next you pan fried the stuffed tofu and then braise it in a tomato sauce. It's one those dish that appeared every week in my family, I can never get tired of it. I recently receive a couple request for this recipe and I'm glad to do it.

Ingredients:

2 packs of fried tofu (makes 16)

1/2 lb of ground pork

1/2 a cup of dried wood ear fungus

3 tomatoes

2 green onions

oil

salt

fish sauce

sugar

black pepper

mushroom seasoning

onion powder

minced garlic

chili powder (optional for spiciness)

1. Soak the wood ear fungus in warm water until soften, rinse it well before using. Once it has soften, mince

the wood ear fungus.

2. Combine the ground pork and wood ear fungus and taste it with some salt, black pepper, onion powder, and mushroom seasoning.

3. Wash the tofu before cooking and then tow

el dry.

4. Cut your tofu in half so you'll have one side with the white side exposing.

5. Make a split in the middle on the white side. Use a small spoon to carve some of the white part out to create a small pocket. This will make it easier to stuff the pork mixture.

6. Stuff the tofu with the pork mixture.

7. Cut your tomatoes into smaller chunks

8. Chop you green onions.

9. Heat up oil in a large pan (big enough to fit all your tofu). Once the oil is hot enough add the tofu, and pan fried all side of the tofu.

10. Once the tofu has been lightly seared on each side, remove from pan.

11. Add another tablespoon of cooking oil to the pan again. When it is hot enough add the tomatoes.

12. Add 3-4 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, chili powder, and a couple fish of mushroom seasoning. Stir the dry ingredients into the tomatoes and fish sauce.

13. Add the tofu and let it braise in the tomato sauce on low-medium heat. Make sure all side get the opportunity to braise into the sauce.

14. Braise the tofu until the sauce has reduce a bit and add the green onions at the very end.

Enjoy!

Ca Tai Chanh - Vietnamese Style Ceviche

2011-08-29T20:31:00.008-04:00

My first ever ceviche experience is through the Travel Channel. Every time Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern travel to any places near water, they always get to eat the most amazing ceviche. Yes I know we can't possibly experience what they experience with their taste buds but it was still a beautiful experience with my eyes.

The Midwest is probably the last place you would ever find ceviche but I lucked out. I went to lunch with a friend at this Peruvian restaurant in a shady area of town. Yelp boast it was the best ceviche in town but I took it with a grain of salt, we do live in corn country after all. The ceviche arrived on a huge plate, and still the shrimp, squid, and fish were spilling every where. I knew I would love it just by looking at it and I did! It was so amazing, I can't imagine how even more amazing it would be to have ceviche made fresh right out of the water.

I wanted to recreate the ceviche I had but of course with a Vietnamese twist. This is a great dish to beat the summer heat, enjoy!

Ingredients:

sushi grade tilapia or cod

sushi grade octopus tenacles

shrimp (I bought already cooked cocktail shrimp)

red onions (thinly sliced)

cilantro (rough chopped)

Vietnamese coriander (rough chopped)

2-3 lime

fish sauce

sliced habanero pepper (or whatever you like)

crushes peanuts

fried shallots (hanh phi)

1. Cut the tilapia into flat pieces.

2. Squeeze enough lime to cover the fish and let the fish cook in the lime juice.

3. Thinly sliced the octopus.

4. Add the octopus and shrimp to the lime juice with the fish.

5. Drain about half of the lime juice from the seafood mixture.

6. Add two tablespoon of fish sauce to the sea

food mixture.

7. Add the sliced onions and pepper, toss thoroughly.

8. Right before serving add the cilantro and coriander.

9. Top off with peanuts and shallots.

Che Ba Mau - Vietnamese Three Color Dessert

2011-08-19T15:25:00.009-04:00

Che Ba Mau meaning Three Color Dessert; consist of YELLOW

mung bean paste, GREEN agar strips, and RED beans. It looks and taste pretty similar to Suong Sa Hot Luu but there are some differences. We use red beans in Che Ba Mau and a different type of agar. Suong Sa Hot Luu uses a grass jelly agar which has a really distinct grassy taste and a dirty pondgreen color. You can make your own agar strips but to save time I just buy a can of agar called Suong Sam, it's lime green in color and has a lighter taste than grass jelly. Finally we usually sweeten Che Ba Mau with condense milk. I like faux pomegranate seeds so I like to include it in my Che Ba Mau as well.

