Ca Ri Ga - Vietnamese Style Chicken Curry

                            

Since November I have cooked curry about 20 times, before that I have never cooked curry or even care to eat it.  I know plenty of people who enjoy eating Thai curry made with coconut milk, hot Indian curry, or Japanese saucy curry.  I, however, never really develop a taste for curries; I guess we all have a kryptonite.

So what happened last November that changed my mind about curry?  I tasted the best curry at Thanksgiving dinner, made by my boyfriend's aunt.  She used to be a cook for a living, and he raves about a cooking all the time.  I was very skeptic at first, but he said ca ri ga was one of her best dish!  To my surprise her curry was delicious!  It had a lot of curry flavor and the right kick of spiciness. I didn't taste any coconut milk but I can tell a little bit of milk was use.  If only I tasted her curry first, my feeling for curries may not be same as before.

I spent the last 6 months trying to re-create that curry, bless my family and boyfriend for eating so much curry and being my guinea pig.  I made curry so many times I can probably make it in my sleep.  But I don't regret any of it, actually learned a lot through trial and error.  For optimal flavor, I suggest marinading your chicken over night.  To achieve curry flavor in your broth, you'll need to cook curry powder into your broth similar to the way you would make Bun Bo Hue.  If you choose to use milk, you should add your milk a little at a time on very low heat.  I find it best to add milk at the very end.

This curry does not have that rich flavor from the coconut milk.  It's not as saucy because I prefer it to be like a broth so you can eat it with noodles or bread.  If you like it more saucy, I would use less water.  This curry is more savory, with a kick of chili in every bite.  You'll definitely be sweating when eating curry at my house.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

One whole chicken cut into smaller pieces
1 can of coconut juice
1 can of chicken broth
2-3 stalk of lemon grass
1 stub of ginger
1 tablespoon of minced shallots
1 tablespoon of minced lemongrass
1/2 tablespoon of garlic
1 bay leaf
1 bag of curry powder
1 teaspoon of chili power
3 lbs bag of Yukon potato
fish sauce
sugar
salt
mushroom seasoning
water cooking oil

1.  Marinade chicken with 3 tablespoon of cooking oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning, 1/2 a bag of curry powder (about 3 tablespoon), minced garlic, minced shallots, and minced lemongrass.  Marinade overnight if possible.
2.  Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes, soak in water until ready to use.
3.  In a pot, brown the marinaded chicken.  Does not need to be cooked all the way.
4.  Add the coconut juice and chicken broth.  Let chicken simmer in this mixture for about 10 minutes. If you want the curry to be saucy then you can go ahead and the lemongrass stalk,ginger, and bay leaf.  Season the broth with salt and sugar.
5.  In a pan add 2 tablespoon of cooking oil on very low heat.  Add the other half of the curry powder and cook into the oil.  Add this mixture to the broth.
5.  If you want more of soup broth, then you'll want to add more water as if you are making a noodle soup.  Season the broth with salt and sugar to your liking.  Let everything marry in the pot for another 20 minutes.
6.  Add the potatoes at the very end because they will cook very fast.  Just before the curry is done add about 1 cup of milk a little bit at a time on very low heat, mixing it into the broth.  Turn off the heat.
7.  Curry can be eating noodle, bread, or rice.  Garnish with some green onions and cilantro.  Enjoy!

Ca Chua Nhoi Thit - Pork-Stuffed Tomatoes

I adore this dish because it's beautiful and delicious.  The sauce produced by marrying all the ingredients together is so divine.  It's salty and sweet; tomato, sugar, and fish sauce equals the best sauce EVER!

This is quite a popular recipe on the web so I was a little reluctant to write an entry on it. I mean there are already so many great recipes out there, I should just focus on something else?  Well the bag of tomatoes I brought last week sitting in the refrigerator beg to differ.  

