Cánh Gà Nướng Xả - Lemongrass Grilled Chicken

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

The smell of lemongrass brings me back to my childhood on the Mississippi gulf coast.  The smell of the lemongrass when it hits the heat of a grill makes my mouth waters.  When I went to Vietnam, I remember the smell of it in the air as I drove down Hwy 1.  There is no other seasoning that comes close to the lemony, grassy smell.  My favorite dish using lemongrass is the grilled wings.

10 wings, cut into two pieces or three and disgarding the tips
1-2 stalks of lemongrass mince white parts only or 3 Tbsp prepared lemongrass from the freezer section
3 cloves of garlic finely minced
1 medium shallot
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp of neutral oil
2 tsp of brown sugar
1-2 Thai bird chili, more or less depending on how hot you like

Wash and cut your chicken wings in sections as desired. Pat wings dry.  In a large bowl or zip top bag, add all your ingredients.  Place the wings into marinade and allow to marinade for at lease 2 hours or overnight.

Heat up grill until about 400-degrees on a gas grill or hold your hand over a charcoal grill for no more than 3 seconds.  Grill for about 10-12 mins on each side.  It maybe shorter, depending on how hot the grill gets. You want to look for shrinkage at where the joints are at.

This dish goes great with a papaya salad and some rice.

My lunch for 3.

Bò Kho - Vietnamese Beef Stew

Bo Kho is great with a French bread

Bo kho is a beef stew made in Vietnam.  This dish has a heavy French influence.  If you were to look at the recipe for boeuf Bourguignon,  you would definitely see the similarities.  The red color comes from the spice blend that mimics the color from the red wine.

This is one of my husband's favorite dishes.  He loves how his mother makes this dish.  Below is the Vietnamese bo kho, but I prefer adding the pearl onions and root vegetables favoring the French influence of my mother's side of the family.

2-3 lbs of beef chuck cut in 1 inch cubes or buy the stew beef

2 beef tendon (optional)

1 lbs organic carrots
2 lbs sweet potatoes or a pound each of sweet and regular potatoes

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 stalks of lemongrass (white parts only, minced and halved)

1 pkg beef stew seasoning from Asian market (blend of paprika, anise, garlic, chili, ginger, onion and cloves)

.5 tsp Madras curry powder

2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 diced fresh organic tomatoes or 1 standard can of diced tomatoes or 1 Tbsp of paste

Water or broth (chicken or beef)
Thai Basil

Optional veggies:

Frozen peas

Pearl Onions

Daikon

Mushrooms

Cut the beef if you didn't buy it that way.  In a deep bowl, add the beef with the beef stew seasoning package, garlic (setting aside about one clove) , fish sauce, half the lemongrass, and curry powder.  Set aside for at least 30 mins.  

Prepare the veggies by cutting them into large 1-inch segments or cubes.  If you plan on using the beef tendon, clean the tendon and boil them until it is soft all the way through. In a medium stock pot, heat up some oil, and sauteed the garlic and lemongrass, until fragrant.  Add the marinaded beef. Stir until there is a little color on the meat then add your water or broth and tomatoes.  Reduce heat and cover at medium heat for about 15 mins.  Add the tendon and veggies.  Cook for another 30 mins or until the veggies are tender. Add frozen peas and pearl onions at the end. Season with fish sauce to your taste.  Chop some Thai basil to finish.

You can enjoy this dish with pho noodles or a nice crusty loaf of French bread.  

Stir-fried basics

Chicken and organic zucchini served with rice and beans

What can be more perfect than a stir-fried dish.  It is almost a full meal all in one pan.  If you take the time to prepare, it can freeze nicely and be heated up in a pinch.  Like most Asian meals, rice is served with stir fries.  Add a clear soup and it is a very healthy and hydrating meal.  Here is the components of a basic stir-fry.  You can build on these stir-fries once you start to understand what taste best for you and your family.  Here is the parts that go into a stir-fry:

