Sunday brunch with a good friend

Delicious quiche. Spinach salad with pears + hazelnuts + red onions + cranberries. Homemade zucchini bread. Caramel apple drizzle to top some ice cream for dessert. French press.

So what if it was just the two of us?

Quick + Easy: Goi ga (Vietnamese slaw)

So, you've made pho ga and you have leftover boiled chicken and don't know what to do with it. Solution? Goi ga -- a light salad of shredded cabbage and chicken. It is crunchy and tasty, you'll love boiled chicken in a way you never thought possible.

1.5 cups of shredded chicken (eyeball it depending on how much cabbage you have, how much leftovers you're trying to get rid of, the chicken ratio you want in this)
1 shredded carrot
1 small head of shredded cabbage
1/2 thinly sliced onion
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tspn. sugar
Torn coriander, mint or Thai basil leaves (or all three!)

Crushed peanuts for garnish
Nuoc cham
Black sesame rice paper crackers (optional)

Dissolve the sugar in the white vinegar. Place the red onions in this mixture and let soak for about 15 minutes. Drain and mix the onions with the rest of the ingredients. Toss with nuoc cham to taste. Top with crushed peanuts and serve with toasted sesame rice paper if using.

Cheater's Pho Ga

There is a calm that comes over me when I start cooking this recipe -- I have a rhythm, a set sequence of actions. I can always adjust this recipe to taste the way I want it to (which I can't say for everything I cook). I never feel nervous that whoever I'm cooking it for won't like it. I don't dread the leftovers -- I could eat this every day. I feel connected to my mother and my culture. I don't feel guilty eating it. I don't feel guilty using pho ga cubes instead of roasting the aromatics myself -- this process is all about ease and comfort to me. The instructions and list of ingredients look long, but don't let that deter you. This is an easy recipe, you just have to rely on your taste buds to guide you.

This is my favorite thing to cook. Enjoy.

1 package dried pho noodles (wide rice noodles)

1 whole chicken, about 4-6 lbs.
1 onion, sliced lengthwise into chunky rounds that you can grill
1 piece of ginger, cut lengthwise into about 5 thick pieces
3 cubes of pho ga seasoning cubes*
3 tbspns. fish sauce
Salt + pepper
Water

Accoutrements:
1 thinly sliced medium white or sweet onion
1 bunch of scallions, sliced
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Lime wedges
Thai basil
Bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Siracha
Pickled jalepenos (optional)**

Soak the dried pho noodles in a large bowl of warm water for at least 5 hours (I throw them into a bowl in the morning before I go to work or before bed).

Trim the chicken of big pieces of fat -- this will mean less to skim off the broth later. Place into a big stockpot (something around 6 qts.), cover with water, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until done, about 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to cool. Once cool, shred the chicken.*** Add the leftover chicken bones back to the pot of broth.

Add more water to the chicken broth until the pot is almost full. Grill the pieces of onion and ginger until you see nice grill marks. I do this directly on my oven range grates because I like the contact of the flame to the ginger and onion, but you can use a grill pan as well. Add it to the chicken broth. Heat the broth until boiling and add 3 of the pho ga seasoning cubes. Once the cubes dissolve, add the fish sauce, then add salt + pepper to taste. If you find that there is not enough depth to the broth, add the last pho ga cube. Simmer this mixture for about another 20 minutes. Add more water if the water level gets too low, but remember to reseason as necessary. Skim any fat off the surface of the broth.

Bring a small pot of water to boil. Using a large spider (this is easiest if you are preparing multiple bowls of pho), place a handful of pho noodles into the boiling water. Mix it around the spider with a pair of chopsticks to make sure all the noodles are submerged. The noodles will cook in about 45 seconds - 1 minute. Lift the spider from the water to drain, and place the cooked noodles into a bowl. Top the noodles with shredded chicken and a bit of the chopped cilantro, scallions and sliced onions. Ladle the broth over the noodles. Repeat as necessary.