For this recipe you want to use firm tomatoes and try to pick out the flattest one if you want a pretty presentation.  You'll want to remove the core of the tomatoes but save them for the sauce.  For the pork mixture I used wood ear mushroom, minced garlic, minced green onions, paprika, chili powder, soy sauce, mushroom seasoning, salt, and vegetable oil.  Adding vegetable oil to the pork mixture will help it stay soft and moist after cooking.  The sauce is a combination of fish sauce, sugar, chili powder, ketchup, the core of the tomatoes, and green onions.  I often add chili powder to my recipe for that extra kick, omit if you prefer a mild taste.  Once you have mix all the ingredients together for the pork mixture, refrigerate this mixture for a couple hours.  Refrigerating the mixture help it bind together and it will less likely fall apart during the cooking process. 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of ground pork

6 medium size tomato

1/2 cup of wood ear mushroom (rehydrate and finely chopped)

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of minced green onions

soy sauce

fish sauce

salt

sugar

chili powder

paprika

mushroom seasoning

vegetable oil

chopped green onions

1.  Prepare the pork mixture by mixing together the pork, wood ear mushroom, garlic, green onions, 2 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning and 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Combine and refrigerate for a couple hours. 

2.  Cut the top of the tomatoes off and remove the core of the tomatoes.  Save the core and top part of the tomatoes for later use. You'll want to cut them into smaller pieces.

3.  Fill the tomatoes with the pork mixture.

4.  Heat up cooking oil in a pan.

5.  Place the tomatoes top down into the oil and let brown.  Let this brown slowly because you'll want the pork to cook all the way through.  

6.  Once the meat has brown flip the tomato over.  We can begin making the sauce.

7.  Add about 4-5 tablespoon of fish sauce to the pan ( you can add more if you would like to make more sauce).  Add the rest of the tomatoes, 3 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of ketchup.  Just let it simmer on the stove on very low heat.  This will produce the sauce and the tomatoes will soak up the sauce as well.  You want to make sure the bottom of the tomatoes doesn't overcook and burst.  Just be patience and let this cook on very low heat.  Add the green onions at the very end.  

Best eaten with steamed rice, enjoy!

Bun Hen - Baby Clam Vermicelli

I've recently been introduced to this lovely dish, originated from the city of Hue.  My parents never had this dish while they were in Vietnam, which led to my late meeting with this dish as well.  It's crazy how vast the Vietnamese cuisine is for my parents in their 60's have not had this dish.  Being from the North and migrated to the South when they were very young may have an impact.  I am truly overjoyed that we have finally met because I know we will be friends for a very long time.

This dish can be eaten with rice noodles or rice, but I always prefer noodles over rice.  In Vietnam, the baby clams are picked right out of the freshwater and steamed with lemongrass.  I can imagine how fragrance and fresh the baby clams taste.  Unfortunately, we do not have that luxury here in the States, often have to settle for canned our frozen clams.  Even so, I still love eating Bun Hen. I love that this dish requires fresh vegetables and herb, and can be eaten with sesame rice cracker.  The clams is sauteed and seasoned with shallots, garlic, and black peppers.  Like most bun dish, there needs to be a sauce.  It's not he limey fish sauce that we have become familiar with.  For this dish, we make the sauce from fermented fish paste (mam ruot) and the clam juice.  The sauce is salty and pungent, but is needed to bring this dish together.

I've tasted Bun Hen made by different people, and there are certainly some differences.  Some seasoned the clams a lot more and some makes a lighter sauce than others.  But no matter how different each Bun Hen taste, the one thing that makes the dish so delicious is the vegetables and herbs.  I always tell people that herbs is an essential ingredient to Vietnamese cuisine.  I cannot claim that this recipe is authentic, but this what I have come up with after tasting different Bun Hen.  Perfect dish for the summertime, enjoy!

Ingredients:
rice noodles
3 10 oz cans of baby clams
fermented fish paste
1 tablespoon of minced shallots
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
romaine lettuce
Vietnamese coriander
diep ca
cucumber juliened
sesame rice cracker
salt
sugar
chili powder
black pepper