-1/2 lb any meat of your choice
-selection of vegetables that compliments well with your meat choice
-1/2 sliced onion into small wedges
-Fish sauce or soy sauce to taste (depending if you prefer Viet or Chinese food)
-1 tsp of oyster sauce
-2 cloves garlic, mince and halved
-1 tsp shallot
- pinch of salt
- black pepper

 For the meat, you want to freeze the meat until it is stiff but still pliable.  It allows you to cut the meat very thinly, across the grain.  Crush and mince one clove of garlic and mix with shallot into the meat to marinade the meat.  Let sit for a few minutes.  If you want to use beef, the Chinese restaurants use a cornstarch slurry to tenderize their beef.  I learned this technique from a former friend in college from Hong Kong.  You would let the meat and mixture sit for 10-15 minutes before cooking it.

You should cut your vegetables into small bite size pieces.  It aids in the cooking process and the same time trick your mind into thinking your are eating more.  If you plan to freeze your stir-fry, always blanch your veggies to keep them crispy and crunchy. (I strongly believe that texture saves colons.)  Blanching is an option when eating immediately.  Have everything near by when you are ready to cook.

In a very hot pan or wok, add a little oil.  When you see the oil smoke a little take the pan/wok off the heat and add the half of the garlic to the pan and swirl the oil around, making sure that the garlic doesn't burn.  If it does, snoop out the garlic, then add the shallots and stir.  Add the meat mixture.  Quicky cook the meat with a pinch of salt to remove any moisture from the meat.  If you are using veggies that take a while to cook, removing your proteins, like beef and shrimp, so that it doesn't overcook.  Add the fish sauce and oyster sauce.  Add your sliced onion and allow them to soften a little before adding your vegetables.  Stir and mix well. Top off with the black pepper. Taste and adjust to your liking.  If you want it a tad bit more sweeter, add a pinch of sugar at a time and taste until it is to your liking.

Vegetables good with beef and pork:  broccoli, snap peas, green beans, kai lan, bok choy, asparagus

Vegetables good with chicken: zucchini, crook neck yellow squash, kai lan

One breast

makes for a lot of food

chicken sliced thinly

this is what was remaining after I made two plate

Thai inspired Grilled Wings

Difficulty: Easy

One of my high school friends has a blog on her Thai inspired dishes.  I am a sucker for some wings and I had to give this recipe a try.  It is very inexpensive to make and it is very addictive.  Of course, I never follow any recipe to the tee and I modify recipes to what I have available at the house and adjust taste to my liking. Here is a link to the original recipe.  I hope you enjoy it.

20 whole wings, cut up however you prefer
8-10 cloves of garlic
1 large shallot
2 Tbsp minced lemongrass, the light parts or already prepared from the frozen food section
1-2 Tbsp of finely chopped ginger
2-4 Tbsp of sambal olek, more or less depending on heat level
1 Tbsp of palm sugar or brown sugar
2 tsp of honey
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1 small gumball size piece of wet tamarind (minus the seed) or a 1/2 tsp of powdered version

Prep your wings and make sure they are nice and dry before adding the marinade.  Mix the remaining in ingredients into a gallon zip top bag or a large mixing bowl.  I usually use a food chopper and chop everything at one time.  Let it sit for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight.  If you placed it in the fridge, please take them out and let them sit for 15 minutes before grilling.  Depending on your gas or charcoal method, cook until there is a little bit of shrinkage.  It usually take a total of 15 minutes.

Gỏi Đu Đủ Lào - Lao style Papaya salad

When I was in college, I had several Lao girls as roommates.  Almost everyday, we would eat "tom ma hoong" or "tom ma tha-et" (papaya or cucumber salad).  I had adapted the recipe and adjusted it for a more Vietnamese palate.

Diffculty: Medium

Papaya salad

2-3 cups shredded papaya
4-6 cherry tomatoes/ 10-15 grape tomatoes/ 1 regular tomato
Thai bird chilis
1-2 cloves garlic
2-3 tsp organic sugar/ 1-2 disk of palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp thick anchovy sauce
1/2 tsp finely ground shrimp paste
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp of salted crab sauce (optional)


Prepare the papaya.  You can use a sharp knife, box grater, or a specialty peeler.  The knife version should only be used if you have SUPERIOR knife handling skills.  I think this method offers the best texture and makes the salad taste better.

