Instant Pot Pho Ga

I joined an Instant Pot group on Facebook after seeing a foodie friend speak praises of her love for her pressure cooker.  I honestly didn't think I would like it but I am always open to the idea of making life a little easier.  I finally got one and after boiling my first egg, I became motivated.

I remember my friend Anneka made pho ga and I told my husband that she made it in 30 mins.  He said that I should give it a go.  I didn't want to go my usual pho ga recipe, which is delicate with a hint of star anise and cilantro.  I was looking for something a little more bold because of the shortened cooking time, thinking that I couldn't get the flavors.  But the final product was so amazing, I didn't even add very much at the end.

Serves at 4-6

Stock:
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 onion, cut into quarters
3 inch chubby knob ginger, peeled and sliced
4 cloves
1 pinch who cumin seed
1 3-inch piece cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom pod
1-2 points star anise
2 leg quarters or 4-5 chicken thighs or drumsticks, with bone and skin attached
8 cups of hot boiling water
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp kosher salt

Bowls:
1 package banh pho/pad Thai noodles (soaked in boiling water for 15 mins)
1 lime, quartered
1 cup blanched mung bean sprouts
Chopped green onion and/or cilantro
Thai basil


Hit the saute button on your instant pot.  Scrub your chicken pieces, making sure to rub the joint part well, especially any bones exposed.  Pat chicken dry.  Add the oil to the pot insert and drop the onion and ginger when the oil is hot and saute it for about 1 minute.  Drop in the spices and saute until they start to smell.  Add the chicken and water.  Close the lid and set to manual for 30 mins and use a quick release.  Pull out chicken and strain, if you desire.  Finish the broth with fish sauce and kosher salt.  Adjust to your taste if needed.

Thuy's Wanton Soup - Sup Hoanh Thanh

Filling:
1/2 lb ground pork/chicken
2 stalks chopped green onion
2 Tbsp dried chopped onion (or 1 small onion diced and sauteed until translucent)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp sugar

Soup:
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 tsp kosher salt, optional
2 tsp fish sauce
3 cups roughly chopped bok choy
1-2 drops of sesame seed oil

wonton wrappers
chopped green onions and cilantro


Mix all the filling ingredients and place 1/2 to 1 tsp of filling per wrapper.  Seal edges with water and set aside.

In a soup pot, sautee the garlic until fragrant and add the broth.  Throw in the wonton and bok choy.  Cook until bok choy is wilted.  Add in the remaining ingredients for the soup.  Taste and adjust to your taste.  Add the cilantro and green onions at the end.

Bánh Cuốn - Rice Sheet Rolls

Bánh cuốn made in Vietnam is made by stretching a piece of cotton fabric over a pot of steaming water and pouring a thin layer of batter over the fabric to produce a thin round sheet of noodle. This dish is very similar to the dim sum dish called rice paste.  My parents use to slave over the stove to make these sheets.  Spread it thin to make these rolls or spread it thick to dry them out in the sun to make rice crackers.   

The steaming process seems very daunting, but worth it if you have the patience to do it old school. When I was in college, a student at Florida State showed me that it can be made in a pan. That was 15 years ago!!! It's easy and doesn't require lots of practice to make it.

Difficulty: Hard (Time Consuming)

Batter:

1 - 16 oz bag rice flour

1.5 cups tapioca starch (which is about 1/2 - 14 oz bag)

1 Tbsp oil

1/8 tsp salt

6 cups warm water

or

2 -12oz  package of prepared banh cuon flour (see picture below for reference)

Filling:

1 lb ground chicken or pork

1 cup wood ear mushroom, re-hydrated in warm water, drained well, chopped finely

1 cup chopped onion

1 tsp fish sauce

Black pepper

Topping:

Fried Shallots

Fried Garlic

Assembly:

Flat plate, tray, or counter-top

Foil, piece larger than your pan cooking surface

Neutral oil or non-stick cooking spray

Sheet of paper towel or a pastry brush 

     

Plating:

Nuoc Cham

Cucumber cut into match sticks

Lettuce

Cha Lua

 

These are the two pre-packaged brands I have tried.  I like the white bag.

Empty the batter ingredients into a large bowl and stir well.  Set aside for about an hour for batter to "bloom" before using it.

Make the filling by heating up a pan with some cooking oil.  Add chopped onions and sauteed for a couple of minutes.  Add your ground protein and brown it.  Make sure that you break up the meat well so there aren't any large chunks.  Right before finishing, add the remaining filling ingredients.  Combine well.  Set aside to cool.

Heat a 8-10 inch non-stick frying pan on low-medium heat.  Use a paper towel or brush to coat the pan with oil. Stir the batter well, then ladle the batter into the pan.  Swirl the pan so that the batter covers the bottom of the pan.  Place a lid over the pan for 1 or 3 minutes.   You are looking for smooth sheet.  It is has bubbles in it, it means the heat is too high.  Bubbles isn't a bad thing.  It eats just as good.

Flip the rice sheet onto a greased aluminum foil lined plate, tray or counter-top.  Spoon the filling mixture in the middle of the sheet.  Fold the sides towards the center. The bottom and top towards the center.  Place the bánh cuốn, seam side down, on a plate and top it with some fried shallots and/or fried garlic.

Photo courtesy of Hieng Kayla Kim

Cháo Gà Và Gỏi Gà - Rice Porridge with Chicken Slaw

Difficulty: Medium

Rice porridge is usually the first meal that parents introduce to infants as their first solids.  It is a rice dish boiled in large amounts of water to produce a soft silky texture.   Rice porridge is universal in all East and Southern Asian countries.  Brown Asians call this dish congee or a variation on the word.  Yellow Asians call this dish jook or a variation of it.  It is feed to young and old, sick or healthy.  Some people would reminisce about the comfort it brings.