1.  Cook the vermicelli rice noodles and let it dry.  If you are using rice, cook the rice a little bit dryer than usually.  Mushy rice will ruin this dish.
2.  Open the canned clams and drained the liquid, setting the liquid aside to make sauce.
3.  Washed all the vegetables and herbs, and let dry.  The lettuce and herbs should be chopped for easier eating.  You can mixed the two together as well.
4.  In a pan, heat up about two tablespoon of cooking oil.  Add 1/2 of the shallot and garlic and cook until fragrance.  Add the baby clams to the pan and sauteed together with the shallot and garlic.  Seasoned the clams lightly with some of salt, sugar, black pepper and chili powder.  I like to eat spicy food, therefore you can omit the chili powder if you do not like spicy food.  Continue to cook this mixture, and if like it a little burned you can cook the clams a little longer.
5.  In a small pot, heat up two table spoon of cooking oil.  Add the remaining garlic and shallots and sauteed until fragrance.  Add the juice of the canned clams (about 2 cups) to the pot, and then stir in 4-5 tablespoon of fermented fish paste.  I added 2 tablespoon of chili powder for spiciness.  Once the sauce has come to a boil, turn off the heat.
6.  In a bowl, add rice noodles, vegetables, cucumber and herbs.  Scoop however much of the sauteed clams you want on top.  Add some sesame rice cracker and then add sauce to your liking.  You can cut in additional chili if you like it really spicy.  Mix everything together and enjoy!

Bo Kho - Vietnamese Beef Stew

I had a holiday party around Christmas time and I made a pot of Bo Kho and Ca Ri Ga.   I have to admit I don't make stews very often but I figure it would be a hearty meal and will definitely warm up my guests. That night I had many compliments on my pot of Bo Kho.  My friends requested that I post the recipe to my blog with the exact measurements.  So for this recipe I actually measured what I can out, but sometimes during the cooking process I forget.  But I really want to emphasize the importance of tasting your food.  It will help you improve your cooking skills tremendously.

Bo Kho would probably not make my top 20 of favorite Viet food to eat because it's simply too heavy for me.  I prefer eating pho or bun bo hue over bo kho, but stews are great during the cold Indiana winter.  The day after the party, I brought home some bo kho to my family.  My sister-in-law showed me a great way to lighten a hearty bowl of bo kho and it made it so incredibly delicious.  She squeezed two lime wedges to a bowl of bo kho and top it with lots of cilantro.   The lime and cilantro added depth and tanginess to the broth.  I didn't even care about the star  of the dish, the shank, it was all about that broth.  If you haven't tried lime and cilantro with your bo kho, you have to give it a try!


Ingredients:

4 lbs of beef shank
10 stalk of lemongrass (cut 1/2 and then crushed)
3 tablespoon of tomato paste
10 carrots (cut into 1 inch pieces)
salt
rock sugar
mushroom seasoning
chili powder (if you like spicy)
fish sauce
minced shallots
minced lemongrass
paprika
star anise
cinnamon
roasted ginger
all purpose flour
roasted sweet onions or 5-6 whole shallots
cooking oil
bay leaf


Marinade for 4 lbs of beef shank:

1/2 cup of fish sauce
2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of chili powder (this depends on the spice level of your chili powder and how spicy you want it to be)
1/2 cup of minced lemongrass
1/2 cup  of minced shallots
3 tablespoon paprika


1.  Cut up the beef shank into cubes.  Keep in mind beef shank shrink during the cooking process.
2. Marinate the beef shank with the marinade over night if possible or at least 2-3 hours before cooking.
3.  In a large pot, heat up a little bit of vegetable oil and pour the marinated beef shank in the pot.  You want to brown the outside of the meat.
4.  Once the meat has brown evenly, add 3 tablespoon of tomato paste and 2 tablespoon of flour.  Stir well and make sure the you cook the flour. 
5.  Add enough water to submerge the meats about
6.  Add two bay leaves, lemongrass stalks, roasted ginger, and roasted onions  to the pot, season the pot with 2.5 tablespoon of salt, 3 rock sugar, 2 tablespoon mushroom seasoning.
8.  In a separate pan, heat a tablespoon of cooking oil.  Add 1 tablespoon of the paprika to the oil.   Let paprika cook on low heat, be careful not to let it burn.  This will add color to the broth.

9.  Let pot simmer on medium heat with lid on until meat is tender.  At this point the broth should be at the right consistency, not too water but not too thick.  In about 1.5 to 2 hours meat will be tender.
10.  Add the carrots last.   If you put the lid on the carrots will cooked pretty fast.  You don't want to overcook the carrots and become mushy.
11.  Prepare yourself a bowl of bo kho with French baguettes or rice noodles (hu tieu).
12.  Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions, squeeze a little bit of lime to your bo kho .
13.  Enjoy!

