The Maltese Bacon

Turkish Olive, Tomato and Hazelnut Salad

I went over to my friend Deniz' place last night for a summer dinner party. Great food, conversation, wine and raki. Yes, the talk turned to the recession a bit, and the different paths people's plans were taking as a result of it, but it was lighthearted. After all, it was beautiful and warm and we were sitting around a kitchen eating good food. Yes, summer in the city was finally here!

Deniz made this unbelievable salad of tomatoes, olives, hazelnuts, mint and parsley. It was so good, so fresh and tangy, I was tempted to drink up the remaining pomegranate dressing. The rest of the feast was terrific as well - feta and dill zucchini fritters and stuffed zucchini with beef, onions and tomato. Aged gouda and bread. And a bang up Indian style ice cream sundae courtesy of Hrishi - ice cream, Alphonso mango puree, chopped almonds, drizzled with heavy cream.

Turkish Tomato, Olive and Hazelnut Salad (as eyeballed from me in Deniz' kitchen)
 4-5 cups of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
 1 cup of pitted and chopped black olives
 1 cup chopped roughly chopped hazelnuts
 1 tablespoon chopped mint
 2 seeded and minced jalapenos
 1 cup chopped parsley salt and pepper to taste
 pomegranate syrup and olive oil to taste (the syrup can be found at
  any Turkish or Middle Eastern grocery store

1. Assemble all the vegetables and herbs. Drizzle with oil and pomegranate syrup. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss.

Spicy Tofu Kimchee Stew (Faux Soondubu Jjigae)

It was a rainy Sunday, overcast and gloomy. One could limp along the day, like through a hazy dream, or one could give a shock, of red, and heat, and get the frick going. So, I chose the latter, and it involved Korean spicy tofu stew. It's hard to describe what I'm craving for when I get the urge for this dish. It's mostly the double whammy of the hot heat. Fire elements of the bubbling chili broth usually served in a black iron pot that conjures a cauldron. Earth elements in the mushrooms and tofu. And the unmistakable smell and taste of the ocean from the seafood and kelp. It courses through the veins like a vampire's blood meal to make you right with the world.

I still hadn't gotten around to buying that bag of dried Korean anchovies that serves as the base for the broth. Could I make do with those anchovies packed in oil that I use for pasta? It turns out I could, only I used a good deal less than the dried because the flavor of the oil packed ones is so concentrated. And I didn't have kelp strips, so I used dried seaweed (wakame). Also, I didn't have the beef and seafood either so I just used chicken broth. It was a breeze and came together nicely.

 

Spicy Tofu Kimchee Stew (Faux Soondubu Jjigae)
inspired by Maangchi's real Soondubu Jjigae

2 anchovies packed in oil
2 cups chicken broth
3 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons Korean hot pepper flakes (if you like things super mild, start with 1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup dried seaweed (wakame) or kelp
1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped kimchee
5 dried shiitake mushrooms
one small onion chopped
five garlic cloves minced
2 scallions (sliced, the Korean way, or minced, my habit)
1 package of silken tofu (or 2 tubes of soon du bu) Slice the tofu into small cubes. With 1/4 of the tofu, crush it in your hands into the broth when it is time to add.
sesame oil
2 eggs (or maybe more if you are eating with more than 2 people)

1. Pour broth and water into pot and turn heat to high. Put in anchovies, onion, garlic, mushrooms and seaweed. Boil for 15 minutes.

2. Lower heat to light simmer. Take out mushroom if you can be bothered and slice. Add back in.

3. Add pepper flakes, fish sauce, kimchee and tofu.

4. 10 minutes later add eggs and scallion. I like to stir around the egg a bit, so that the white is distributed and leave the yolks intact, so that each eater can get a yolk in their bowl.  Drizzle with sesame oil.

5. A minute later, serve into large bowls and eat with rice.

Corn and Tomato Omelette

A Vietnamese omelette is eaten during the day or in the evening. It's great in a pinch, as a supplement to a family style meal of rice and other dishes. Say you have one more person dropping in for lunch and need a little something more fast, this omelette is your answer. It's not traditionally made with tomatoes or corn, but I like it like this. And in case you're wondering fish sauce and eggs is the jam, rivalling duck fat and eggs.

