Blueberry Bread Pudding w/ Condensed Milk Sauce

Anybody who knows me, know I am not a dessert person.  I don't like sweet very much, and I probably have my mom to thank for that.  My mom didn't let me have a lot of sweets growing up.  So I usually passed on cakes and cookies.  I don't know what it is about bread pudding that draws me to it so much.  Every time there is bread pudding on the menu I have to order it.  There's something so comforting to me about pudding and i'm the same way with french toast.

I've been playing around with bread pudding a lot lately, making it at least once and sometimes even twice a week.  You can turn pretty much any dessert into a bread pudding!  Have anybody ever had freshly baked baguettes dipped in condensed milk?  If you haven't, you need to try it!  And that's where I got my inspiration for this recipe.  I hope you all will enjoy this amazing dessert! 

Ingredients:

1 loaf of French bread

3 eggs

2.5-3 cups of heavy cream (this depends on how firm you want it to be)

2 cups of sugar (more or less depends on your taste)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

1 cup of blueberry

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup of condensed milk

1.   Tear bread into smaller pieces.

2.  Mix sugar and heavy cream together first, this way you can taste it in case you want to adjust the sweetness.  Add eggs, vanilla, and nutmeg to the mixture, and mix with a whisk.  

3.  Add the bread to the wet ingredients and combine.  I find it easier to use your hand with gloves.  Make sure everything piece of bread is soaked in the wet mixture.  Fold in the blueberry.  And let everything sit for about 15-20 minutes.  

4.  Pre-heat oven to about 300 degrees.

5.  Butter a baking pan and then start stuffing it with the bread mixture.  Because I like my bread pudding a little firm, I make sure I pack the pan pretty tightly.  

6.  Put in the oven for about 40 minutes.  Then I take it out and brush the top with some butter (this will help it form the delicious crust at the top), put it back in the over turn it up to about 350 degrees for another 15 minutes or until you get that golden brown crust.  

7.   In a pot combine the milk and condensed milk.  Cook it on medium heat, mix thoroughly and let it cook until the two ingredients blend together. 

8.  Let the bread pudding cool completely. 

9.  Cut out a piece and serve it on top of a bath of sauce or you can just dip it in the sauce.  

10.  Enjoy!

Pho Bo - Beef Noodle Soup

I wrote an entry for crock pot pho last year and it was quite an experience. Crock pot cooking sure has its benefits but I much prefer cooking on the stove top. Maybe I have OCD in the kitchen but I can not leave something cooking on it's own for that long without tasting it.  It'll probably work if I started measuring everything precisely but I know that's not going to happen!

Living so far from my parents, I've develop a love for pho more than ever before. While living in Vietnam, my dad and I were pho buddies.  I didn't really have a choice, but it was our daddy and daughter time together.  After pho we would walk around and my dad would catch up with his friends and neighbors.  When we moved to the states, there were no pho shop and no friends to visit.  We still had our daddy daughter time though, grocery shopping in 3 feet of snow.  Those early years were tough!

Despite her busy schedule, my mom always made sure there was a pot of pho every Saturday morning.  It was something we all look forward to every weekend.  Now that I no longer live at home, I miss my mom's cooking more and more especially her pho.  It's definitely her best dish!

I have tried cooking pho in many different ways, believe me I've tried all the techniques!  And I don't think one technique is better than another, it's all about what you are comfortable with!  And these are the techniques I love and I hope they will help you on your next phoventure!

1.  Root Vegetables

When you of think of pho, you automatic think of beef and even more beef.  While beef play an important role in making a pot of beef pho, I feel we need to credit the root vegetables.  A lot of western soup are made by using a lot of roots vegetables such as onion, carrot, leek, celery, and etc.  Why?  Root vegetables are so good for broth because they give off a natural sweet flavor that's not going to take away or overwhelm the beef flavor.  I especially love using the onion family for pho such as yellow onions and leeks.  They are must haves whenever I make pho!

2.  Beef Bones

I love love my bone marrow but you have to use a variety of bones and meat.  Bones alone will not produce a great broth, that's why we use beef shank as well.  Look for beef neck bones or any bones with a little bit meat to it.