Ga Xao Xa Ot - Lemon Grass Chicken

If you like sweet and savory flavors with a kick, you will love Vietnamese lemongrass chicken!  This is a dish you will find at most Vietnamese restaurants but it just never taste as good as homemade because they just  never make it spicy or aromatic enough.  I love using lots to of minced lemongrass because lemongrass smells amazing and it's even better when you stir fry chicken and lemongrass together and let all the flavors melds.

I would highly recommend using bone in and skin on chicken, instead of just chicken meat.  If you don't want to butcher the whole chicken you can definitely just use chicken wings. 

Ingredients:

2 lbs of chicken of whatever cut you like

1/2 cup minced lemongrass 

1 shallot minced

1/2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning

1 tablespoon of crushed Thai chili( add this your liking base on your preference)

1 table turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
cooking
sugar
salt

fresh chili 

1.  Marinade chicken with 1 tablespoon of turmeric, 2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning, 1 shallot minced, crushed Thai chili to your liking, and 2 tablespoon of cooking oil.  Marinade for 1-2 hours.  

2.  Heat up a good amount of oil in a wok and start browning your chicken on low-medium heat.  Make sure you turn your chicken so ensure all sides will get brown.
3.  Once chicken are brown, season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and approximately 1 tablespoon of sugar.  If you like your food sweeter you can always add more sugar to your liking a little bit at a time.
4.  Add minced lemongrass to the chicken and turn up the heat.   Start stir frying the chicken and minced lemongrass to melds the flavors together.
5.  Add more cooking oil to the chicken if needed.
6.  Continue to the stir fry until lemongrass is fragrance and become crispy.
7.  Add fresh chili at the very end for more heat.
8.  Enjoy with steamed rice!

Goi Du Du Kho Bo - Beef Jerky Papaya Salad

My family is very fond of this salad, unfortunately we do not have access to good Vietnamese beef jerky in the Midwest.  This recipe calls for a specific kind of beef jerky.  It's red in color and it's wet not dry like what you would think.  My aunt uses the Bach Cuc brand she get from out of state.  I recently visited Seattle and notice the same brand at the Vietnamese market in Seattle.  Even though it's $10 per package, I just had to get a few bag to bring home.  Thai basil is also a must have for this dish, you cannot substitute basil for another herb.  You only have to worry about three ingredients; Thai basil, green papaya, and Vietnamese beef jerky. 

                         

Hand downs, this is the easiest Vietnamese salad to make.  There is literally no cooking involve, except to boil some water to make the sauce.  You just prepare all the raw ingredients, cut the beef jerky into strips, and then prepare the sauce.  The hardest part to this recipe is making the sauce, it's always the sauce!  I've tried quite a few sauces from restaurants and my aunt, and it never quite satisfy my taste buds.  So I've experimented a few time and came up with something I like very much and it was well received by my family.  I hope you will enjoy this easy and refreshing salad, just in time for summer!

Ingredients:

1 green papaya julienned

Thai basil rough chopped

Vietnamese beef jerky

Sauce

1.  Soak the julienned papaya in water.  Papaya tend to very slimy, so you'll want to change the water a couple time.

2. Once the the papaya is clean and ready to eat, you'll want to squeeze all the excess water out of it.  The best way is to use paper towel to help absorb the water.  Place the already squeezed papaya in a clean container.

3.  Remove beef jerky from package and cut the jerky in smaller strips.

4.  Prepare the sauce, recipe below.

5.  Put some already prepared papaya in on a plate, top off with some chopped Thai basil and beef jerky strips.  When you are ready to eat add the sauce to your liking, mix, and enjoy!

How to make the sauce:

1/4 cup of water

1-2 clove of garlic

2 tablespoon of sugar

1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce

3/4 tablespoon of rice vinegar

fresh chili or chili paste

1.  Crush the garlic with a mortar and pestle (or a knife).

2.  You'll want to cook the garlic into the water on low heat for 5-10 minutes.

3.  Discard the garlic and just keep the garlic infused water.  Remove to a bowl.

4.  Add the sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar to the water.  Mix everything together.

5.  Add chili to your liking for some heat.

Banh Canh Cua - Crab Noodle Soup

Even though I have already posted a recipe for Banh Canh Cua, this version is more authentic. The other version is like a quick fix, this version will take some time but it's definitely worth the extra effort.

