Malaysian/Singaporean inspired noodle soup

I got sick over the holidays and I suffered from dehydration.  After being discharged from the hospital, all I wanted was soup.  Noodle soup.  I was still too weak to cook but my mind wanted the taste of the warm broth to re-hydrate me.  The previous weeks, I would stumble up many photos of the Malaysian red broth poured over a pile of noodles.  I wanted some but I was not in any condition to trek to the store to gather the ingredients needed.  I rummage through the fridge and saw there was a lot to work with.

Soup:
1 lb ground pork or chicken
32oz box of chicken broth (strongly recommend if you use ground chicken)
4 cup water
1 golf ball size piece of yellow rock sugar
fish sauce to taste
Annato oil

Vietnamese Sate Sauce
4-5 cloves garlic
2-3 stalks or 2 Tbsp pre-chopped lemongrass
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1 large shallot
1 Thai chili, finely chopped
Peanut oil

1 pkg rice sticks

Finishing:
Chopped green onions
Cilantro
Chiffonard Shiso leaves
Blanched mung bean sprouts
Fried garlic

In a medium pot, start the water and broth to bring it to a boil.  Drop in the ground meat mixture and reduce heat so that it is a simmer.  While the soup is cooking, let's make the sate sauce to to add flavor to the soup. In a small pan heat up some oil.  Add all the ingredients in except for the pepper and fry until you get a dark paste.  Add more oil if need to make sure that it isn't a dry lump.  When the ingredients are one color add the pepper and continue to fry the sate until it is dry paste consistency.  Check on the soup stock and make sure to scoop out any impurities/scum.  Add the sate mixture to the soup and allow for the soup and sate to slowly cook together.   Add the fish sauce and rock sugar to your liking.  The total cooking time for the soup should be about 20-25 minutes.  Finish with the annato oil for the bright red color.

Serve the soup over rice noodles and top with the great finishing.

Bún Riêu - Crab Dumpling Noodle Soup

Bun rieu with an organic tomato soup base

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

There is many different ways to make bun rieu.  There is a shrimp, crab, and snail version.  In Vietnam, the crab version is made from pulverizing little mud crabs and extracting their essence with a sieve and incorporating the meat into the dumpling.  Unfortunately there is no rice paddies here, so this is a more budget friendly version that my 3 year old enjoys eating.


3 to 3.5 qts water
14 oz can minced crab or prawns in spices
1 large egg
1 lb ground pork or chicken
28 oz can organic whole peeled tomato
   or 12oz can dice tomato and 4-6 fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 pkg tofu
1 tsp salt
Ground black pepper
1 pkg rice noodles
Chopped green onions
Chopped cilantro
Onions, thinly sliced
Annato oil
1 medium shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
Canned or fresh crab meat, as much or as little as you like or chopped shrimp

Optional:
Split water spinach or thinly shredded cabbage
mint
perilla
lime

Heat up the water in a large stock pot while you are working on the other ingredients.

Drain the tofu package and wrap it with some paper towels and weight it down with a plate or small pan to remove any excess water.

Take out a pan and heat up enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.  Sautee the garlic and shallots and add the can of tomatoes.  If you are using the whole tomatoes, makes sure you crush each tomato with your hand and squeeze out any juice into the pan.  Add the can of minced prawns or crab.  Sautee to enhance the flavors.  Add the contents of the pan into the stockpot.  Wipe down the pan to prepare it to fry the tofu.

Cut the tofu to small blocks or cubes.  I normally cut it to get 32 pieces.  Heat up some oil.  Blot the tofu again to make sure it is dry when you add it to the oil.  Fry each side to get a golden brown color.  Add each finish piece straight into the broth.

Here I use a small sauce pan with enough oil to at least come half way or more of the object I am trying to fry.

In a large bowl, mix the ground meat, crab/shrimp with the salt, black pepper, and egg.  Combine well.  With a teaspoon, scoop teaspoon size ground meat mixture into the broth.