I have to admit Che Ba Mau is pretty time consuming and tricky to make. Making the red beans and mung beans can be a nightmare. You have to cook it on really low heat over a long period of time. I've burned quite a few batch over the years. I recommend soaking the mung beans and red beans overnight.

Ingredients:

1 can of Suong Sam agar

2 cups of red beans (soak in water overnight)

2 cups of already peeled and split mung beans (soak in water over night)

1 can of coconut milk

condense milk

rock sugar

faux pomegranate seeds

finely crushed ice (prepare with a blender)

1. Rinse the red beans in water until the beans no longer makes the water cloudy.

2. Boil 5 cups of water in a pot and throw in a medium size rock sugar. Drain the red beans and pour into pot. Cook the red beans on low heat for around 2 hours or so. Once tender, drain and set aside for later.

3. Prepare the mung bean paste (refer to my Suong Sa Hot Luu entry for cooking instruction).

4. Prepare the faux pomegranate seeds (refer to my Suong Sa Hot Luu entry)

5. Slice the Suong Sam agar into strips.

6. Heat a can of coconut milk in a small pot and add 2 tablespoon of sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, let cook for later use.

7. Prepare the crushed ice.

8. In a bowl, spread some mung bean paste at the bottom of the bowl. Second add agar strips, next the red beans, and then the faux pomegranate seeds. You can prepare these bowls ahead of time and store in fridge.

9. Before serving, add the condense milk to the bowl and then top off with some crushed ice. Finally drizzle the condense milk at the very end, depends on how sweet you like it add as much as you like.

Mix and enjoy!

Thit Heo Kho Trung - Pork and Eggs Braised in Caramel Sauce

2011-08-15T15:26:00.003-04:00

When I was growing up, not a week went by when my mom did not make a pot of Thit Kho for lunch. But i'm sure Thit Kho is a weekly regular in most Vietnamese household. Because it is easy and cheap to make, Thit Kho is categorized as "com binh dan" or meal of the commoners. In Vietnam during lunch time, you can find many stand that sells meal for the working person which includes Thit Kho.

Thit Kho is made by braising chunks up fatty pork such as pork belly in a caramel sauce made of caramelized sugar and fish sauce. The pork is braised in the sauce until it becomes so tender you can cut it with your chopsticks. Since I do not always have access to pork belly, I often use Boston pork butt instead. I suggest using any pork cut that has some fat because fat is flavor.

As much as I love eating tender and fatty pieces of pork, my favorite part is the egg. I eat my Thit Kho Trung a certain way since I was a little girl. I break the egg in half and take out the yolk and mix the yolk bits into the rice. I then drizzle a lot of the caramel sauce on top and mix everything together. My favorite part is the egg whites so I always eat that last. Some things just can never change, and i'm OK with that!

Ingredients

2 lbs of Boston pork butt

1 shallot finely minced

sugar

fish sauce

mushroom seasoning

black pepper

onion powder

eggs

1 can of Coco Rico

1. Cut pork into 1/2-1 inch cubes.

2. Marinade pork with shallots, 2 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning, a couple pinch of black pepper, and a couple dash of onion powder. Let pork marinade in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Heat up a pot on medium heat.

4. Once the pot is hot, add 2 tablespoon of sugar. Let the sugar melt and caramelized into a rich caramel color.

5. Add all the content of the marinaded pork cubes.

6. Mix pork into the caramel sauce, make sure every pork pieces is coated with the sauce.

7. Once the sauce has cooked into the outside of the pork pieces, pour enough of the Coco Rico into the pot to cover most of the pork. Let pork braised in sauce on medium heat.

8. At this point you can begin preparing your eggs. Boil as much eggs as you would like or fit in the pot. I try to under cook the eggs so it won't over cook when I add it to the pork. So cook it to the point where the egg whites are firm but the yolk is still runny. Cooking time will depend on however many eggs you'd like.

9. Once the eggs are prepared, peel and then add to the pork.

10. Add one additional tablespoon of fish sauce to the pot and then continue to cook the pork and eggs until the caramel sauce has reduced and thicken.

11. Before serving, sprinkle more black pepper on top.

Enjoy!