3.  Spices

One of the worst pho turn off for me is the over use of spices.  I definitely got this from my dad.  He hates pho that has a very strong aroma of spices, he feels it takes away the beef flavor.  There are pre-package pho spices at the Asian market but I tend to stick with only a few.  I usually only use cinnamon and star anise.  You want the spices to be subtle to linger but not to overwhelm.

4.  Roasting

While my mom feels roasting the ginger and onions are not needed, I love this step.  It takes these ingredients to a whole another level of sweetness.  You can also roast the spices as well but spices burn a lot faster so be careful.  I like to roast them and wrap in aluminum foil and place it in the pot, you can remove easier this way.

5.  Clear Broth

Certain soups you can get by without have a clear broth but murky pho is not as inviting.  I take the extra step to get my bones and meats very clean.  You'll want to par-boil your bones and then rinsing them with cool water right after.  I even use a different pot par-boil my bones.  The only thing that goes in my pot of pho are clean bones, fresh water, and clean meat.

Ingredients:

4-5 lbs of bones (the more the better)
2 shank
beef balls bo vien (optional)
tendons (optional)
2 yellow onions
2 leeks
2-3 knob of ginger
rock sugar
salt
black pepper
mushroom seasoning
fish sauce
2 cinnamon stick
7-8star anise
aluminum foil
thinly sliced beef (Pho Tai)
pho noodles
green onions/cilantro/sliced yellow onions (garnish)
lime
bean sprouts/basil (optional)

Total cooking time:  5-6 hours minimum

1.  Par-boil beef bones/shank/tendons, thoroughly rinse both with cool water and set aside.  If you are using tendons, you’ll need boil this for 2 hours before you add it to your pot.
2.  Fill a new 10 qt. pot with water and add clean beef bones/shank/tendon.  Let everything simmer on low-med heat.  All the ingredients will be ready at different times, the best thing to look is the tenderness.  If the meat is falling off the bones you know you have cooked the bones sufficient enough.  Estimate time about 3 hours.
3.  Roast the ginger/onion in the oven or grill.  Remove the skin and then add to the broth.  Add the leeks to the pot along with your meats and bones. Add rock sugar about the same size as a knob of ginger. 1/2 cup of salt, 3 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning.  Remove scum when necessary.
4.  You should see fat at the top from the bones/shank, remove as much as you can or if you like the fat you can leave it.
5.  Remove shank when it's tender, I don't like my shank fall apart tender I like it a little firm which will be easier to slice as well.  Tendon will take longer so keep it in the pot until its tender to your liking.  Once meat/tendon is done; remove, let cool down, and the. sliced thinly.
6.  Taste the broth and add final adjustment now, add additional salt/sugar/fish sauce if needed.
7.  Lightly wrap the spices in aluminum foil and add to the pot for about 20 minutes and leave lid on.
8.  Prepare sliced rare beef, noodles, vegetables, green onion, sliced onion, and lime.
9.  When your pot of pho is done I like to remove all bones in to one bowl for munching.  Discard ginger, onions, leeks, spices.  So you are left with only the broth.  You can also take the extra step of straining your broth.

10.  Prepare a bowl to your liking and enjoy!

Che Sam Bo Luong

My dad is a part-time herbalist, a position that was passed down in the family.  Family and friends often ask him to prescribe herbal medicine to help relieve certain ailment.  He makes herbal medicine in all forms such as powder, liquid, dough, etc;  I just know they all taste god awful.  It's basically ground dried roots, plants, and tree barks how can you expect it to taste any good.  He always assured us that it was good for us, they are nature's medicine.  I try to stay clear of his herbal medicine except for one exception, when I want to make Che Sam Bo Luong.

Sam Bo Luong is a sweet soup of Chinese origin.  Ingredients for this sweet soup varies but jujube(Chinese dried dates), dried logan, seaweed(kelp), white fungus, pearl barley, and lotus seeds are the usual suspects.  Each of these ingredients have a medicinal usage therefore this dessert is often deemed as good for your health. My dad says every ingredient has either a "cooling" or "burning" effect to your body, like a ying yang effect.  Therefore it is important that we consume both kinds of food to attain a balance.  I'm glad this soup is considered good for you because it is delicious.  On a hot summer day, you simply cannot get enough of this dessert!