Vietnamese Omelette My Way
 3 eggs
 1 small tomato chopped
 1 tablespoon corn kernels, optional  (not much more than this or it will be too sweet)
 one scallion, green and white part separated. white part chopped and green part either chopped or sliced
 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce (or to taste)
 black pepper to taste
 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
 thin pat of butter

 1. Heat small pan (b/w 6-8 inches) with oil to medium heat.
 2. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add the fish sauce, green part of the scallion and black pepper. Whisk until mixed well.
3.Add the white part of the scallion, the tomato and the corn to the pan. Stir around until tomato softens, maybe 2 minutes. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan.
4.Pour the egg mixture evenly into the pan. After about one minute, turn down heat slightly, and flip the omelette carefully. (You can do this by sliding omelette on a plate. If you cannot do this simply put a lid on the omelette for a minute to cook and set.) After another minute the omelette should be set. Carefully slide it onto a plate, open faced. Spread a pat of butter on omelette. Slice the omelette into 1/6th's, like a pizza.

Eating in Brooklyn: Lan Zhou Hand Pull Noodles

It's amazing that you can still eat handmade noodles for $6. But that's the Chinatown Paradox isn't it? As the zig zag of inflation and deflation confuse food costs all across the board, Chinatown prices manage to stay compelling. I am referring to the noodles at the Sunset Park branch of Lan Zhou Hand Pull Noodles, a couple blocks off the N stop at 8th Avenue and 62nd St.

The Mixed Beef Noodles comes with tripe, gelatinous cuts, and sliced beef. The broth was not as tasty as I would have liked, but there are plenty of condiments to spruce it up. The Duck Noodle Soup broth was more flavorful. They do not skimp on the fresh noodles, and for once I had trouble finishing them. Afterward, we went to the new giant supermarket one block southwest of the train stop. The condiments section alone is to die for, not to mention the wide variety of fresh vegetables.

 Lan Zhou Hand Pull Noodles
 5924 8th Ave
 Brooklyn, NY 11220
 (718) 492-7568‎
 For photos of the noodles at Lan Zhou click here.

 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles (This is a Manhattan location of hand pulled noodles, but I'm not sure if it is the same owner as the one I went to above.)
144 E. Broadway (b/w East Broadway & Pike St.)
New York, NY 10002
(212)566-6933

Pan Fried Salt and Pepper Shrimp

The only time I remember eating salt and pepper shrimp growing up was during Vietnamese wedding receptions, invariably held at Chinese banquet halls. I never paid them too much attention as they had to compete with the more exciting prospects of crunchy jellyfish salad, Peking duck and steamed carp.They would appear heads and shells on, looming larger than life.  (They reminded me of crayfish, who were my sworn enemies - residual scars left over from falling into a river full of them when I was young. They didn't bite me or nothin', but I couldn't shake the thought that they had been crawling all over me.)

In New York, salt and pepper shrimp is widely available at Vietnamese restaurants, which are mostly owned by ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese. You can call it Vietnamese shrimp, but I believe it's a dish that has been co-opted, thanks to those wedding banquets. ( Why are Vietnamese wedding receptions often held at Chinese restaurants? Not sure of the exact origins of this tradition, but the Chinese did rule over Vietnam for over 1000 years and their banquet food is seen as more formal. Also, the Vietnamese don't really have a lot of big restaurants appropriate for a wedding reception, which they need because there is often hundreds of people invited.)

I made these salt and pepper shrimp, without their heads on, as you can see. It would be good with the shells on, but I wasn't in the mood. I have simply fried it in a pan with a minimum of fuss, and they were terrific. If you want to make it more 'banquet style', fry the shrimp with some scallions, chili and shallot as instructed here.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp (Tom Rang Muoi)
 1/2 pound of shrimp (peeled and deveined is optional. If you want to keep the shell on you can snip the back with scissors to devein it if you want to get fussy)
 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup of corn oil (or a combo of oil and butter)
salt
pepper

Salt the shrimp and let sit for a few minutes. (How much salt? A little more than 'lightly' salted)  Then rinse under cold water. This plumps up the shrimp and freshens them up. Now lightly salt the shrimp. Add freshly grated black pepper - as much as you can handle. Dip the shrimp in cornstarch. In a smallish saute pan (or wok), heat the oil to very hot, but not smoking. Spread the shrimp in the pan evenly. Hopefully they will all fit. After a minute or so, turn them on the other side. After another minute or two when they have turned pink, take them out of the pan. Squeeze some lime on and eat. 