Mi Kho Thap Cam - Combination Dry Egg Noodle

2011-07-14T14:24:00.013-04:00

Once upon a time I fell in love with a bowl of Mi Kho from Hai Ky Mi Gia in Falls Church, Virginia. This place only sells different type of Hu Tieu/Mi dry or wet. I like places that has a very limited menu which mean they can spend more time on perfecting that one dish. While I ordered a bowl of egg noodle soup, my friend ordered the dry version. She said the secret is the sauce for the Mi Kho, of course it's always the sauce! I mooched a couple bites from her bowl, while I very much enjoyed my soup I really wished I ordered the Mi Kho instead. After I polish off my bowl, I began to analyze what was left of the sauce. The sauce was definitely soy base, it was sweet and had hints of familiar spices. At the time I was very determine to recreate this sauce at home.

I posted an entry for the soup version of Hu Tieu two years ago but was unable to come up with a sauce for the dry version. I tried a lot of different sauces and I just wasn't satisfied with any of them. I pretty much threw in the white flag until I saw the comment from a reader that has been waiting for me to come up with the sauce. Thank you for reminding me and motivating me to get back on the saddle.

I remember when I first tried the sauce from Hai Ky Mi Gia, I thought it reminded me of Xa Xiu, Chinese BBQ pork. I love the Xa Xiu seasoning I use by NOH so I took out the seasoning package and look through the ingredients. For the next two hours I begin playing around with the ingredients and I finally ended up with a sauce that I am satisfy with. I'm just so glad I got this recipe out of the way and hope you will like it.

Please refer back to my Hu Tieu entry on how to prepare the toppings. I will only be listing the steps tomake the sauce for Mi Kho.

Toppings:

Xa Xiu (thinly sliced)

Ground Pork (pan fried until crispy)

Cooked Squid

Cooked Shrmip

Chinese Chives

Fried Shallots

Sauce:

soy sauce

pure sugar cane or rock sugar

hoisin sauce

onion powder

garlic powder

five spice powder

mushroom seasoning

water

1. Save the liquid produced from pan frying the ground pork and xa xiu.

2. In a small pot combine 3 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 6 tablespoon of water (if you are also making the soup to go with this dish I would add the soup water), 2 teaspoon of hoisin sauce, 1 tablespoon of pure sugar cane, 1/2 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning and the excess frying liquid.

3. Stir all the ingredients together and let it come to a boil and then turn the heat down low. The sauce should thicken just a little. If the sauce has reduce too much, just add more water.

Prepare a bowl with all the toppings to your liking and enjoy!

Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio - Vermicelli Noodle with Grilled Pork and Vietnamese Egg Rolls

2011-06-04T16:49:00.009-04:00

A great dish for this time of year; you can practically see, smell, and taste summer in every bowl. I love the smell of marinated pork hitting the hot grill, which gives out this wonderful lemon grass and garlic aroma. You can add an array of fresh herbs, sliced vegetables, and pickled vegetables that makes this dish both delicious and healthy to eat.

If you don't have a grill or simply do not want to deal with the hassle, use the stove top. Pan fry the pork on medium to high heat, constantly flipping the meat on both side until it has a nice char. Cook the noodles to an al dente texture, and give it time to cool down to achieve springiness. When you pull the noodles apart you should be able to hear a faint snap. I also fried up some egg rolls from the freezer and added to my bowl, sometimes more can be a good thing.

Ingredients:

(Pork marinade)

2 lbs of sliced Boston butt pork roast

1 tablespoon of spoon of minced lemon grass

1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic

1/2 tablespoon of minced shallots

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce

1/4 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning

skewers (if grilling)

Vietnamese egg rolls (optional)

vermicelli noodle

1 cucumber

lettuce

herbs

pickled vegetables (Do Chua)

prepared fish sauce

crust peanuts

1. Marinate the pork with oyster sauce, brown sugar, fish sauce, mushroom seasoning, garlic, lemon grass, and shallots. The longer you let the pork marinate, the flavor will soak through the meat more.
2. If you are using wooden skewers, soak the skewers in water to avoid burning on the grill. Skewer enough meat on the skewer.

3. Cook the vermicelli noodle and let dry.

4. Wash and pick out the lettuce and herbs.
5. Slice the cucumber into thin slices or strips.
6. Cook the pork skewers on the grill.
7. Build a bowl to your preference, add your finest batch of prepare fish sauce, and enjoy!

Do Chua - Vietnamese Pickled Vegetables

2011-05-31T17:37:00.002-04:00

I love eating anything pickled but nothing can beat Vietnamese Do Chua (pickled vegetagbles). Some people add Sriracha to everything, well that's how I feel about Do Chua. Anything that requires prepared nuoc mam, I will add Do Chua. It add some sweet, sour, and crunchiness to dishes such as Banh Beo, Banh Xeo, Banh Mi, Ca Nuong, Com Tam, Thit Kho, and many more. I always have some handy in the fridge because you will be surprise what you can eat with it.