The other day I went to our local supermarket looking for ingredients to make dinner. I wasn't really looking for any specific ingredients, kinda hoping something would jump out at me. As I was walking through the seafood section, I notice a sign, "wild caught stone crabs". They were running a stone crab claws special for $7.99 a lb. There were around 4-5 five claws per package and each package ran around $7-$8. I knew this is what I have to make for dinner, so I grabbed five packages with the largest claws.

After coming home, my sister-in-law looked through our freezer outside and dug up two dungeness crab parts. We use the meat a couple weeks ago to make Tamarind Crabs, and save the head with all the eggs for later use. There was no other option, these ingredients screamed Banh Canh Cua.

Instead of buying premade noodles, I wanted to make the noodles from scratch out of rice and tapioca flours. Again this took extra time but it's really not hard. It taste so much better than the premade noodles. The broth is a little tricky because I use some left over ingredients and then frozen stone crabs. The frozen stone crabs are already cooked so it's not going to give off a lot of crab flavor. Using mushroom will also give sweetness and lots of flavor to the broth. If you do not have access to stone crabs just use two whole dungeness crabs. On some occasion, Costo sells whole frozen dungeness crab for around $10 each.

For this recipe, I'm going to list what I did with my ingredients (5 lbs of stone crabs claws and 2 head parts of the two dungeness crabs). Since most people will not have the heads of two dungeness crabs laying around, I'm also going to list the procedure if you were going to use two whole dungeness crabs. I'll try not to sound confusing but please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Noodle:

3 cups of rice flour

2 1/2 cups of tapioca flour

1/2 cups to the side

boiling water

a big bowl

wooden spoon

rolling pin

1. Sift together 3 cups of rice flour and 2.5 cups of tapioca flour.

2. Slowly add boiling water a little bit at a time to the flour mixture. With a wooden spoon work the flour and boiling water together. You want to add enough water to form a dough that you can knead and then flatten.

3. Once you have achieve a texture where you can mold the dough, split the dough into smaller balls (about the size of racketball).

4. Use the rolling pin to flatten the dough balls and then cut the flatten dough in half. With a knife cut the half sheet of dough into 1 cm strips.

5. Store the noodle in a container and sprinkle tapioca flour in between noodles so it doesn't stick together. The additional tapioca flour will help thicken soup later too.

Broth:

2 lbs of pork neck bones

5 lbs of stone crabs

the hard shell and it's content to two dungeness crabs

1 teaspoon of of minced shallots

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

cooking oil

4 cup of mushroom quarters

salt

rock sugar

mushroom seasoning

fish sauce

green onions

cilantro

1. Steam the stone crab claws and save the liquid that is produced. Let the claws cool.

2. Preboil the pork bones with a good amount of salt. Re

move the pork from the dirty liquid and rinse under cold water.

3. Transfer the pork bones in a big pot filled with water. Let bones simmer in water up to 2 hours.

4. If you are using dungeness crabs, you want to remove the hard shell and scrape as much of the yellow content from the shell. You then would want to steam the crab meats and save the crab liquid for later.

5. Add the dungeness shell I just cleaned out into the broth. Add all the liquid produce from steaming the crabs.

6. Taste the broth with salt, rock sugar, and mushroo

m seasoning.

7. Heat up some cooking oil in pan and fragrance the minced garlic and shallots.

8. Add the head/egg content of the two dungeness crabs to the garlic and shallots. Sauteed the egg content until fragrance.

9. Add the content to the broth, which will give the broth some color.

10. Add the mushroom.

11. Taste the broth with additional fish sauce if needed.

12. Crack the claws and remove the meat.

13. Rough chopped the green onions and cilantro for garnish.

14. Like the previous recipe, you should prepare each bowl individually. Whenever you want to cook up a bowl, transfer the broth to a separate pot. Once the broth comes to a boil add the noodle and then turn down the heat. Make sure you stir the noodle around with a spoon or it's going to stick to the bottom. The noodle and extra tapioca powder will thicken the broth so add additional broth if needed.