You may have trouble finding certain ingredients especially if you only have access to a smaller Asian grocery store.  We have had some trouble finding pearl barley at the market but my dad usually have a lot in stock from the herbal shop.

Ingredients:

seaweed/kelp (the ones used to make seaweed salad dark green in color that looks like long ribbons)
lotus seeds
pearl barley
white fungus
dried dates/jujube
dried logan

1. You'll need to rinse and rehydrate most the ingredients except the dried dates and dried logans.  The kelp will require a lot of rinsing because it may contain a lot of sand/dirt.  You can soak the dried ingredients overnight or boil them for instant use.
2.  Soak the kelp in warm water after a good amount of rinsing and then cut them up into 3 inch ribbons.  Soak the white fungus in a warm water and chop them into smaller pieces.
3.  Boil the lotus and barley to soften it up but you don't want to cook them all the way through.  About 10-15 minutes in boiling water will do.
4.  Fill a 10 qt. pot with water and add 2-3 cups of brown sugar.  You can add more or less sugar to your liking.  This is suppose to be sweet soup after all so it is usually made very sweet and eaten with crushed iced.
5.  Once the water has come to a boil, add the barley, lotus seeds, and kelp.  Let that cook until tender. Then add the white fungus, dried dates, and dried logan.
6.  Once you attain the sweetness to your liking and all the ingredients has become tender, you can turn off the heat.
7.  This sweet soup taste best when chilled or eaten with ice.  Enjoy!

Canh Chua Ca - Sour Fish Soup

The word sour and fish doesn't sound too appetizing together does it?  But don't let that hinder you from trying out this delicious soup.  Canh chua is a sour soup produce by fresh vegetables and one key ingredient tamarind.  Whole tamarind pulp, pineapple, and tomatoes is used to produce sourness to the soup. Okra, bean sprouts, and a strange stalk called elephant ear (bac ha) is also unique to this recipe.  The spongy like elephant ear and slimy okra soaks up the broth and every time you take a bite your mouth is gushing with sweet tangy flavor.

Canh chua is usually made with fish therefore it is commonly accompanied by ca kho, Vietnamese braised fish.  This recipe also works well with shrimp and again you can use extra shrimp to make tom kho (Vietnamese braised shrimp).  I prefer to make this soup with fish especially whole cat fish.  While visiting home this weekend, my uncle brought over some freshly caught striped bass and catfish, they were 5 - 8 lbs a piece.  Nothing beats fresh ingredients when it comes to Vietnamese cooking!  Without even thinking, my mom and I already know what's in store for dinner.

I don't order this dish when i'm eating out very often because everybody like it a different way.  We all have our own interpretation of the perfect canh chua and that is best achieved at home in our own kitchen.  Even though it is called sour soup, I like to make mine sweet as well and let's not forget I like everything spicy.  When I taste this soup I want to get a punch of sourness, a flicker of sweetness, and kick of spiciness.  It's like a party in your mouth, flavors fighting to get your attention.  While this soup is usually eaten with rice you can also eat it as a noodle soup with vermicelli noodles.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 whole pineapple or 1 can of pineapple in syrup (I like to use the canned pineapple in syrup because it does a good of sweetening the broth so I don't have to add so much sugar)
4-5 tomatoes quartered
2-3 stalks of elephant ear cut into 2 inch section
1 lb of okra cut in half
a handful of beansprouts
Thai chili
ngo om 
4 - 5tablespoon of fresh tamarind pulp ( I like my soup pretty sour so I would start w/ 3 tablespoon)
tamarind powder
sugar
salt
fish sauce
mushroom seasoning
catfish 2-3 lbs cut into smaller portion will do but the more the better

1. Marinade the fish by sprinkling it evenly with salt and dash of fish sauce and some green onions. My mom likes to pan sear her fish ahead of time so it won't break a part when you put it in the pot.
2. Fill a 8 qt. pot 3/4 of the way with water.
3.  Add the fish to the broth on medium heat, if you use high heat the fish may break apart easier.  Let the fish thoroughly cook in the broth for a 10-15 minutes depending how much you use.
4.  Remove fish from broth and set a side for later.
5. Add the tamarind and if you are using canned pineapple drain the syrup into the pot.