There's a variety of vegetables you can pickle; cucumbers, onions, peppers, but the most common in Vietnamese cuisine are carrots and daikons. The pair are often found in Vietnamese Banh Mi, and it does make a huge difference. I always have to make sure they did not forget my Do Chua, or else I will be a very unhappy camper. Do Chua comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, and that is completely up to you. I prefer it a little smaller than what you would find in a Banh Mi but not as fine as being julienned, one of the best thing about Do Chua is the crunch and you just can't get that when it's too fine. Be prepare to do a lot of peeling but I guarantee it's worth all the effort!

Ingredients:

1 daikon

12 medium carrots

10 Thai chili (optional but it does add a hint of spice)

3 cups of water

1.5 cups of vinegar

1 cup of sugar

2-3 teaspoon of salt

1. Prepare the daikons and carrots to your liking.

2. Warm the water in pot, it does not have to come to a boil. Add the vinegar, sugar, and salt to the water and stir.

3. Add the daikons, carrots, and chili to a jar.

4. Add the warm mixture from step #2 to the jar.

If you would like to eat it within a couple of hours, it will pickle faster at room temperature. If you are in no hurry just stick it in the fridge. Enjoy!

Goi Vit - Duck Salad

2011-05-09T18:07:00.005-04:00

Like I have mention many times before, Goi Vit is my all time favorite salad. Today was such a hot day, it just put me in the mood for something light and flavorful. In Vietnam a plate of Goi Vit usually consist of sweet, tender duck meat on top of shredded banana blossom and morning glory. All the ingredients is soaked in this wonderful concoction of fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. It is so good that I always slurp up all the excess dressing at the very end, when my mom isn't watching of course.

Like Goi Ga, you HAVE to use coriander leaves in Goi Vit. It must be poultry thing! When there is coriander leaves, I just can't leave out the onions. You get spicy sweet from the onions and spicy bitter from the coriander leaves, they are just meant for each other! I don't always have access to banana blossom so I replace it with cabbage and carrots. Cabbage doesn't really have a lot of flavor, it's really there for texture. So all the ingredients I use such as the mint leaves and cilantro really compliment the shredded cabbage. I want this dish to set a pace for my cooking for the rest of the summer, lots of flavor!

Ingredients

1/2 a duck

1/2 cabbage

2-3 carrots

1 sweet onion

sugar

vinegar

fish sauce

2 lime

fresh chili

cilantro

Vietnamese coriander

cilantro

roasted peanuts

1. Boil your duck in a pot of water until fully cooked. You can use the broth to make soup such as Bun Mang.

2. Finely shred the cabbage, thinly slice sweet onions, and julienned carrots.

3. Marinade the cabbage, carrots, and onions with 4 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 cup of sugar for like 15-20 minutes in the fridge.

4. Rough chop the cilantro, coriander, and mints, set aside for later.

5. Crust roasted peanuts and set aside for later.

6. Remove the duck and let cooled. Butcher into smaller pieces.

7. Drain excess fluid from the cabbage mixture, no need to squeeze the juice out.

8. Add the duck pieces to the cabbage mixture.

9. Squeeze one whole lime to the cabbage/duck mixture, add 2 tablespoon of fish sauce, fresh chilies to your liking and mix thoroughly.

10. Mix in the fresh herbs right before serving and top off with some crush roasted peanuts.

Enjoy!

Suon Ram Man - Carmelized Pork Spare Ribs

2011-04-28T03:34:00.008-04:00

When we first moved to the States my parents were always working, sometimes day and night. We never really sat down together to enjoy dinner, we just ate whenever we had some free time. Now when I come home to visit I always make an effort with dinner, food always bring the family together. I actually look forward to sitting together with my family to enjoy a traditional family style meal where we share rice, some sort of protein, and a soup. It feel like time slows down; my dad reminiscing about his past and our family nearly choking on our food due to his out of this world stories. You just can't do the same thing with a bowl pho. Vietnamese family style meal is meant for family to chit chat between bites. We must cherish these times that we easily take for granted.