Add lime juice, bean sprouts, Thai basil, hoisin sauce and Siracha to taste.

Enjoy!



* These cubes can be found in most large Asian supermarkets. If you live in Cincinnati, you can find them at CAM, Saigon Market at Findlay Market or Jungle Jim's.
** To make quick pickled jalepenos, slice about 3-4 jalepenos into thick rounds and place into a jar or bowl. Heat up about a cup of white vinegar, 2 tbspns. white sugar, and a 1 tspn. salt. until the sugar and salt dissolve. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the jalepenos, then cover the jar or bowl until the mixture cools. When it cools, place it into the refrigerator until ready to use.
*** I like to separate the meat into a pile of white meat and a pile of dark meat, just in case I have diners with a preference.

Quick + Easy: Potato & Broccoli Soup

After a few fleeting days of glorious fall weather last week, a winter chill is slowly starting to creep into Cincinnati. The changing of the seasons means more than just a change in the availability of ingredients for me -- I stop craving salads. I crave Indian food. I eat more soup.

I love recipes that use potatoes to make a smooth rich soup, rather than a starchy roux or cream. It also helps make the soup more substantial to me, like I am eating a proper meal rather than eating a soup to start. This soup is super fast, cheap, and easy to make. Whenever I am done with a chunk of parmesan cheese, I throw the rind into the freezer to use for soups. However, this soup is still delicious without it. This recipe can be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth rather than chicken broth. It can be made vegan by subbing the veggie broth, omitting the parmesan, and using a squeeze of lemon at the end to brighten the soup (which I did anyway). You can also make a parmesan crisp if you feel fancy, but otherwise, this hearty simple soup + some sourdough rolls did just the trick to warm my bones tonight.

(makes 4 servings)

1 head of broccoli

1 tbspn. of butter

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

1.5 cups of chicken broth

1.5 cups water

Salt + pepper

1 parmesan rind (optional)

1/2 cup of parmesan, shredded

Lemon wedges (optional)

Cut the broccolli florets into little pieces and set aside. Roughly chop the tough stems of the broccolli and set aside with the potatoes. 

Melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the onion and sautee until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, potato + broccoli stem mix, broth, water, salt + pepper, and parmesan rind to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, simmer for 5 minutes. Add the broccoli florets and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the parmesan rind.

Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Return to pot and season with salt + pepper to taste.

Top each bowl with some parmesan and some lemon juice if desired.

Quick + Easy: The easiest dip ever.

I went back and forth about posting this -- it's so simple, was it even worth posting a recipe for it? But I think it's delicious, and I was very excited about it when I first made it (growing up in a household of primarily Asian cuisine, everything not Asian is an exciting discovery for me).

I make this when I crave hummus but I'm too lazy to go to the grocery store. It makes a great quick addition to an array of appetizers, or even a quick lunch (which is why I made it today). Serve it with pitas, pretzels, veggies. Experiment with flavored oils (I used white truffle oil today and it felt so decadent). Throw in whatever herbs you have on hand. Just start with a can of beans.

1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbspns. olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 lemon, juiced

Salt + pep to taste

Process all of the ingredients together in a processor. Done.

Quick + Easy: Adrienne's Spaghetti with Red Clam Sauce

When Tyler and I first started talking about our families in the early stages of our relationship, he told me that one of his favorite meals was pasta with a clam sauce his mother used to make (his other favorite also involves a pasta sauce made with V8 and fish sauce, but his mother hasn't shared that recipe with me yet!). I was intrigued. Now I am a believer -- this is one of my favorite sauces, and it is incredibly easy to make.

I am posting the recipe just as Adrienne sent it to me -- the only suggestion I'd make is to use a large can of San Marzano tomatoes, which I puree in a food processor until smooth. The sauce is a little watery once it mixes with the spaghetti, but don't let that scare you off. This recipe is perfect as-is.