Please do not use this method if your knife skill isn't great.

The specialty tool is the easiest and the method I strongly recommend for everyone.  You can get this tool at most Asian markets.  There are two brands that I use and they both come come Thailand.  

Goi Du Du Lao

The orange handle tool, KOM KOM, has multiple function and is made for decorating.

This tool only shreds.

In a mortar and pedestal, add the sugar.  If you are using the palm sugar disk, break up the clump or shave it with a knife.  Add the garlic and chilis and pound it into a paste.  Add the lime, thick anchovy sauce, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and cut the tomatoes into the paste.  If you can find salted crab sauce, add it.  Press on the tomato lightly and taste the sauce.  Adjust the sugar to your liking.  You want to achieve a balance of , spicy, salty and sweet. Once you get it to your liking add the papaya and stir to even coat the papaya. This dish goes very well with grilled or fried anything.

Try it with lemongrass wings.

Vietnamese Frittata

Difficulty: Easy

Growing up, my mom would make this all the time.  As kids we all love eggs.  It was something so easy to make that even my little siblings could make their own eggs at 8 years old.  Here is my healthier version of mom's recipe.

1/2 lbs of ground chicken, turkey, or pork

1/2 organic diced onions

1 stalk chopped scallions

1 tsp organic black pepper

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1 diced organic tomato

1 bunch mung bean thread/ cellophane

1/2 cup of black fungus or 1/2 cup of sauteed button mushroom

1/2 cup finely shredded organic carrots

1 box frozen spinach 

1 dozen brown or organic eggs

Start off by soaking the black fungus and mung bean thread  in hot water to reconstitute it and prepping the onions, scallions, tomato, and carrots.  Add the dozen eggs into a large bowl and lightly beat the eggs. Squeeze any excess water from the frozen spinach and roughly chop it.  Add all the ingredients but the meat into the bowl and mix well. 

Preheat the oven at 375.  With a deep pan that is oven safe, heat until the pan on the stove top before adding some oil to lightly cover the bottom.  Add the ground meat and cook to add some color.  You don't want to mixture to be fully cook or it will be too dry.  Add the egg mixture to the pan once the meat has some color. Cook on the stove until the bottom is somewhat firm to give texture to the bottom of the frittata.  Move the pan to the oven and bake until the center is firm.  Allow to cool a little before serving.

Nem Nướng̣ - Grilled Vietnamese Sausage

Nem is a ground pork mixture.  Roll it up in a wrapper and fry and it is called an eggroll/Imperial roll.  Grill it and it is called nem nuong.  Flatten it out and cook it and it is called cha. Roll it in rice paper and it is a fresh roll.  It is very inexpensive to make and if you plan it out, you can make several days of meals with different spices and seasonings.

The following recipe is one of my family's favorite.  We grab a couple of loaves of crusty baggettes, toast them up, spread some mayo and pate, sprinkle on some soy sauce and fresh cut peppers, stuff them fat with pickled julienne carrots and daikons and add the nem and dress it up with some cilantro on top.

Nem Nuong:

1 lb all-natural ground pork/chicken
10 cloves garlic
1 large shallot
1/4 cup of organic sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp freshly ground organic black pepper
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp oil

With the side of your knife, whack the garlic to remove the paper.  Finely chop and mince the garlic.  Finely dice the shallot bulb. In a large bowl, add your pork, garlic, shallot, sugar, salt, black pepper, oil, and fish sauce.  Dissolve the baking powder by adding a few drops of water into the baking powder, just enough to easily mix into the meat mixture.  Add all the ingredients together. Allow the mixture to rest for about 30 minutes.

Before grilling, shape the mixture into little patties, any shape of your liking.  I like to shape them depending on what I am using the nem for: long wide and flat shape for banh mi, little round meatballs for noodles, log shaped for fresh rolls, etc.

Heat up the grill, grill pan and make sure that the cooking surface is hot before putting the nem on.  Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side.

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.