One of many favorite family style dish is Suon Ram Man, it taste like a dry and saltier version of thit kho (pork belly braised in caramel sauce). You braise the spareribs in caramel sauce until it is completely reduce. In the end you are left with crispy spare ribs from the caramel sauce sticking to the outside of the meat. I used to not like a lot of pork products when I was little (don't worry I got over that stage), but every time my mom made suon ram I would pick at every little pieces to the bone. Every part of the meat was glazed with the caramel sauce, the outside was crispy but the inside was so juicy. I love biting into all the fat and of course my favorite part is the cartilage. When it's cooked long enough I will gnaw on the bone, don't judge me bones are awesome!

To reduce some of the cooking time and achieve a wonderful crust on the outside, I cheated and used my deep fryer. You can totally skip this step and do it the old fashion way. Family style dish is meant for sharing, so please share this recipe with your love ones.

Ingredients:

2 lb of spare ribs
2 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 teaspoon of minced shallot
1/2 can of coconut soda (coco rico)
fish sauce
garlic powder
sugar
black pepper
cooking oil
green onions (optional)

1. Chop spare ribs in small pieces (1.5 inches)
2. Marinade with a couple dash of garlic powder and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce in the fridge for a couple hours.
3. Throw it in the deep fryer until the outside become crispy. Remove and let meat cooled in a lot of paper towel. This will help remove some of the oil.

4. In a pot (I like using nonstick pot or pan), melt tablespoon of sugar. As soon soon as you see some color, add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce. This part will probably be the most difficult part. If you let the sugar cook too much it will burn by the time you add the fish sauce.
5. Add the deep fried spare ribs, garlic, and shallots. Coat all the spare ribs in the caramel sauce.

6. Add 1/2 a can of coconut soda. Let the meat braised in the sauce for 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
7. Turn the heat up a little and let it it cook until the sauce begin to charring the outside of the meat. Be careful not to let it burn. Sprinkle some black pepper on top.
8. Serve and enjoy with a bowl of white rice.

Bun Rieu - Crab Cake Vermicelli Noodle Soup (Lent Friendly)

2011-04-21T00:59:00.008-04:00

Sorry for posting this up when Lent is about to end. I promise you won't notice a big difference from the traditional recipe, so feel free to use this recipe year round. I actually prefer the meatless version of Bun Rieu, so I have an excuse to LOAD up on seafood. When I was younger, I was not a fan of pork products so my mom usually makes meatless Bun Rieu anyways.

I buy canned crab meat in the refrigerated seafood section at Costco or Meijer, I prefer Costco crab meat even though it is more expensive. Believe me they are good right out of the can!

Usually we use pork neck bones to make the broth but dried prawns will work just fine. Ground pork is usually added to the "rieu" to glue all the wet ingredients together but ground dried prawns actually does a better job. I also listed V8 vegetable juice as an ingredient but you definitely can leave that off. I actually bought a case of it from Costco thinking it was something else so I'm just trying to get rid of it in my cooking. The vegetable juice add a really nice color to my broth and an extra umphh of tomato flavor. Try this recipe out and see if anybody can tell a difference, my boyfriend sure didn't!

Ingredients

1/2 lb of shrimp with head
2 cups of dried prawns (tom kho)
1/2 can of crab meat
2 eggs
1 jar of crab paste in soy bean oil (cach cua)
4-5 large tomatoes
1/2 can of V8 vegetable soup (optional)
shrimp paste (mam tom)
salt
sugar
mushroom seasoning
black pepper
green onions
water

1. Soak dried prawns in warm water until it is more tender to use. Peel the shrimp but leave the head intact.
2. Fill 6 quart pot with water and add 1/2 of the dried prawns rough chopped. Let the dried prawns simmer in the water until tender.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning to
the broth, 1 tablespoon of the crab paste in soy bean oil, 1/2 a can of V8 vegetable juice.
4. With a food processor, finely mince the other half of the dried prawns, and shrimp with head.
5. Place the minced prawned and shrimp in a mixing bowl, add the crab meat, the rest of the crab paste from the jar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste, and a couple dash of black pepper. Mix thoroughly until it become a uniform mixture.

6. Transfer some broth into a small pot and add 1/2 tablespoon of shrimp paste. Let the broth boil until the shrimp paste completely dissolve. Transfer back to the original pot.
7. Bring pot to a boil and then add small amount of the seafood mixture into the pot.
8. Cut the tomatoes into big chunks. Add to the pot.
9. Do one last tasting, add nuoc mam or sugar if needed.
10. Garnish your bowl with green onions and serve, enjoy!