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil
Add 2 cans of chopped clams (or larger if you have them)
Add 1 small can of tomato sauce - or any similar red sauce
Add whatever herbs you like - but not much because this is good because it's NOT that special!
And maybe a tiny bit of white wine

Serve over spaghetti and top with parmesan

Roasted Pepper & Calamari Salad With Cilantro Dressing

The dressing for this salad is so tasty I just want to smother everything in it. Yum.

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

8 pieces of calamari/squid, with tentacles (you may adjust this depending on how big the calamari are)

1 bunch of cilantro

1 lime, juiced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/3 cup of olive oil, plus more for grilling 

Salt + pepper

Grill the peppers on a grill pan (rotate it on the pan until the sides are nice and black and blistered). When all sides of the pepper are nicely charred, place the peppers in a large bowl and cover with a kitchen towel for about 10 minutes. Most of the skin should rub off with gentle nudging at this point. Slice the peppers and set aside. 

Throw the cilantro, lime juice, garlic, salt + pepper, and olive oil in a food processor and blend until it's as smooth or as chunky as you want it. Set aside.

Toss the calamari in some olive oil. Grill for a few minutes per side. Slice, then toss with the peppers and cilantro dressing. Salt to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Xoi lap xuong

I just purchased tickets to see my family for Thanksgiving this week and it's making me feel like Thanksgiving is just around the corner, even though we've barely reached Halloween. My family makes a mix of Asian and typical American Thanksgiving foods for our big meal -- a turkey marinated in Peking duck spices, stuffing and cranberry sauce along side a bowl of quick pickled cucumbers, onions & radishes, and always always xôi lạp xưởng -- sticky rice with chinese sausage. My mother has perfected a quick method of cooking this dish in a microwave, so if you exclude the time spent soaking the rice this meal takes less than 20 minutes. Awesome. A small price to pay for a taste of home.

The soy sauce and sugar quantities listed below are a minimum suggested amount -- it is easier to add soy sauce to taste when you eat. You can adjust accordingly when you become more comfortable cooking this dish.

2 cups of sticky rice (it may be labeled as "nep" in an Asian store)
8 dried shitake mushrooms or fresh shitake mushrooms
1 tspn. vegetable oil

1 1/2 chinese sausages, halved and cut into half moon shaped pieces
1 1/2 carrots, diced

1/4 onion, diced
handful of dried baby shrimp (optional)
1 1/2 tbspns. soy sauce
1 tspn. white sugar

In a large microwave safe bowl, cover the rice with warm water and soak overnight.

When ready to cook, drain the water and then cover the rice again with enough water to just cover the rice. Place a paper towel over the bowl and cook in the microwave for 8 minutes. Take the bowl out and stir the rice, cover again with the paper towel and cook for an additional 5 minutes. If the rice is still soggy and all the water hasn't been absorbed, keep microwaving it in 3 minute increments until the rice is moist and sticky, but not too wet.

In the meantime, if using dried shitake mushrooms, bring a pot of water to boil. Cook the mushrooms until tender, drain, rinse with cold water, pat dry and slice.

Heat the oil in a sautee pan. Add the chinese sausages and sautee until lightly browned. Add the carrots, onion,  mushrooms, and dried baby shrimp (if using). Sautee until the onions are translucent. Add the soy sauce and sugar, cook until the sugar dissolves.

Combine the sauteed mixture with the cooked rice. Makes 4 servings.

Curried Chicken & Shrimp Turnovers

There's a Vietnamese savory pastry called "banh pate so", which is pronounced a lot like "banh pate chaud." There is a lot of French influence on words in the Vietnamese language as well as its cuisine -- Vietnamese sandwiches are made on baguettes and include pate, cream puffs can be found in many Vietnamese bakeries, and puff pastry is used to make these little savory treats. This recipe is a variation of the typical banh pate so, which are usually made with ground pork, mushrooms, and maybe a soy type of base. Feel free to experiment with green onions instead of the white onion I use here, with a mix of diced vegetables in place of the meat -- there are endless variations of things that can be turned into delicious triangles of savory goodness!