Beef Rice Porridge for the Soul

Last week, when I had a cold that rendered me nearly useless, I made some Cháo, or Vietnamese congee or porridge. Cháo is a given when a Vietnamese kid gets sick. Another given is getting your back scraped with a spoon and some Tiger Balm until it turns scarlet red (the sight would make Child Protection Services shiver and open a whole debate about cultural relativism). But that Tiger Balm always felt great, making me sweat and giving off a tingly sensation. Then, I would be presented with a piping hot bowl of cháo to heat me up even more. After eating, I would invariably feel cool, calm and refreshed.

So I made some cháo for myself, without Mommy (after making a couple phone calls to friends asking them to feel sorry for me) and zoned out to the TV. Although, whatever palliative effects I was getting from the soup were offset by the stress in watching 24.

Cháo Bo (Beef Porridge)

In an ideal world, you would have tons of chicken broth lying around to make cháo, but if you don't it's okay (I never do). You can make up for the lack of chicken broth with fish sauce and meat drippings. 

1/8 to 1/4 pound ground beef (I like my cháo with very little meat. I've eaten it with ground lamb too which is also good, if you like a gamey flavor. If you do use lamb, use less of the meat drippings in the stock)
1 clove garlic, lightly mashed but intact
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 tablespoon minced ginger
7 cups chicken broth (or combo of chicken broth and water, you should have at least two cups of chicken broth on hand.)
fishsauce to taste ( if you have only 2 cups of chicken broth I would use almost 2 Tablespoons fish sauce)
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
black pepper
salt
1 chopped scallion (separate the white and green parts- you will use them at different times)
cilantro for garnish
lime (optional)

 1. Rinse the rice a few times in cold water to wash out some of the starch.
2. Put the rice in a pot along with the broth/water, the ginger, fish sauce and white part of the scallion. Bring to a boil and then lower to a mild simmer. Stir the rice. Leave on simmer for 1 hour, partially covered. Stir occasionally.
3. While the rice is boiling, heat up the sesame oil in a pan. Add the garlic clove and stir around so that it flavors all the oil. Add the meat, making sure to break up the meat into a mince. Salt and pepper the meat. Cook the meat to a medium rare. (The meat will cook more in the broth.) Throw out the garlic clove.
4. Take the drippings from the pan and pour up to 2 Tablespoons of it into the pot of boiling rice. Set the meat aside. Taste the rice soup a few minutes after you have added the meat drippings and see if you need to add more fish sauce. Add some black pepper too.
5. When the rice is just about finished boiling, pour the meat in. Serve in bowls with plenty of chopped green scallion parts, cilantro and black pepper. Squeeze with a drop of lime if you want. Serves 3.

Spicy, Sour and Sweet: Salmon, Tamarind and Pineapple Soup

    One of my favorite parts of everyday Vietnamese food is the giant communal bowl of soup that adorns each meal. You can eat some soup during any part of the meal, which I tend to do because I like it so much. But usually you spoon some in at the end of the meal, to clean your palate, quench your thirst and sweep away the remaining grains of rice in your bowl. (I am always telling my mother she needs to drink more water, but she thinks all she needs is a little soup for hydration.)

    And the Vietnamese make these soups, or canh, with the simplest of ingredients. Just a few tablespoons of meat or dried shrimp, a little fish sauce, a vegetable, a lot of water and some fresh herbs are all you need to make endless variations of it. The soup serves as cheap and tasty way to encourage more rice-eating to a population which typically gets 3/4 of its calories from rice alone.

But those flashy southerners in Saigon like to make more complicated soups, because they can, with all that produce at their disposal. Take for example, Canh Chua Ca, a sour fish soup which incorporates fish, tomato, pineapple, bean sprouts, herbs,a celery-like vegetable, taro, sugar and spice.  It's "the abundance of the south in a bowl," Andrea Nguyen said in the Wall Street Journal. 