Goi Xoai Ca - Mango Salad w/ Cod

2011-04-03T03:11:00.008-04:00

I went a little mango crazy this past week, the local grocery store was having a sale and the mangoes looked very promising. I love eating mangoes by itself but decided to switch things up as a salad. The mangoes were a tad bit unripe and very firm, perfect for a salad. It was till very tart which I like, but I know if I had made this for my mom she would be squirming. If you can't handle the sourness then I would suggest marinading the mangoes in a lot of sugar. For proteins I used some left over cod, it would have been great if I had some sashimi grade fish to make a mango ceviche but maybe next time. For little time and effort, you can take dinner to a tropical paradise!

Ingredients:

2 firm mangoes (julienned)

1 red bell pepper (julienned)

2 small carrots (julienned)

1 red onions (thinly sliced)

1 lb of cod

a bunch of Thai basil (rough chopped)

a bunch of Vietnamese coriander (rough chopped)

1 lime

Thai chili to your liking

fish sauce

sugar

olive oil

1. Marinade the mango, carrot, bell pepper, and onions w

ith 3 tablespoon of sugar. Let sit int he fridge for about 1-2 hours.

2. Heat up some olive oil in frying pan. Pan-fry the cod but

try not to over cook it. Remove from and let cool.

3. Removed the mango mixture and drain all the excess liquid.

4. Break the cod into large chunks with your chopstick and add squeeze half a lime on it.

5. Add 1-1.5 tablespoon of fish sauce to the mango mixture, 1/2 a lime, and chili to your liking. Mix together well. Add more fish sauce if the mango is still too sour for your taste.

6. Add the cod chunks and the chopped basil and coriander.

7. Serve and enjoy!

Bo Tai Me - Tamarind Beef Salad

2011-02-25T18:02:00.010-05:00

I saw a friend posted a picture of his Bo Tai Chanh on Facebook last night. I literally stared at the screen in a dazed, it looked amazing! I could not stop thinking about it all day, all I want is some of that fresh tender sliced beef marinated in that tangy dressing. I could taste the spicy coriander leaves, sweet juicy onions, and fresh roasted crushed peanuts just thinking about the dish. I wasn't going to fight myself so off to the grocery store I went.

Since I already posted a recipe for Bo Tai Chanh, I decided to make something very similar. A while ago I had a dish at a local Vietnamese restaurant called Bo Tai Me. It tasted very similar to Bo Tai Chanh but with a hint of Me (tamarind). Even though it was called Bo Tai Me, I could taste the lime juice and it somewhat overpowered the tamarind flavor. For this recipe I really want the tamarind to be the star, I used less lime and a lot of tamarind. I hope you enjoy this refreshing dish as much as I did.

Ingredients:

2 lb of thinly sliced beef (eye round will suffice)

1 jar of tamarind concentrate

1 can of tamarind juice

3-4 pods of fresh tamarind removed from outer shell

1/2 large red onion thinly sliced

your choice of hot chili diced

a bunch of Vietnamese coriander leaves roughly chopped

crush peanuts

1/2 lime

fish sauce

sugar

vinegar

1. In a pot, bring the tamarind juice, fresh tamarind pod, and a 1/3 of the jar of tamarind concentrate to a boil.

2. Dip the 4-5 pieces of thinly slice beef into the tamarind boil for 5 second, remove and place in a mixing bowl. Repeat with the rest of the beef. I like my beef a little rare but everybody is different so how long you cook the beef is up to you.

3. Squeeze excess liquid from the beef, and have it ready in a mixing bowl.

4. Marinade the red onions with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar.

5. Mix 1 tablespoon of tamarind concentrate and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar together. This will be your dressing.

6. Add 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce and all of the tamarind dressing to your sliced beef, mix well.

7. Add the red onion and chili to the beef and mix again.

8. Taste and add additional fish sauce and tamarind concentrate if needed.

9. Right before you serve toss in the chopped coriander, and the juice of 1/2 a lime.

10. Top your salad with crushed roasted peanuts and more coriander leaves you like.

Serve and enjoy!