Curried Chicken & Shrimp Turnovers
(makes 36 turnovers)

1/2 white or yellow onion, diced
1/2 tspn. curry powder
1 tspn. vegetable oil
1 lb. ground chicken
1/2 lb. ground raw shrimp*
1 1/2 tbspns. fish sauce
1/2 carrot, shredded
2 packages Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, slightly thawed


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sautee the diced onion in the vegetable oil and curry powder until translucent. Set aside to cool.

Unroll the puff pastry sheets -- there are two sheets per package. The sheet unrolled will be in 3 columns -- cut the sheets into 9 squares each as shown.

When the onions have cooled, mix them together with the chicken, shrimp, fish sauce, and carrots. Spoon the mixture onto each square, being careful not to overfill it, otherwise you might end up with a raw center when you bake these. Fold the square into a triangle as pictured. Take a fork to seal the edges. Repeat.

Place the triangles onto a baking sheet -- you can use a Silpat or place them directly onto a metal baking sheet. You don't have to spray the sheet with anything -- the grease from the puff pastry pretty much ensures that it won't stick! Place the tray into the oven and bake until golden brown -- about 25 - 30 minutes.

I usually dip these into nuoc cham, but they can be eaten on their own. Enjoy!

Cha gio (Vietnamese spring rolls)

The first time I made this without my mother, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I felt like I crossed the threshold into good Vietnamese hostess-dom -- my mother often has these in her freezer, ready to fry up if unexpected guests pop by or her grown children come to visit & feel like pigging out on these in the middle of the night.  I have fond memories watching Vietnamese music videos with her as she rolled these -- my job was to peel the spring roll wrappers so they'd be ready for her to use. I like having these for guests and also for an easy midweek dinner of bun cha gio. Once you get the rolling down, this is an easy appetizer/meal component that is dangerously addictive.

I make these with ground chicken because I think they're a little lighter, but in Vietnam they are made with ground pork. Some recipes will also call for thinly sliced mushrooms, but my mother never put them in hers so I don't put them in mine. I make a big batch of these and freeze them -- when you're ready to make them, you just throw them right into the fryer, you don't have to thaw them out. They last about 2 months (although I confess I've kept them longer) in the freezer.

Cha gio 

(makes 50 or more, depending on how you roll them)

1 lb. ground chicken

1 lb. shrimp, peeled

1 carrot, shredded

1/2 med. onion, chopped

1 sm. package of vermicelli

2 eggs  

2 tbspns. fish sauce

Ground pepper

1 package spring roll wrappers, thawed*

Lettuce leaves, separated from their core (use a soft lettuce like green or red lettuce, which are good for rolling)

Vegetable oil for frying

In small bowl, soak the vermicelli noodles in warm water until they are soft. The vermicelli noodles for this recipe are like glass noodles, and are sold in little packages in sets of six like this:

 While the noodles are soaking, place the shrimp in a food processor and pulse until chopped (avoid making it into a paste). Mix the ground shrimp with the ground chicken, fish sauce, carrots, 1 egg & onion. When the noodles are soft, cut them with a kitchen scissor so that the strands are about 2 inches or so in length, and add to the meat mixture. Add some black pepper. Get down and dirty -- mix the mixture with your hands (my mom wears gloves).





Cut the spring roll wrappers diagonally so that you have two sets of triangle shaped wrappers. If you set up your rolling station like the photo from the beginning of this post, you won't have to move until you're done. Crack the 2nd egg, whisk it and place it in a small bowl.

Take a spring roll wrapper (be careful peeling it away from the other wrappers -- they rip easily as they thaw) and place it on a plate, the pointy side facing away from you. Fold the two corners over toward the center as pictured below. Place about a fat pinky's worth of the meat mixture onto the middle toward the bottom of the wrapper. Fight the temptation to put too much meat into these spring rolls -- the thicker you make them, the harder it'll be for you to deep fry them batch after batch without ending up with a raw center. Fold the two sides of the wrapper over the mixture, and roll up. The tricky part here is applying the right amount of pressure -- you don't want a roll that's wrapped too loosely because you don't want it to fall apart, and have random crisp pieces of wrapper. Also, it's ugly once it's all fried up. Once you get to the top, spread some of the egg on the pointy part of the wrapper to seal it to the rest of the roll. Repeat repeat repeat until you run out of the meat mixture.