(I did not realize until recently that Southern Vietnamese food is seen as more bombastic and Northern food is considered  "plain". My mom cooks both Northern and Southern food, and I was never aware of which dishes were Northern and which were Southern so I never realized the difference. Like many families, my mother's was forced to move south to Saigon, when the communists took over Hanoi.)

Salmon, Tamarind and Pineapple Soup (Canh Ca Chua) 

I made my own version with the vegetables I had on hand in the fridge.

Serves 4 with rice and as part of a meal with other dishes

1/2 pound salmon skinned and cut into 2 inch chunks (I skinned the fish after I cooked it because I was using a salmon steak. Catfish is traditionally used but any meaty white fish like bass will also do. Shrimp can be used as well, but that takes only 2 minutes to be cooked.)
3 medium-small sized tomatoes (if you are feeling fussy, you can peel them)
1/2 of a medium sized carrot, sliced thin or minced (1 celery rib is usually used)
1 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup napa cabbage sliced (bean sprouts are usually used)
4 1/2 cups water
3/4 teaspoon tamarind paste
1 dried red pepper, or 1-3 chopped and seeded bird eye chilies
3/4 cup pineapple cut into triangle shaped pieces about 1 1/2 inches long
1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons of fish sauce (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sugar ( I like mine lightly sweet but you may want to add a bit more)
1 tablespoon lemongrass chopped fine (very optional)
chopped cilantro or dill for garnish
chopped scallion for garnish
(if you can find rau ram, you should add some of this herb on top)
black pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in soup pot on medium heat. Saute onion, carrot (or celery), garlic and tomato for a few minutes. Add water, sugar, fish sauce, chili pepper, tamarind paste and salt. Bring to a mellow boil. Taste and add more salt or fish sauce. Add cabbage. One minute later add fish and pineapple. Cook for 5 minutes. Add some black pepper. Garnish with plenty of chopped scallion and cilantro.

The Two Potato Meal Involves Oven Roasted French Fries

Apparently, the potato was looked at with suspicion in England until the government encouraged its cultivation after the Revolutionary War food shortages. In Northern Europe, it used to be grown in gardens as an exotic plant.

Once cultivation became widespread in Europe, the threat of famine decreased, and there was a population boom:

The most dramatic example of the potato's potential to alter population patterns occurred in Ireland, where the potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight million between 1780 and 1841 — this, without any significant expansion of industry or reform of agricultural techniques beyond the widespread cultivation of the potato.

Though Irish landholding practices were primitive in comparison with those of England, the potato's high yields allowed even the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely any investment or hard labor. Even children could easily plant, harvest and cook potatoes, which of course required no threshing, curing or grinding. The abundance provided by potatoes greatly decreased infant mortality and encouraged early marriage. Accounts of Irish society recorded by contemporary visitors paint the picture of a people as remarkable for their health as for their lack of sophistication at the dinner table, where potatoes typically supplied appetizer, dinner and dessert. - from History Magazine

Oven Roasted French Fries
adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Preheat oven to 450. Peel 2 russet potatoes (or don't peel if they have a nice skin). Slice lengthwise, roughly  into 1/2 inch width cuts. Toss with olive oil and salt. Place on a lightly greased pan. Roast for about 20 minutes, flipping the pieces over once or twice during cooking so that they brown evenly. Take out and add more salt and pepper. Eat. Try and be productive after this.

Chinese Sausage with Sticky Rice and Ginger Scallion Oil

 
If I could eat Chinese sausage every morning with a bowl of sticky rice, I would. Whenever I go home to see my parents my mom is always sweet enough to make some for breakfast. I started making it recently, and am finding it difficult to want to make anything else. It had taken me so long to make it because I was always so blocked with the idea of steaming the darn sticky rice. (But I don't have a steamer, and and why does rice need to be steamed and i just can't freakin' deal. Where are my tortillas? )

Luckily, I meditated for a long time and some tension cleared up and my ego suppressed to levels low enough so that I was finally able to proceed with the sticky rice. I went looking for a steamer a couple times but didn't find one. Then I remembered Adela using a regular old plate to steam that lovely carp one night. This is why Adela is a doctor who can perform deliveries involving human beings and I still can't tie my shoes properly. So here we are. One makeshift steamer:

Watching raw rice being steamed into perfect grains is like magic. While the rice is steaming, cut your Chinese sausage. Cut it very thin, on the diagonal, and saute in a little oil. Saute some minced rehydrated shitake as well. This is the type of Chinese sausage I like:

It says "lap xuong tuoi" and is from Westminster, CA which is also known as Little Saigon.  According to my mom, Vietnamese style Chinese sausage has more wine and less fat. There are a million sausage brands out there and some of them are terrible. If the sausage feels as hard as a rock, that is probably how it will digest. E-mail me for directions on how to find this particular brand.