6. Let the tamarind break apart and flavor the water.  Then you'll want to scoop it out and discard.

7. At this point you'll want to flavor your broth with salt, sugar, and additional tamarind powder if you like it more sou.  Start off with about 2 tablespoon of salt, and more sugar if needed.  I went ahead and added a bit more tamarind powder.  At this point the broth will seem really overwhelming with a a lot of flavor but once you add all the vegetables it will lighten it up a lot.  So seasoned everything very aggressively before I add the vegetables.  

8.  Add the vegetables.  Okra and elephant ear will take a bit more time to cook so i usually put that in first followed by tomatoes, pineapple, and bean sprouts.  Try not to overcook the vegetables to much or the vegetables will lose its texture.  

9.  Season more fish sauce if needed.

10.  Turn off the stove re-the fish to the pot if you plan to eat it right away.  Add chopped ngo om and thai chili.

Homemade Pad Thai Sauce

I have no problem using store brought Pad Thai sauce, I've used it plenty in the past. My problem is I never think to buy them when i'm grocery shopping and when I do get that craving for Pad Thai I never seem to have it at home. It is simple to make and I usually already have the

ingredients handy.

The best thing about making the sauce from scratch is being in control.  You control the consistency and the flavor.  When you go to ten different Thai restaurants, each of their Pad Thai will be slightly different in flavor and consistency.  Some Pad Thai are more dry, while others are more saucy.  Everybody makes their sauce differently but it's the same concept.  You'll need tamarind, fish sauce, and sugar.  Below is the recipe I used for a 16 oz. pack of rice noodle.  Don't forget to taste your food and adjust to your liking.  If you prefer your Pad Thai to be more saucy I recommend increasing the recipe by a half.

Pad Thai Sauce:

1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of tamarind pulp
1/4 cup of fish sauce
2 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/4-1/2 of water (thick or saucy your choice)

1.  In a pot combine the sugar, water, and tamarind on low heat.  Use a spoon to help break down the tamarind.
2.  Once the tamarind has broke down add the fish sauce and soy sauce.  Let the sauce come to a boil and remove from stove.
3.  Strain the sauce so it will be smooth and you won't be eating any of the seeds.
4.  Sauce is ready for you to make Pad Thai.
5.  Enjoy.

Che Troi Nuoc - Glutinous Rice Ball Dessert

Che Troi Nuoc, literally translated as dessert floating in water.  Everybody in my family loves this dessert.  My mom and dad are expert mochi baller.  When I was little, they use to make it together but now my sister-in-law and I have taken over that duty.  Our balling technique is no where close to my parents.  While theirs are perfectly round and uniform, ours are lumpy at times and all different sizes.  Hopefully practice will make perfect!

This dessert is made by balling glutinous rice dough with a mung beans filling.  The glutinous rice ball is then serve in a bath of ginger syrup.  If you have ever eaten this dessert you will know there are two type of rice balls.  The bigger ones are usually filled with mung beans and the smaller ones is just plain glutinous rice dough.  My favorite is definitely the smaller balls because it soaks up the ginger syrup better than the bigger one.  What I love about this Che is the savory aspect of it.  While the ginger syrup is sweet the filling is actually salty.  The mung beans is seasoned with salt, ground pepper, and pig's fat.  So when you cut into a filled rice ball you will taste both sweet and salt.

While I have made this Che a few times by myself, I'm much more comfortable making it with my family.  There are a lot of steps that is difficult to explain especially the making of the dough and the balling technique.  For that reason I have found a YouTube video that explain those technique very well and it would be a good reference than my instruction.  I will provide the recipe for making the mung bean filling, the ginger syrup, and coconut sauce.  Good luck and happy cooking!

