Quick Phở Gà (Chicken Pho)

4 quarts chicken broth or stock
1 teaspoon ground cardamon
2 star anise
1 medium onion sliced thin
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts  (2-3)
1 bunch scallions, green ends 1/4 inch slice
7 oz  of Pánh Phở (Phở rice noodles)
1 sliced Jalapeño or Serrano chili
1 cup bean sprouts

Serves 4-6
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Step One:

Pour the chicken stock into a  6 quart pan, then mix in the cardamon. Add the star anise, and bring the stock to a boil. Add in onions, and reduce to a simmer. Lid the pot cook for 10 minutes until the onions are translucent.









Step Two:

Thinly shred the chicken breasts. Employing a food processors slicing blade makes easy work of this task.   Add the chicken to the stock and bring the stock to a boil.







Step Three:

Reduce to a simmer and after 5 minutes you may notice fat from the chicken rising to the top of the broth and clouding the soup. Employ a large spoon to remove the layer of fat. If you don't need to serve this immediately, then you can also refrigerate the soup and use a spoon and remove the fat solids that will rise to the top.  After the soup is clarified, add the green parts of the scallions.  Simmer for 20 minutes more and stir occasionally.


Step Four:

While the soup is simmering prepare the rice noodles in accordance with the instructions on the pack.  Once prepared place the noodles int he bows you intend to serve the soup.






Step Five:

Place the chili, mint and bean spouts on a plate and place the picked scallion in a bowl.  On the table also have sriracha, fish sauce, and hoisin sauce as condiments.  Ladle the soup over the noodles, garnish and enjoy.

Steamed Duck Dumplings

2 cups water

6oz duck breast finely diced

1/3 cup onion or spring onion finely diced

2 garlic clove, pressed

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

9 wonton wrappers

Step One:  

Place a vegetable steamer in to a 4-6 quart pot.  Add two cups of water, and bring the water to boil. Reduce to a simmer ,and lid the pot.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add the duck and onions to the skillet. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, soy sauce, and pepper flakes.  Continue heating while stirring for 2 minutes. 

 Step Two:

Lay the wrappers on a cutting board and place 1/2 teaspoon of the duck filling onto each wrapper.   Moisten the edges of the wrapper with water and fold into a triangle  sealing the sides by pressing the edges together.

Step Three: 

Increase the temperature under the pot to medium high heat to achieve a rolling boil. Add the dumplings to the vegetable steamer in small batches at a time. The goal is to steam them so that the dumplings do not stick to each other.  Steam the dumplings for  about 1 minute per batch. 

Steak and Cheese Eggrolls

Steak and Cheese Eggrolls came into my life completely by accident. One night the Asian takeout  order was messed up. I sunk my teeth into what I thought was a normal eggroll, and to my surprise and ultimately to my delight there it was - steak and cheese.  And there it began, a new guilty pleasure.   It's not the type of food one brags about, yet it is the type of food shared amongst close friends and the occasional pub/bar mate.

Ingredients

2 frozen beefsteaks Or 4 oz fresh shaved round beefsteaks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup minced onions
1/2 cup shredded cheese (provolone, coby, cheddar, or Mexican blend)
6 eggroll wrappers
2 tablespoons water
2/3 cup cooking oil

Step One:

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the beefsteaks. Season with the salt and the pepper and cook thoroughly done.  Reserve the beefsteaks to a cutting board, and add the onions to the skillet and cook until soft. Bowl the onions and remove the skillet from heat.  Back at the cutting board chop the beefsteaks.











Step Two:


Pour 1 tablespoon of water into a small shallow bowl. Retrieve the eggroll wrappers from the package. Please note they can dry out quickly.  Turn the wrapper such that one of the corners faces you as if you are south and the opposite corner is north. Place 1/4ths of the beefsteak, onion, and cheese on the corner closest to you.

Dip your fingers in to the water and moisten the east and west corners. Roll the wrapper from south to north, making sure to tuck in the east and west corners as you go. At the vest end moisten the north corner with a bit of water.  Repeat for the remaining three wrappers.





Step Three:

Add 2/3 cups of cooking oil to a skillet. If you own a home deep fryer, then by all means feel free to use it for this preparation. Heat the oil to 350 degrees (it should shimmer).   Using tongs add the eggrolls to the skillet. After 1 1/2 minutes rotate the eggrolls until all sides are crispy and golden.


Step Four:

Place the eggrolls on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess oil. After about a minute serve them and enjoy.