Allow for the broth to cook for about 15 minutes so that the contents can meld together.  Add 1 tsp of annato oil if needed. Add the fish sauce and taste it.  Adjust with more fish sauce if you need.

Serve with a handful of rice noodles in the bowl.  Ladle the hot broth over the noodles.  Make sure that you get some of the dumplings, tofu, and tomatoes.  Topped the bowl with some chopped green onions and cilantro plus any optional herbs.

Prawn

Crab

Rice noodles

Organic tofu

Phở Gà - Chicken Pho

Light and healthy. It makes a great hangover cure.

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Pho ga is a less popular version of the pho that everyone loves.  It is simple, mild, and delicate.  I think the dish is ugly because there is no way to make chicken pretty for this dish.  What it lacks in outward appearance, it makes up in flavor.  For pho ga, I find that a free range chicken (gà đi bộ) or a chicken feed a vegetarian diet offers the best flavor.  Like in most Asian cooking, you want to aim for a clear broth. You will achieve this by washing the chicken thoroughly, a slow boil, and removing any impurities that comes up when cooking.

Broth:

1 whole chicken

2 chicken leg quarters

2 inch knob ginger or 1/2 tsp ginger powder

1 large onion, peeled and halved

2 whole star anise

1 bunch of cilantro stems or 1 tbsp coriander seeds

1-2 cubes of chicken bouillon, optional, Maggi brand

1 tbsp size yellow sugar

1 stick Saigon cinnamon

2 tbsp fish sauce

3-4.5 qts Water

Bowls:
1 pkg pho noodles

1/2 onion (red or yellow) sliced thinly

Chopped green onions/scallion, green parts only is preferred but you can use the whole stem

Chopped cilantro leaves, or the whole stem if you want more of a cilantro kick

Lime wedges

Mung bean sprouts, optional

Thai bird peppers

Culantro leaves

Fried garlic and shallots

Lemon basil (aka Thai basil)

Split the chicken into 11 pieces (2 drums, 2 thighs, 2 wings, halving the 2 breast, and backbone).  Wash the individual pieces well, concentrating on the backbone more since this piece is where a lot of the scum will come from.  Do the same to the leg quarters.  You can split the drum and thighs more to expose more of the bone to get more of the chicken flavor.  Add to a 6-qt stockpot or larger and use enough water to cover the chicken.  Bring water to a boil, but don't allow for the water to come to a rolling boil.  If that happens, it will incorporate the "scum" into the broth and cloudy up the broth.   Peel and skewer the onion with toothpicks (to prevent it from falling apart in the broth) and add to the pot.Split the chicken into 11 pieces (2 drums, 2 thighs, 2 wings, halving the 2 breast, and backbone).  Wash the individual pieces well, concentrating on the backbone more since this piece is where a lot of the scum will come from.  Do the same to the leg quarters.  You can split the drum and thighs more to expose more of the bone to get more of the chicken flavor.  Add to a 6-qt stockpot or larger and use enough water to cover the chicken.  Bring water to a boil, but don't allow for the water to come to a rolling boil.  If that happens, it will incorporate the "scum" into the broth and cloudy up the broth.   Peel and skewer the onion with toothpicks (to prevent it from falling apart in the broth) and add to the pot.Dry toast the star anise, Saigon cinnamon, and coriander seeds. Wrap in a cheese cloth or add to a large tea infuser.  Smash the ginger or slice it to get a large surface area.  Tie up the cilantro stems. Add to pot.  Skim any "scum" that surfaces. Allow for the broth to simmer for about 1.5 hrs on low heat offers the best flavor but 45 minutes to 1 hr on medium heat will produce a nice broth.Always remove the chicken about 40-45 minutes and set aside to cool before shredding.  You can remove the tea ball or sachet at this point if you like.  Add the remaining ingredients.  The bouillon cubes can be used if there isn't enough "chicken-ness" to your broth.  (Happens more when you use a conventional chicken.) Adjust the level of saltiness with fish sauce or kosher salt.Shred the chicken by hand to give texture and contrast to your bite.  I like to mix the dark and white meat together, but some people only enjoy the white meat, so you can separate them.  Arrange each bowl with a handful of pho noodles, thinly sliced onions, chicken, sprouts, and green onions.  Ladle the hot broth over it to soften them.  Add the herbs and lime at the end.  You can dress your pho with hoisin and sriracha if you like.

