This week I am
thinking about Vietnamese food. I love it. I like to make a day of it and make
every single accompaniment possible. It’s really fun and a great way to include
family and friends in the cooking. There was a write up in Sunset magazine a
while back on Vietnamese cooking. They used recipes from a cookbook called, “The
Little Saigon Cookbook” and everything was so fabulous that I bought the book.
I had some question – I don’t remember what it was – so I contacted the author,
a lovely woman called Ann Le. Her response was so far beyond what I expected.
She said to write anytime I had questions about ingredients, meal planning or
anything about cooking Vietnamese. I was
hooked on this book even before Ann’s kindness.
Chinese Chicken Salad with Red Chile Peanut Dressing
Ingredients:
Dressing:
1/4 cup
rice wine vinegar
2
tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1
tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 teaspoons
chipotle pepper puree
1
tablespoon soy sauce
1
tablespoon honey
2
teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup
canola oil
Salt and
freshly ground pepper
Salad:
1/2 head
Napa cabbage, shredded
1/2 head
romaine lettuce, shredded
2 carrots,
shredded
1/4 pound
snow peas, julienned
1/4 cup
coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup
thinly sliced green onion
2 cups
shredded rotisserie chicken
1/2 cup
chopped roasted peanuts
1/4 cup
chopped fresh mint leaves
Chili oil,
optional
Grilled
lime halves, for garnish
Preparation
Whisk together the
vinegar, peanut butter, ginger, chipotle pepper puree, soy sauce, honey, sesame
oil, and canola oil in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Combine cabbage,
lettuce, carrots, snow peas, cilantro, and green onion in a large bowl. Add the
dressing and toss to combine.
Transfer to a
serving platter and top with the shredded chicken, chopped peanuts, and mint.
Drizzle with chili oil, if desired. Garnish with grilled lime halves
Enjoy!
I love using the same dressing on cold noodle salad with fresh herbs, green onion, carrots and snow peas. It's a perfect lunch!
As promised, here is
a favorite recipe for a way-tasty Vietnamese main dish.
Gingered Sautéed Egg Noodles with Pork
(or Tofu), Shrimp and Vegetables
Recipe from Ann Le’s “The
Little Saigon Cookbook”
Ingredients
*½ lb pork shoulder
or other fatty pork meat like bacon
¼ c fish sauce
1 t chili paste
3 T oyster sauce
1 t salt
1 T ground black
pepper
5 T oil
1 lg onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
8 cloves garlic,
finely minced
1T fresh ginger,
grated or finely minced
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 small bunch
broccoli, rinsed and separated
½ raw fresh shrimp,
peeled and deveined
1 c snow peas
1 bunch bok choy,
roughly chopped
1/3 c straw mushrooms
6 c cooked egg
noodles, thin or thick
2 scallions, chopped
into rings
¼ c fresh cilantro leaves
1/3 c chopped,
unsalted, dry roasted peanuts
Note: I use extra firm
tofu in place of the pork
Preparation
Cut the pork into
bite size ¼” pieces. Prepare all remaining ingredients before stir frying and
place the prepped ingredients next to you at the stove.
In a small bowl whisk
together the fish sauce, chili paste, oyster sauce, salt and pepper.
In a large skillet or
wok, heat oil over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the onions and shallots and
cook for about 3 minutes or until brown. Add the garlic and cook for another
few minutes.
Add the ginger, the
carrots, pork (or tofu) and broccoli. Cook and stir quickly for 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the fish sauce
mixture and stir until the stir fry mixture is coated.
After 5 minutes or
when broccoli starts to soften add the shrimp, snow peas, bok choy and
mushrooms. Cook for another 2 minutes or until pork and shrimp are cooked
through.
Add the cooked
noodles and scallions and stir thoroughly.
Serve hot on a
platter garnished with the cilantro and crushed peanuts.
Make 4 people very
happy!
Hakurei Turnips (yes, turnips again,
but a different variety)
I hate to be repetitive
but:
Turnips are very low
in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. They are also a good source of Vitamin B6,
Calcium, Phosphorus and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber,
Vitamin C and Potassium.
If the Turnips came
with tops (the leaves still on), and you plan on using the tops, cut off the
leaves, bag them separately and refrigerate for use within a few days at the
most. Refrigerate the roots unwashed in a plastic bag. They should keep for
anywhere from 1 week to 2 weeks, depending on your refrigerator.
My buddies over at
The Bitten Word have quite the intriguing write up and recipe for Turnip Chips
with Crème Fraiche
Here they are – Clay and
Zach:
As
we were putting our menu together with dinner with Zach's mom B, there was one
item in our pantry that was giving us pause. We'd gotten a big batch of turnips
from our CSA (sound like anyone we know?)
and we wanted to feature them in our small-plates meal. But how? Steamed or
sauteed turnips are great, but they wouldn't really fit with our tapas menu.
Then
we were hit with divine inspiration: turnip chips!
And
we were off! We would salt and bake the turnip slices, top it with a dollop of
crème fraîche, and add a sprightly jolt of freshness with parsley and diced red
onion.
The
result? A great mix of flavors and textures that made for a scrumptious,
sophisticated bite.
We
started off by peeling the turnips and slicing them ultra-thin with our mandolin. For flavor, we were inspired by this recipe for Oven
Fries with Coriander Seeds from the August 2008 issue of Bon Appétit. So
we flavored the turnip slices with coriander, thyme and salt, laid them on
cookie sheets, drizzled them with olive oil, and baked the slices until they
were crisp.