Asian Style Rubbed Grilled Loin Pork Chops

Loin pork chops are very accessible and lend themselves to a myriad of preparations.  Loin chops are relatively lean, very flavorful, and very tender.  Ofen they can be purchased boneless, however if your local supermarket only carries them bone in you should be able to ask them to debone them for you. It is also very easy to remove the bone yourself at home, but why pay for the extra weight, that is unless you're planning to make a pork stock. More on that later. Loin pork chops can be baked, stuffed, fried, smothered, roasted, barbecued,  grilled, and smoked. The list goes on and on.  This preparation barrows from the barbecue technique of dry rubbing.  The dry rub employed here, however, is not the typical dry rubs found in most barbecue and smoking cookbooks.  Some of the basic principles of salty and savory are present, but the flavor profile is decidedly pan asian in nature. The pork chops are moist, tender, sweet and savory, and best of all delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon Korean red pepper powder
(or substitute 1/2 tablespoon cayenne red pepper powder)
1/4 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
1 1/2 teaspoons light brown sugar
2 half pound 1 inch butterflied loin pork chops




Step One:  Add the first five ingredients to a bowl and mix well.   Place the pork chops on a cutting board. Fold open the butterflied pork chops as if you were opting a book. Rub and press the mixture on to both sides of the meat.  Place rubbed pork chops into a zip top bag. Refrigerate them in the bag for 1 -2 hours.





Step Two:  Oil and heat the grill, or grill pan to medium high. Grill the pork chops for 5-7 minutes on each side.  Remove the pork chops from the grill and let them rest for 5 minutes.

Chick'n Stir-Fry

Stir-Fry is simple to make, cheap, and can be easily adapted to all types of diets.  This preparation uses vegan chick'n, but tofu, tempeh, chicken, pork, beef could also be substituted. If planning to use shrimp, then add the shrimp towards the end as to not over cook them. Typically chick'n is found in the vegetarian section of the freezer aisle at the grocery store.  There are many brands, be careful some are vegan, and some are not.

The Ingredients

10 oz bag frozen whole  green beans
10 oz bag frozen stir-fry vegetables
4 oz of button mushrooms
1 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger
10 oz bag of chicken cutlets or strips
2 tablespoons black bean garlic sauce
2 tablespoon cooking sherry
2 cloves of garlic



Step One: The Sauce

In a small bowl, whisk the sherry and the garlic sauce together and reserve.

Step Two:  The Prep

Remove the green beans and the stirfry vegetables from the freezer. Empty the packages in to a colander and run cold water over them to defrost them and set them aside.   Slice the mushrooms about 1/8 inch thick slices.  Smash and mince or use a garlic press the garlic. Grate the ginger, a ginger grater works well here, but a regular grater will work.

If using chick'n cutlets, cut them into 1" wide and 2" long strips.

Step Three: Stir-frying

Over medium-high heat a large (12" -14") non-stick or a well seasoned skillet heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Once the oil is shimmering add the chick'n strips.  Sauté them until they are browned on all sides. Remove them from the pan and reserve them. Add the mushrooms and reduce the heat to medium cook until the mushrooms are brown and have relesased some liquid. Reserve the mushrooms.  Return to medium-high heat and add more oil if needed. Add half of the vegetables  the goal here is not to crowd the pan. Adding all the vegetables at once will lead to steaming. Sauté the vegetables for about 2-3 minuters, they should be heated through, but remain crisp. Remove and reserve the first a half, and add the second half, garlic and ginger. Sauté stirring to ensure garlic and ginger doesn't brown.


Step Four:  Finishing

Add the ingredients back to the pan. Stir in the sauce mixture. Turn off the heat, and serve.

Bastardized Kimchi

Kimchi is a wonderful condiment, flavoring, and seasoning. It's a Korean food staple. There are hundreds of different types of Kimchi. Some are strong in flavor, some are mild, some are spicy, super spicy, white and red.  In it's essence it's fermented vegetable, fruit or fungi. The range is endless, and Kimchi is highly regional and even subregional. Recipes can be honored and correspondingly guarded family treasures.  This recipe is not one of those. Below you will find a completely bastardized version of Kimchi. It will make some purists cringe in it's sacrilegious preparations. It uses supermarket ingredients. Guess what, it turned out delicious.  It's a play on the Yangbaechu Kimchi recipe found at Korean Baspang, but not.  It ended up being Bastardized Kimchi, if you make it try it on a hot dog, hamburger (veggie burger), or in a soup. Seriously, try it.

Step 1: Step One Veggies

Buy a 2 pound or so head of green cabbage. Remove the core and cut it in to 2" pieces. Place the pieces in a bowl. Salt with 1/4 cup of non-ionized table or sea salt. Mix together and and let it wilt for 2-3 hours. After every hour pour off the liquid and mix the cabbage with your hands.

Fifteen minutes before the final hour slice up 1 cup dikon radish.  If you can't find this at your grocer, then  skip it. You can substitute carrots, and/or add carrots in addition to this radish. Cut the radish in to 1 1/2" strips, about the size of short shoestring small french fries.  Then grate 2 tablespoons of ginger. Using a ginger grater like the one below makes this task go amazingly fast. 

Next mince or smash and chop 5, or as many as you want cloves of garlic.  Rinse the cabbage in a colander  and then using a salad spinner, spin the cabbage dry and return the cabbage to a large bowl.   Mix the cabbage with the above ingredients and let them sit.