This recipe makes use to the water that is left over when boiling a chicken to make the porridge.  Vietnamese people love to mix texture when eating, so the crunchiness of the cabbage and carrots is a wonderful contrast to the soft silkiness of the porridge.

1 whole chicken
1 cup of rice
1/4 cup of Vietnamese coriander
1/2 organic onion
1 bag of Cole slaw or you can shred cabbage and carrots by hand
Salt
Ginger powder
Chicken bouillon cubes or powder
1 stem of chopped green onion/scallion
1/4 cup of cilantro

Nuoc Cham


Clean and pat whole chicken.  If your chicken comes with gizzards, you can used them if you like.  Split the chicken in half, down the breast  and flip chicken over.  I like to discard the backbone because I think it makes the broth cloudy, but you can use it if you like.  Add the chicken into your stockpot and fill up the pot to the chicken is submerged.  Boil on a low heat, making sure that it doesn't come to a rolling boil to keep the broth clear.  Occasionally skim to remove any impurities and scum that floats to the top.

Once the chicken is done, remove the bird and set aside to cool.  Skim any impurities and scum from the broth and add the rice.  Cook the rice at low to medium heat.  Stir occasionally to make sure that rice doesn't stick to the bottom.  When you see that the porridge is thicken and the rice has bloomed, you would seasoned it to your taste.  Start off with the chicken bouillon.  I like to use just enough to get a nice aroma of chicken.  Then add the ginger powder.  (If you don't have access to ginger powder, you can always add a piece of ginger about an inch long into the water when boiling your chicken.  Make sure to cut the ginger into small enough pieces to get the essence of the ginger out but not too small that you can't scoop out the pieces before adding the rice.) Then add salt to your taste.

In a large bowl, add your Cole Slaw, Vietnamese coriander leaves, thinly sliced onion, and cilantro.  Mixed together.  I like to have large chunks of chicken add to my slaw, but you can have it on the side.

When you are ready to eat, garnish the porridge with some chopped green onions and dress it with the nuoc cham (recipe below).

Crock-pot Phở

Difficulty: Medium

Pho, a Vietnamese beef noodle soup.  It costed about $15.00 to make and it made about 8 bowls, so it last the whole day.  Each bowls averages out to $1.88 a bowl.  I used oxtail for my recipe.  It is a lot more expensive to use oxtail but for the amount of beef flavor, it is worth the extra money.  If you don't want to spend the money, get soup bones that has the marrow exposed.  I like to buy the bones from the local ethnic stores, but a lot of the chains are carrying them, depending on the neighborhood.  The great thing about the ethnic stores is how they cut the bones, especially the oxtail.  My local Publix cuts the oxtail at the joints, while the Chinese and Latino markets will cut the pieces in between the joints to expose more of the bone.  Plus, it is cheaper to buy them from the ethnic markets.

Fast and cheap pho
Broth/stock:
1 lb of oxtail or 2 lbs of soup bones
4 qts water
8 points star anise
1 cinnamon sticks
1 black cardamom pod
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cloves
1 golf ball size piece of yellow rock sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 whole medium onion
1 carrot (optional)
2 celery stalks (optional)

Bowls:
2 package of medium size banh pho noodles or pad thai noodles
1/2 pound of London broil, par-frozen and cut thinly
1 bunch of green scallions/spring onions
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 cup of Thai basil optional
Culantro optional
1 lime
6 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp of neutral oil like canola
Hoisin


To make the broth:
Start up the large crock-pot add the 4 quarts of water.  While you are doing that, start up another pot and parboil the bones.  Parboiling the bones will help remove the scum so that you will have a nice clear broth.
While waiting for the bones, stick a couple of toothpicks into the half onion and over a hot dry pan, brown the onion's cut end and toast the cinnamon sticks, and star anise. Place the spices into a teaball or cheesecloth and toss into the crockpot with the browned half onion.  When the bones get a good boil on it, dump the contents out and wash the bones very well in cold water.  Make sure to rub the bones to get off any impurities. After you cleaned the bones, place them into the crock-pot and simmer on high for 4-6 hours. (High setting on crock-pot if you are planning to make pho for breakfast.)

About an hour before eating, place the package of dry noodles into a large bowl or container.  Pour boiling water over the noodles and allow it to sit for about 5-7 minutes. The noodles will cook itself. Dump out any remaining water so the noodles doesn't get soggy.  Prepare to slice the London broil into paper thin slices.  It is easier to slice it if the meat is still semi frozen or is stiff because isn't moving around.  You want it as thin as possible.  Set aside.

Whack the garlic with the side of your knife to take off the paper on the garlic and roughly chop the garlic. Heat up a small pot with the oil and drop the garlic in, stirring it until the garlic is golden brown. Remove from heat. Cut up the onions and cilantro. Wash the Thai basil and culantro well. Cut the limes in half, at the equator and quarter each half.

To prep the bowls: in a large bowl, place about 1 cup of noodles in with a few slices of London broil to cover up the noodles. Add the scallions, cilantro, a squeeze in a wedge of lime and spoon some fried garlic in the bowl.  Ladle the piping hot broth over the noodles.  You may need some hoisin if you are using the soup bones. Tear some basil and culantro in, if you desire.

If you don't plan to eat pho all day, you can freeze half the broth.  It freezes well.