Bun Mang Vit - Duck and Bamboo Vermicelli Noodle Soup

2011-01-14T01:07:00.009-05:00

My dad is a major hoarder! Everyday he would come home with bags and bags of goodies or junk. Most of the time it's just whatever cheap he can find from Big Lots or K-mart. One day he drag home five frozen ducks from Aldi, yes I'm talking about the discount supermarket chain. Apparently they were only $6 for a whole duck! That weekend I came home for a visit and sure enough my mom put out the duck to thaw. She boil the duck in water to make a broth for Bun Mang Vit while I used the meat to make Goi Vit. Yes we were all skeptical but it turn out fantastic. The meat was tender and juicy, so much better and cheaper than what we would find at Meijer or even the Asian store. My dad was very happy that we all enjoyed the duck, in fact early the next morning he went back to Aldi to buy whatever was left. Since my mom had enough duck to last the whole winter I couldn't help snatching a few to take back with me.

Bun Mang Vit is one of my mom's favorite soup, my mom is a soup person so she has a lot of favorites. I consider it to be an easier soup to make because there is less ingredients to work with and less preparation. The hardest part about making this soup is probably working with the duck. Whole duck have a lot of fat, it's best that you trim most of it out or the soup will be very heavy to eat. I don't have much experience butchering a duck either as you will see in my pictures. The broth is made by simmering a whole duck with smashed ginger root and sliced bamboo. I prefer using dried bamboo from Vietnam over fresh bamboo from the States. I compare dried bamboo to pasta because you can achieve a chewy "al dente" texture. The smell of fresh bamboo can be really strong and I don't want it to overwhelm the broth. The broth to this soup is very simple, similar to a chicken broth with hints of ginger and bamboo. I always make a bowl of gingered fish sauce for Bun Mang Vit, it's great to dip the meat in and a teaspoon in every bowl enhances the soup.

Ingredients: (Makes about 4-5 bowls)

1/2 duck
1 lb of dried bamboo (don't use too much because it will expand)
1 large ginger
water
salt
mushroom seasoning
rock sugar (the size of your thumb)
fish sauce
vermicelli rice noodle
green onions
cilantro
bean sprout

1. Cut the bamboo into strips. Soak the dried bamboo in warm water, repeat this step 5-6 times.
2. Wash the duck and cut out as much fast as you can. Place duck in a pot and the fill with water.
3. Add some salt and let it come to a boil. Remove as much scum as you can.
4. Peel the ginger and cut into smaller sections, save one section for later use. Smash the ginger sections in a mortar and pestle, this will bring out a lot of the juice. Add the smashed ginger to the pot and let the duck cook fully.
5. Once the duck is fully cook, remove and let it cool down.
6. Add rock sugar, salt, and mushroom seasoning to the broth.
7. Boil the bamboo in water, this will help soften the bamboo some more. The bamboo should be soft enough to bite into but still have a little bit of chewy. Some parts of the bamboo will still be extremely chewy even after you boil, just cut that part out. You will cook the bamboo some more in the broth so make sure you don't over boil it.
8. Cut the duck into smaller section. You can throw meat back into the broth but I like to have separate so I can eat it with the ginger fish sauce. I usually throw the bonier piece back into the pot.

9. Add the bamboo to the broth and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce.
10. Mince the green onions and cilantro.
11. Wash the bean sprouts.
12. Prepare gingered fish sauce.

Ginger Fish Sauce:

1/2 lime
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1/4 tablespoon of sugar
chili
1 section of ginger

1. I like to smash the ginger and chili together with a mortar and pestle.
2. Add the sugar, fish, sauce, and lime juice and mix.

Goi Cuon Thit Ba Roi - Vietnamese Summer Roll w/ Pork Belly

2011-01-06T19:07:00.007-05:00

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with Goi Cuon so I won't write too much about it. Like I have said before I love just about anything roll in rice paper. This particular Summer Roll has thinly sliced pork belly, shrimp, vermicelli rice noodle, lettuce, cucumber, and Chinese chives. Most Vietnamese restaurant serve Summer Roll as an appetizer along with a hoison-peanut sauce, I always ask for nuoc mam cham (diluted fish sauce) instead. I'm one of those people that really appreciate a good batch of nuoc mam cham. I actually base restaurant on how well they prepare their nuoc mam cham. I really do see a correlation between how well restaurant cook their food and how well they prepare their fish sauce. Making the perfect fish sauce for dipping require a balance between sugar, lime, chili, water, and fish sauce, and if you can master that you definitely can balance the flavor in other food. I sure have a lot to say about nuoc mam cham therefore I will save that entry for another time.

