Canh Chua Ca - Vietnamese Sour Soup with Salmon

Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sour Soup with Fish)
This is one of my favorite traditional Vietnamese soup. It is loaded with tasty vegetables and fresh herbs. In Vietnam people usually use catfish in this soup, but I like to use either salmon or shrimp.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
Rock Sugar, or granulated sugar
Fish sauce
2 stalks of lemongrass (Bruised and cut into 3 part length wise)
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp minced shallot
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Medium size salmon filet or 2 small salmon steak
3 Celery stalks (peeled and cut 1 inch thick on a bias)
3 Roma tomatoes (cut into wedges)
2 Cups of fresh or canned pineapple (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb Okra
1 Medium size king oyster mushroom (peeled and cut 1 inch thick on a bias) - Optional
2 stalks of taro stem (peeled and cut 1 inch thick on a bias)
1 lb Bean sprout
1 Cup ngo om (coarsely chopped)- Ngo om is rice paddy herb
1/2 Cup ngo gai (coarsely chopped)- Ngo gai is sawtooth herb
2 Thai chili (think
3 Tbsp fried shallots - optional

DIRECTIONS

1. In a frying pan add 2 tablespoon of oil and fry salmon on medium-low heat until fish is completely cooked. Set fish aside.
2. In a stock pot heat up a tablespoon of cooking oil on low heat. Add minced garlic, shallot, tamarind paste, and lemongrass. Sautee everything for a couple of minutes until garlic and the shallot is slightly brown. 
3. Pour 2 quarts of water into the stock pot, add the pineapple, and bring stock to a boil.
4. Add tomato, taro stem, celery, oyster mushroom, and okra. Cook soup for 5-6 minutes or until vegetable are slightly soften.
5. Add fish sauce, sugar, and cooked salmon. Continue to cook soup for an additional 5 minutes, remove from heat then add bean sprout. 
6. Before serving top soup off with ngo om, ngo gai, fried shallots, and thai chili.

Oven Baked Chicken Drumstick

Ingredients

6 Chicken drumsticks (cleaned and patted dry)

10 cloves of garlic ( roughly chopped)

3 Shallot (roughly chopped)

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1/2 Soy sauce

2 Tablespoon oyster sauce

3 Tablespoon sesame oil

Direction

1 - In a bowl combine garlic, shallot, brown sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. Stir to mix all ingredients.

2 - Place chicken in a baking dish, then pour the soy mixture over the drumstick. Cover baking dish with foil and let marinate in the refrigerator over night or atleast 6-8 hours before baking.

3 - Preheat over to 350 degree farenheit.

4 - Remove marinated chicken from fridge and place in oven with foil on, then bake for 1 hr.

5 -  Serve with rice and vegetable.

Sup Duoi Bo - Oxtail And Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2lbs Oxtail par boiled (rinsed with cold water, patted dry)

2 Medium carrot ( peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces)

3 Potatoes ( peeled, quartered)

1/2 a head of cabbage ( cut into 1 inch pieces )

2 Cup celery ( cut on an angle, about 1 inch thick)

1 Can of tomato paste

3 Bay leaves

2 Can of beef broth

salt to taste

Method

In a large pot add oxtail, carrot, potatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, and beef broth.

Then add enough water to cover all ingredients, and bring to a boiled. Once soup start boiling add cabbage, celery and salt to taste. Reduce heat to low, cover lid and let soup simmer for 1 hour.

Goi Xoai - Mango Salad

Ingredients

2 Medium green unripe mango
1 Small red onion
1 Cucumber
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 Cup coarsely chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce

Directions
1 - Peel and julienne mango, and cucumber
2 - Thinly slice red onion
3 - In a bowl combine, mango, cucumber, red onion, and cilantro. Then add sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce  mix ingredients until everything is evenly distributed.
4 - Serve mango salad as is or top salad with thinly sliced cooked pork belly, shrimp, roasted peanut, and dried shallot.

Chuoi Chien - Vietnamese Fried Banana

This is another great Vietnamese dessert,

though it is not one of my favorite, but I do

occasionally have serious craving for them.

Especially when they are freshly made.

I normally dipped them in sweetened

coconut milk for extra yumm or sometime

I would use it to make a delicious

Fried banana split sundae with extra whipped

cream and chocolate syrup.

Ingredients

2 LBS riped banana - chuoi xiem (flattened)

1 Package tempura batter mix - bot chuoi chien

1 Can coconut milk

3 Tbsp sugar

Salt

Frying oil

Dipping Sauce

3 Tbsp toasted sesame seed

Sugar

Salt

Coconut milk

Method

1 - Peeled and flatten banana with a roller, leaving about 1/4 inch thick.

2 - Prepare batter as instructed on package.

                   - In a large bowl combine flour, water, then mix ingredients until batter is smooth.

                     add a pinch of salt, 3 tbsp sugar, and 4 tbsp coconut milk.
3 - Bring oil to temperature in a wok or cast iron pan. To test oil readiness by dropping a small droplet of
     batter into the oil, when the fried batter rises to the top, the oil is ready for us.
4 - Dredge flattened banana in batter one at a time, slowly dip in oil and fry until golden brown.
5 - Place fried banana on paper towel to absorb excess oil, serve immediately.
6 - Add remaining coconut milk into a sauce pan, sugar to taste and a small pinch of salt.
7 - On slow heat bring coconut milk to a simmer, stir occasionally. Sprinkle in sesame seed before serving.

Banh Khoai Mi - Vietnamese Cassava Cake

This is my fave. I remember my grandma used to make this for me when I was a little kid. I would sit next to her and watch her hand grated the yuca and the coconut, squeeze out the excess moisture from the yuca, and extracted the coconut milk. It was delightful to watch her make everything using fresh ingredients and making it from scratch.

I am ashame to say that I cannot do what she does.

I do not have the patience to hand grate and extract fresh coconut milk. I'd like to take shortcuts when I can and only if the end results aren't that bad.

Ingredients

2 LBs frozen khoai Mi (grated)
1 Can coconut milk
1 Can sweetened condensed milk
2 Egg yolks
Pinch of salt

Method

1 - Preheat oven to 350 F.
2 - Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, stir to combine.
3 - Grease round baking pan butter (or line pan with banana leaves)
4 - Pour mixture into pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hour until toothpick comes out clean
5 - Place cake under broiler for a few minutes to toast the top layer slightly.

Roasted Spare Ribs

So I got some really nice looking pork spare ribs at the market the other day. I was going to make soup with the ribs, but decided to marinade them and oven roast them instead. I marinaded the ribs for 24 hours and roasted for 3 hours. It did take a while before I could get my hands on them, but it was so worth it. The ribs were delicious. The meat was so soft that it just falls of the bone, and the sauce that coated the ribs were finger licking good. This marinade can be used for either spare ribs or beef spare ribs.

Ingredients

2 lbs spare ribs

2 Tbsp grated garlic

2 Tbsp grated ginger

1/4 Cup hoisen sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp rice vinegar

Method

In a bowl combine all ingredents. Mix it well with a spoon then add mixture into a ziplock bag.

Add spare ribs into the ziplock bag, secure the bag and shake the ribs around so that every piece is coated with the sauce.

Place bag in a container and refrigerate for atleast 5 hours to 24 hours.

Ribs should be at room temperature before cooking.

Remove ribs from refrigerator, let sit for 30 minutes. In the mean time preheat oven to 325 degree.

After 30 minutes place ribs on an oven safe baking dish or pan. Cover with aluminum foil and roast for 2 1/2 hours, then remove foil and roast for an extra 30 minutes uncovered.

Serve while hot.