Top the rice with the sausage and the shitake mushrooms. Eat with ginger scallion oil and a little Maggi seasoning.

Ginger Scallion Oil adapted from Francis Lam

Make a batch and have for the rest of the week to add lots of flavor to stir fries or plain rice. This stuff is amazing.

1/4 cup corn or peanut oil
maybe 3/4 Tablespoon of ginger
3 scallions loosely chopped
salt

In a food processor, grind the ginger and scallion. Put in a tall bowl or cup. Add healthy pinches of salt. (It should be enough to salt the 1/4 cup of oil.) Heat oil until just smoking. Pour oil over ginger scallion. Be careful, because it will smoke and sputter when you pour it.

Sticky Rice

With sticky rice, soak 1-2 cups of rice overnight (for at least for 2 hours) in cold water. Drain and rinse it. Create a makeshift steamer by balancing a plate on a bowl in a large deep pan/stock pot.Fill the pan with water up to about 2/3 the way of the bowl or as high as you can. Put the rice on the plate. Bring the water to a boil and put the lid on. Steam on a low simmer for 20 minutes. During that time stir a few times to make sure the rice cooks evenly.

Winks and Shows Her Thigh at the Chicken Police

 

Chicken has been abused in so many creative ways in this freewheeling country of ours. When I see the piles of dry chicken breasts sitting in deli cases, hard as rocks and slathered with barbecue or teriyaki sauce to conceal their crimes, I get depressed. And every serious food lover knows that ordering chicken in an American/Euro restaurant is just silly because it will surely be the most innocuous dish. I have made my own contributions to chicken mediocrity, having made countless Trader Joe's frozen chicken breasts in college.

But a well cooked chicken, at the right moment, is something else entirely. So simple, honest and good. A chicken rubbed with lemon and roasted just so on a lazy Sunday evening warms me cynical heart. And chicken steamed to juicy succulence and dipped in a chili ginger sauce - well, my cravings for that never go away for very long. Then there is Vietnamese roast chicken.  Fish sauce, sugar and garlic all conspire to make a crispy skin even more savory and desirable. The chicken drippings are stirred into the rice (this is called Saigon schmaltz rice).

Ga Ro Ti (serves 2 with vegetables and rice)
(adapted from Sunday Nite Dinner)

• 1 pound chicken thighs (about 4 chicken thighs)
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• lots of ground black pepper- this is key
• 1  tablespoon soy sauce
• 1  tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 1/2  tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

1. Trim excess skin and visible fat from chicken thighs using kitchen shears; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon of the oil, the sugar, pepper, soy sauce and fish saucel until well combined. Stir in garlic. Add the chicken thighs and evenly distribute the marinade between the thighs. For extra flavor, stuff a little garlic and marinade under the skin. Cover and marinate for 12 to 24 hours in the fridge. (You can marinate for as little as 20 minutes with good results.)
3. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350°F. Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick, oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken to the skillet skin side down, reduce heat to medium and fry until the skin is deep golden brown, about 6 - 8 minutes. Flip chicken and brown other side for 2-3 minutes; set chicken aside. Don't overcrowd chicken during browning; work in batches if necessary.
4. Drain rendered fat from pan and remove any burnt garlic and set aside to be used for rice; leaving a thin film of oil in the skillet. Return chicken to skillet, skin side up and place into oven. Roast chicken for 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the thighs. To check for doneness, poke the chicken with a knife; the juices should run clear (bone-in thighs 170°F internal temp, boneless thighs 165°F internal temp). Remove chicken from skillet and serve with rice that has some of the chicken fat mixed in.