Heat up the vegetable oil for deep frying -- I don't know the exact temperature, my family uses a wooden chopstick to test the temp. If we place the tip of the chopstick in the oil and little bubbles form around the chopstick, it's ready. You can also use a deep fryer. Depending on what size pot you're using to deep fry these rolls, I would say place about 7-8 of these in the oil at a time when you fry them. Turn them around with a spider. When they are nice and golden, remove them from the oil and place on a plate with a paper towel. Repeat to cook as many as you need. For bun cha gio, you could place about 3-4 per person. As an appetizer, you can plan for about 5 pp. Roll up these rolls in a piece of lettuce, dip into nuoc cham, and enjoy!

* You can purchase spring roll wrappers in the freezer section of any Asian grocery store. There is usually two sizes -- get the bigger one for this recipe.

Nuoc cham, nuoc mam

One of my jobs as a kid was to prepare whatever dipping sauce we were going to use for our meal. I was confused at first whenever my mom told me to prepare the nuoc mam, because I didn't know what to use and when and for what. I've realized that my preparations of these sauces will never taste the same as my mother's for some reason, but knowing how to make nuoc cham or nuoc mam pha will get you pretty far with a lot of Vietnamese dishes, so I decided to make a separate post for it for easy reference. When I make it, I usually make a mason jar full and keep it in the fridge, it lasts for about a 1 month. But you can play around with the proportions to make as little or as much as you need. You can also add more sugar if you want it to be a little sweeter, more fish sauce if you like this sauce saltier. This is the sauce you would use for vermicelli dishes, rice dishes, and as a dipping sauce for things like cha gio.

Nuoc cham

2 tbspns. fish sauce
1 lime's worth of juice (if you don't have fresh limes, use white vinegar to taste)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 tbspn. white sugar
1 cup room temperature water
Red chili sauce (Tuong ot toi, not the kind you use for pho. It is in a jar, not a squeezy bottle)

Mix the sugar, garlic and lime juice together until the sugar dissolves. Add the fish sauce, water and red chili sauce to taste.

Banchan!

My mom told me once that she has a Korean coworker who often packs a variety of banchan to eat with rice for lunch. That's always stuck with me -- it sounds so fun! And full of so many possibilities. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to eat the same thing every day, so I figured I'd have 5 options available and pack 4 for lunch every day, with a little bit of rice. Everything turned out great and I can't wait for Monday! (My fifth banchan is store bought kimchi)

Sauteed anchovies
1 small bag of dried anchovies + 2 tbspns. soy sauce + 1 tbspn. Sesame oil + 2 tbspns. sugar + 1/2 tbspn. vegetable oil + 1 sliced jalepeno (optional)

Soak the anchovies in cold water for about 15 minutes. Heat up the vegetable oil in a sautee pan, and throw in the anchovies, soy sauce, jalepenos & sugar. Stir everything over medium high heat -- the sauce should be kind of caramel-y and mostly on the sweet side, the anchovies will provide the saltiness. Once the sugar dissolves and the sauce is a little thicker, sprinkle sesame seeds on top and serve.

Soy shitake mushrooms

Bean sprout banchan (I tweaked this recipe by adding more sugar since it was coming out a little salty for my taste)

Spicy pickled cucumbers
This recipe calls for Asian garlic chives, which are broader & flat & super long, unlike typical American chives. As the recipe says, if you can't find these, you can just use the green onions and omit the chives -- I wouldn't substitute the Asian chives with regular chives. I also ended up only using 4 cucumbers but I had to double the quantities for the sauce. Everything came out great though!