Making
crème fraiche is a snap: Just add a little sour cream to some regular heavy
cream and let the mixture stand at room temperature for a few hours. The only
other part of this dish -- parsley and red onion -- is a cinch to dice by hand
or in a food processor.
What
we came up with was a delicious morsel that combines the sweet, earthy, salty
turnip chips with smooth, tangy cream and the zingy brightness of parsley and
red onion.
And
we'll never be stumped on what to do with turnips again!
Black Plum Radishes (same as last week,
they are getting large...but they're still good....)
Molly Wizenberg at her
Orangette blog is a wonderful writer with a great sense of humor and an eye for
beauty that shows in her photographs and the recipes she presents. Every dish I
have made from her recipe index has been fabulous. Head over and read her blog
entries and try this Radicchio Radish Salad with Pear and Parmesan. http://orangette.blogspot.com/2007/10/lots-of-trouble.html
Warning! Don’t start
reading her blog if you only have 5 minutes. It’s too good to rush. :-)
Oranges
I have been really enjoying
the oranges this winter. You can tell by looking at virtually any of my shirts;
they all have orange juice on them. My favorite way to eat them is sliced with
the center pith cut off preferably consumed on a hiking trail somewhere. My
funny little dog Abby loves to hike with me but she refuses to drink water on
the trail so I have to bring orange, tangerine or apple slices for her. What do
you mean she’s spoiled? ;-)
Although the
following recipe is originally written using Seville oranges, I don’t see why
you couldn’t substitute navel oranges. Seville oranges are much tarter than the
oranges we get. Keep that in mind and revise the amount of sugar to your taste.
Orange Marmalade
Two
quarts
Ingredients
6 Seville oranges
(see Note)
1 navel orange
10 cups (2.5 liters) water
pinch of salt
8 cups (1.6 kg) sugar
1 tablespoon Scotch (optional)
Wash oranges and
wipe them dry. Cut each Seville orange in half, crosswise around the equator.
Set a non-reactive mesh strainer over a bowl and squeeze the orange halves to
remove the seeds, assisting with your fingers to remove any stubborn ones
tucked deep within.
Tie the seeds up
in cheesecloth or muslin very securely.
Cut each rind into
3 pieces and use a sharp chef’s knife to cut the rinds into slices or cubes as
thin as possible. Each piece shouldn’t be too large (no more than a centimeter,
or 1/3-inch in length.) Cut the navel orange into similar-sized pieces.
In a large (10-12
quart/liter) stockpot, add the orange slices, seed pouch, water, and salt, as
well as the juice from the oranges from step #1. Bring to a boil, then reduce
to a simmer, and cook until the peels are translucent, about 20 to 30 minutes.
(At this point,
sometimes I’ll remove it from the heat after cooking them and let the mixture
stand overnight, to help the seeds release any additional pectin.)
Stir the sugar
into the mixture and bring the mixture to a full boil again, then reduce heat
to a gentle boil. Stir occasionally while cooking to make sure it does not burn
on the bottom. Midway during cooking, remove the seed pouch and discard.
Continue cooking
until it has reached the jelling point, about 220F degrees, if using a candy
thermometer. To test the marmalade, turn off the heat and put a small amount on
a plate that has been chilled in the freezer and briefly return it to the
freezer. Check it in a few minutes; it should be slightly jelled and will
wrinkle just a bit when you slide your finger through it. If not, continue to
cook until it is.
Remove from heat,
then stir in the Scotch (if using), and ladle the mixture into clean jars. You
can also bury a piece of vanilla bean in each jar. (Which is a great way to
recycle previously-used or dried-out vanilla beans.)
If you don’t plan on
eating and sharing this marmalade within a few weeks, you should use a traditional
thorough canning method.
Friday
night I made this dish from Cooking Light magazine. It was really, really good and quite delicate. I used
thyme as I didn’t have savory. I also used twice the amount of wine and double
the salt in the leek mixture.
Pappardelle
with Salmon and Leeks
Ingredients
*3/4 pound uncooked
pappardelle pasta
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 large
leeks (1 pound), trimmed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced fresh savory or 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh mint
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup unsalted chicken or veggie stock
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon rind
1 (1-pound)
fresh sustainable salmon fillet
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions,
omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup
cooking liquid; keep pasta and cooking liquid warm.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan
over medium heat. Add leeks, savory, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook 15 minutes or
until leeks are translucent, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to
medium-high. Add wine; cook 1 minute. Add stock; bring to a simmer. Remove from
heat; stir in pasta, reserved cooking liquid, parsley, and lemon rind.
Sprinkle salmon fillet with remaining 1/4 teaspoon
salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining 1
tablespoon olive oil and butter; swirl until butter melts. Add salmon fillet,
and cook for 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Flake
the salmon into large chunks. Arrange 1 cup of the pasta mixture on each of 6
plates, and top evenly with flaked salmon. Garnish with the mint leaves. Serve
immediately.
The next day we had some of the jazzed up noodles
left so I made a quick tuna casserole in a pot and it was so good that I ate it
in ultra-slow motion because I didn’t want to finish it.
*Note
You can find pappardelle pasta at Whole Foods. I went by Sprouts but they didn’t
have any so I bought Mrs. Miller’s brand ‘homemade’ egg noodles and they were
awe-some. You can also cut lasagna
noodles into 1” wide strips.
Until next we meet, this is your silly pal Robin, signing off!