Ingredients:

1 16 oz bag of glutinous rice flour
1/2 12 oz bag of split mung beans
1 can of coconut milk
tapioca flour
ginger (about a knob
water
2 stalks of green onions minced
salt
ground pepper
vegetable oil
water

Mung Bean Filling:

1.  If possible soak the mung beans in water for 2-3 hours.  This will help the bean soften and it will be easier to cook.  You'll want to wash the beans a couple time before soaking to get rid of the yellow coloring.
2.  Cooking the mung beans is very similar to cooking rice on the stove top.  In a pot, you'll want to add enough water to cover the beans and about 1 teaspoon of salt and then cook it on very low heat.  Let the beans soften more and expand.  If most of the water has evaporated before the mung bean has soften and expand just add little bit more hot water to the pot and let it continue to cook.
3.  Once the beans has soften enough, take a soup spoon and mash the beans into a smooth dough.  At this point you will want add the green onions, about 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and the ground pepper (about 1 teaspoon) to the mung beans.  Continue to mash and mix everything together into a smooth dough.  Add more salt if needed.
4.  Let the mung bean mixture cool and then you can knead it into small ball.  You can refer to the video.

Ginger Syrup:  

Not all ginger syrup is the same, it really depends on personal preference.  Some people prefer it to be more subtle like a liquid then a thicker syrup.  If you it want it to be a like syrup you'll want to use less water and more sugar.  If you want more of a subtle and light taste you'll want to use more water.  I prefer more of a syrup.

1.  Dissolved 2 cups of sugar with 6 cups of water in a pot on low heat.  Add about 1-2 knob of ginger sliced.

Coconut Sauce:

1.  Heat up a can of coconut milk on the stove.  Taste it with a pinch of salt.  Sprinkle some tapioca flour into the coconut milk to help thicken it and stir well.

Bun Bo Hue Pt. 2

It's been four years since I posted my recipe for Bun Bo Hue, and I lost count on how many times I have made it again after that day.  Bun Bo Hue is my favorite Vietnamese soup, my guilty pleasure.  I love everything about it; the broth, the meat, the vegetables, and most of all the spiciness!

One day as I was reviewing my blog and looking through old recipes, I came across the one for Bun Bo Hue.  As I was reading through it I realized I don't do some of these steps anymore or I do this step differently now.  I definitely need to update this post!  Instead of re-writing the whole recipe I will just make a new post on it.  Hope these tips will help all the Bun Bo Hue lover out there in the kitchen!  A lot of these tips can be applied to other recipes as well.   Happy cooking!

1.  Beef Bones vs. Pork Bones
Before I only use beef bones when making Bun Bo Hue.  I guess because it is a beef soup we all assume we can only use beef bones.  But to be honest pork bones produce a better broth, and you can definitely get by making a pot without using zero beef bones.  I have been doing this for the last couple years and nobody can tell the different.  People actually think my broth have gotten better over the years.  The downside of pork bones is you'll need to use more of it and it cooks a lot faster than beef bones.  For that reason, if you leave pork bones in the pot for too long it will fall a part and your broth will not be as clear.  You can mix and match pork neck bones and pork hocks to make the broth.  Just remember you'll want to remove it from the broth before they fall apart.

2.  Fermented Shrimp Paste (Mam Ruoc)
Ok this was the most time consuming step for this recipe.  You have to constantly add water to mam ruoc, mix it up and then only use the liquid at the top.  I thought this was the only way to use mam ruoc and produce a clear broth.  So glad I got rid of this step.  Now I just sauteed the mam ruoc together with the minced garlic and lemongrass.

3.  Rare Beef

Who said you can only eat thit tai (rare sliced beef) with only Pho?  Ridiculous!  Thit tai is my favorite meat with pho and my family always have it with Bun Bo Hue as well.  People use to think it was strange that I have it with my Bun Bo Hue.  Oh well I like thit tai and I will have it whenever I want!

4.  Annatto Seeds
Cooking annato seeds in oil produce an orange color to give the broth that unique orange/red color. Annato seeds is a pain to cook up because it pops and the oil splashes on stove top, shirts, counter, skin, and etc.  Sometimes it will stain your counter.  I never really liked this step.  Instead of using annatto seed, I just cook paprika in oil.  I like using paprika from the American groceries store because it produce more of red color than the orange color.  Cook the paprika in oil on low heat will produce a beautiful color for your Bun Bo Hue Broth without splashes.