Canh Chua Gà - Tamarind Soup with Chicken

Difficulty: Hard (knife work) 

This is my absolute favorite canh recipe.  My 10 month old nephew and 3 year old son loves this canh too.  It has a lot of fruits and vegetables in it.  You can mix and match different combination to get the flavor profile you like.  The recipe I am sharing with you is my way of doing it.  There are many different variations and they differ from region to region, country to country.

It is very similar to the Thai tom yum soup.  I am unsure of the origin of this soup but I think I can safely speculate that the Vietnamese immigrants introduce this dish to Thailand.  Pad Thai and fish sauce is so common in Thai cuisine and you can thank the Vietnamese immigrants.

3 qts water
20 okra cut into 1 inch segments
3 organic tomatoes cut into wedges
1/2 lb bean sprouts
3-5 stems bac ha/alocasia odora/taro stem or celery sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 whole fresh pineapple cut into chunks (please avoid Del Monte Fresh brand, it's a GMO)
1 Tbsp tamarind powder
4-5 cloves garlic smashed and minced
1 medium shallot minced
3 sprigs ngo om/rice paddy herb
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 lb chicken, catfish, salmon
2 tbsp oil like peanut, vegetable, canola (I use peanut because it isn't a GMO)
1 stalk chopped green onion
5 sprigs chopped cilantro

Heat up a large stock pot, at least 5 qts, with the water.  In another pot, heat up water to a rolling boil to parboil your choice of protein.  Allow the protein to boil for at least 3 minutes.  Remove the protein and rinse under cold water to remove any foam or impurities (especially with the chicken) and place it into your cooking pot.  Add the pineapple chunks to tenderize the protein.  Add the tamarind powder and simmer for 15 minutes for the chicken or 10 minutes for the fish.

While the protein is cooking, heat up a small sauce pan with 2 tbsp of oil.  Add the garlic and shallots.  Sauteed until you achieve a nice golden brown color to them, usually 2-3 minutes.  Set aside, off the heat.

Add the okra into the stockpot after the 10 or 15 minute mark, depending on your protein selection.  Allow to cook for about 2 minutes before adding the bean sprouts and tomatoes.  Simmer for another 2 minutes and add the fish sauce.  Spoon the fried onion and garlic oil into the pot and stir well.  Add the rice paddy herb leaves, chopped onions and cilantro.  Adjust to your taste by adding more fish sauce.

The soup should have texture to it.  The sprouts should still have a bite even though it is wilted.  The bac ha or celery should be soft and almost spongy like.  The tomatoes should still have it shape but soft. The orka should be soft but not mushy.

Nui Gà - Chicken Noodle Soup - Nouilles avec poulet

Difficulty: Easy

My 3 year old son loves nui ga, more so when mommy makes it.  It is one of his favorite dish.  This French influenced dish is a wonderful one pot meal and it can freeze easily.  I used orzo in this dish, which "bloomed" from sitting in the broth, making it a hit with many small children.

1 cup orzo
2 qt water
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cups diced carrots small optional
1/2 lb ground or sliced thinly pork or chicken
2 stalks green onions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp mushroom seasoning optional
2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
1/4 cup minced onions

Heat up a large stock pot and add oil to cover the bottom.  Have your meat mixture nearby before you put the garlic in the pot.  Saute the garlic until a light brown color then add your meat.  Brown the meat to bring some color.  Add your minced onion, bouillon powder, mushroom seasoning, and carrots. Add your water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat so you don't have a hard boil.  Skim off any foam that rises to the top, to ensure you have a clear broth.  Add orzo and cook until it is soft.  Add fish sauce and turn off heat.  Add the chopped onions and cilantro and taste.  Adjust with more fish sauce if too bland.

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.