Ingredients:

pork belly
tiger shrimp
vermicelli rice noodle
rice paper
lettuceEnglish cucumber
Chinese chives
nuoc mam cham

1. Boil a portion of pork belly in water until it is fully cooked. Remove, let it cooled, and then slice thinly.
2. Boil the dry vermicelli rice noodle in water.
3. Cook shrimp the shrimp, in water or microwave, and then cut in half.
4. Wash the lettuce and chives and let it dry.
5. Thinly slice the cucumber into flat strips.

To Roll:

1. Have a bowl of hot water ready.
2. Reconstitute the rice paper in hot water and wait until it's flexible again.
3. Add the remaining ingredient be careful not to over stuff. Fold the two side toward the middle and then roll foward.

Serve with nuoc mam cham and enjoy!

Com Tam Suon Bi Trung - Broken Rice w/ Pork Chops, Shredded Pork, and Egg

2011-01-06T17:55:00.003-05:00

My room mate mistakenly brought a bag of broken rice instead of the regular jasmine rice. I took it as a sign to finally write an entry about Com Tam. While I was in Vietnam, I love waking up to the smell of grilled pork chops. One of my grandparent's neighbor actually sells Com Tam for a living. Com Tam is a plate of broken rice topped with grilled pork chops amongst other things. The usual suspects for Com Tam is usually bi, cha, and trung opla but I have seen grilled shrimp, tofu, stuffed bean curd, and Chinese sausage. Whenever we are making Com Tam we like to set up a buffet of toppings and then you would just go around the table and build your Com Tam platter the way you like it. I like mine with just pork chops, bi, cha, and lots of good fish sauce.

Ingredients:

broken rice
4-5 pork chops (don't get them too thick)
bi
eggs
tomatoes/cucumber/lettuce (optional)
pickled vegetables (optional)
prepared fish sauce
cooking oil
2 stalk green onion
minced lemongrass
minced garlic
brown sugar
oyster sauce
mushroom seasoning
fish sauce

1. Marinade the pork chops with 1/2 tablespoon of minced lemongrass, 1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic, 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar, a pinch of mushroom seasoning, and a couple squirt of fish sauce. Marinade over night if you can.
2. Make the bi.
3. Cook a batch of broken rice the same way you would make regular rice.
4. Finely minced the green onions.
5. Heat up 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add the green onion and sauteed until fragrance but do not let it burn.
6. Pan fry your pork chops and eggs to your liking.
7. Place some broken rice on a plate, brush some of the green onions and oil on the rice. Add the pork chop, bi, eggs, slices of tomatoes and cucumber, and lettuce. Brush on additional green onions and oil. Serve along with a bowl of prepare fish sauce, enjoy!

Vietnamese Herbs

2011-01-03T16:16:00.008-05:00

Herb is a very important element of Vietnamese cuisine. Herbs are not just for garnish but it enhances the taste and smell of each dish. A bowl of pho is not the same without a couple leaves of Thai basil. You simply cannot replace Vietnamese coriander with any other herb when you make Goi Ga. Each herb has a specific aroma and taste that compliment and complete a dish. In this entry I will only reference the best usage for specific herbs when preparing Vietnamese food. I do not have pictures for everything yet but will continue to update. Please visit Vietherbs if you would like more detailed information and pictures.

Hung Que (Thai Basil)

Soup: Pho, Bun Bo Hue
Salad: Goi Du Du, Bo Tai Chanh, Goi Ngo Sen, Goi Xoai Xanh
Others: Banh Cuon, Cha Gio

Rau Ram (Vietnamese Coriander)

Soup: Banh Canh Cua, Canh Ca Chua
Salad: Goi Ga, Goi Vit, Goi Do Bien, Hen Suc Banh Trang, Ga Xe Phay
Others: Seafood, Hot Vit Lon, Tiet Canh

Tia To (Vietnamese Perilla):
Usually an accompaniment for soups with seafood and it does goes very well with blood cubes.

Soup: Bun Rieu, Canh Bun, Bun Oc
Others: Doi Tiet

He (Chinese Chives)
Soup: Canh Dau Hu, Hu Tieu, Mi
Others: Goi Cuon, Gia Xao, Mien Xao, Mi Xao

Ngo Gai (Sawtooth Cilantro)
Soup: Pho, Mien Ga, Chao Long
Salad: Goi Do Bien, Tiet Canh

Ngo (Cilantro)
Chopped cilantro is often mixed together with green onions to topped off most soups

Ti La (Vietnamese Dill)
Soup: Canh Ca Ca Chua, Canh Khoai So
Others: Cha Ca Thang Long