5.  Chili Powder

For spiciness I relied a lot of fresh chili or dried whole chili. It took a lot to make the broth spicy and I felt like I was wasting a lot of chili.  I suggest search for a really spicy chili powder, I recommend using Thai or Indian chili powder.  Add the chili powder the same time as you are cooking the paprika in oil.

6.  Lemongrass

Before I used pre-minced lemongrass in a container in the frozen section.  It was convenient to use but it definitley lacked a lot of lemongrass flavor and aroma.  Now I take the extra step and minced and grind my lemongrass in a food processor.  I suggest doing a lot at once and then storing it in the freezer for later use.

7.  Salt vs. Fish Sauce
This took me a couple years to realize but salt is better for cooking broth.  It takes a lot of fish sauce to flavor a pot of broth, and with the cost of fish sauce lately that's just a total waste.  When you use too much fish sauce in your broth not only does it alter the color but it will alter the taste of your broth.  Fish sauce is pungent and will mask the natural flavor that the bones and vegetables give off for your soup.  Now I will only taste my broth with salt until the right amount of saltiness is produce, this way you can still taste the natural sweetness from your ingredients.  You only want to add fish sauce once you are done cooking or at the very end if needed.  Remember to add the salt gradually and always taste your broth.  You may not taste the salt right away and your first instinct is to add more salt; do not add additional salt right away.  Once you add salt to the broth give it time to marry with your broth and then re-taste.  You can fix bland food but once you make something salty it's a lot harder to fix.

Ingredients:
pork neck bones/pork hock/beef bones (4-5 lbs would be plenty but the more bones the better the broth)
2 beef shank
sliced rare beef (opitonal)
Vietnamese ham (optional cha lua/cha hue)
lemongrass (8-10 stalks the more the better)
2-3 knob of ginger
2 yellow onion
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon of of fresh Thai chili
1 tablespoon of minced lemongrass
chili powder (there are many different kind some more spicy than others)
paprika
shrimp paste(mam ruoc)
whole pineapple (peeled)
cooking oil
salt
black pepper
mushroom seasoning
rock sugar
fish sauce

1. Par boil the all the bones and then rinse thoroughly with cool water.  If you are using pork hock I would recommend par boiling at least twice and use a little bit of vinegar to get rid of smell.
3. Place clean bones in an 8-10 qt. pot and fill with water.
4. Let pot simmer on low-medium heat.  Remove any scum.
5. Char ginger roots and onion (by broiling).  Remove charred skin and add to pot.
6. Add lemongrass stalk to pot.
7. Now you'll want to season your broth with 1/4 cup of salt, 3 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning, rock sugar the size of a knob of ginger, and 1 tablespoon of black pepper.  Let everything marry for about 1 hours.  
8.  Make sure you are checking on the bones/pork hocks.  Pork bones cook fast and you'll want to remove it before it falls apart.  I don't like my pork hock too tender I actually like it chewy.  It's up to you when you feel it's ready to your liking.
9.  Par boil the beef shank and rinse with cool water.  Add to the pot.  You can add more salt if needed but remember you still have the shrimp paste (mam ruoc).
10.  Add the pineapple.  Squeeze some of the juice out and then put the whole thing in the pot.
11.  Remove the shank when ready.
12. Heat up two tablespoon of vegetable oil on low heat.  Add about 4 tablespoon of paprika and chili powder to your liking.  Constantly stir so it doesn't burn.  Add to the pot.
13.  Heat two tablespoon of vegetable oil on low heat.  Add the minced garlic, minced lemongrass, and shallot.  Cook until fragrance and then add the fresh chili, and 4 tablespoon of shrimp paste.  Cook everything with the oil for a few minutes and then add to the pot.
14.  Do last minute seasoning.  At this point add fish sauce if needed or you can just add fish sauce to your bowl.  Turn heat down to the lowest setting and let it sit until you are ready to eat.
15.  Cook noodles, sliced shank, prepare ham, sliced rare beef, and prepare garnish.
16.  Enjoy!