Step Two: Bastard Paste 

Well Kimchi is traditionally made with a Korean chili pepper paste made from chili pepper flakes called gochugaru.  There is no substitute for this paste. However, Bastard Paste pictured here isn't a bad approximation. The traditional paste is made from letting gochugaru bloom in water for a period of time.  The flakes and the water make a paste. Without this paste, choices are slim. Some use cayenne pepper flakes or powder. The results is a less red and super spicy, or even a too spicy, Kimchi.  The challenge in this bastardized preparation was how to keep the pepper taste without the killer heat.  

The challenge birthed bastard paste. A 3:1 + 1/16 mixture of paprika, red pepper flakes (Cayenne) and spicy spanish pimenton. Yes, it seems strange to have spanish pimenton and not gochugaru, blame the TV Show Made in Spain.   It's basically a smoked spicy paprika, and a little goes a long way. For this preparation mix 3 tablespoons of regular paprika, 1 tablespoon of red chili pepper flakes and 1/16 teaspoon of spicy spanish pimenton.  Mix them together and add 1/2 cup of water and wait 30 minutes for the sauce to bloom. 

Step Three: Non-Fish sauce Fishy Sauce

A lot of Kimchi recipes contain dried shrimp. The common substitute is fish sauce. Fish sauce was on hand, but the desire was to make this so vegetarians and vegans could try it.   How to make a salty rich fish-like sauce.  The solution was soy sauce and  dried seaweed.  Using 1/3 cup of soy sauce add 1 table spoon of dried seaweed. Let it bloom for 20-30 mins.  Press the mixture through a strainer over a bowl, and reserve.   The soy sauce will  be fragrant; it should smell fishy. 

Step Four: Combining and Jarring

 Mix the Bastard Paste and seaweed soy sauce into the cabbage mixture. Gloves are recommended, or a large spoon. Let the mixture rest for about 20-30 minutes. After that time jar the mixture and place it at room temperature for 3-5 days, depending on the level of fermentation sought. After three days open the lid to release the pressure and then reseal, this is to avoid jars breaking due to the pressure.  

After the room temperature fermentation, place jars in the refrigerator and enjoy.

Singapore Style Noodle

Singapore Noodle is a dish enjoyed by many patrons of Pan-Asian take-out joints and  steam tables at buffets.   A beautiful mixture of a dry-ish curry and a bright airy noodles, it's almost perfect in its complexity and simplicity. So why not bring it home? This week's kitchen adventure, or trial and error, traces the circuitous route taken towards that end. In some instances the dead ends weren't pretty or tasty, but the final results was delicious although not at all what was planned. Singapore noodle is a dish with a base of rice noodles,  curry,  veggies and tofu or meat. It's basic, and like potato salad easy to mess up.

Mis-step #1  (Buy the wrong noodles)

At the grocery store everything that looks right isn't right. The noodles pictured are actually bean threads. Those in the know have just fallen out their chair laughing.  These are not rice noodles despite their look. They cook clear and are perfect for soups, but are the wrong noodle for Singapore noodle, or any rice noodle based dish. This is however the only noodle they had at the local grocer. 

Mis-Step #2 (substitute the wrong noodle)

After the clear, and pronounced mistake of cooking the bean threads, and with nothing left  in the cupboard but somen and udon noodles both were tried. The incredible disaster that ensued is worthy of its own epic tome.  Let's just say wheat noodles really won't work, they don't stand up, it gets pasty.  It's a curry flavored disaster. 

Step #1 Angel Hair (an atypical noodle and a guardian angel)

With bean thread, and various Asian wheat noodles attempted, with no other noodles left and some assurance from web searches - the discounted angel hair pasta was called up to duty.   At this point the shear feeling of failure descended. How could such a simple recipe be so messed up? Who would forgive the sacrilege of using an Italian based noodle in a reportedly Asian dish?  Would it be like pawning beef on weck as Texas brisket?  Would it be better to just stop and call the take out place and be done with it all? Of course not! Cook the pasta in accordance with the package directions and set aside. Whisk two tablespoons of soy sauce and a tea spoon of sugar together. In a separate bowl scramble one egg. 

Step #2 Meat (or meal alternative), Veggies & Sauce

Slice up a red bell pepper, an onion, add 1 tablespoon of garlic and ginger.   In a dry skillet or dutch oven or some other pot under medium heat add a table spoon and a tea spoon of curry powder and shake the pan and after a minute or until it gets fragrant add two tea spoons of oil. Add either the meat or meat alternative (in this instance it's shrimp). If tofu is used, then more oil may be needed. 

Add more oil,  one medium onion sliced or chopped. Once the onion is soft add the sliced red pepper.  After about 3 minutes, when the pepper is soft, add the grated ginger (about a tea spoon full) and garlic.  

Once the ginger and garlic are fragrant add one tea spoon of crush hot pepper flakes.  

Step #3 Add Egg, Noodles and Eat

Add the  scrambled egg and noodles to the pan. Stir-fry until everything is fully coated and more dry than wet.  Add more curry powder, pepper, or red pepper flakes if you feel it necessary. After about four minutes of stir-frying cut the heat off and  plate it up and enjoy.  It's surprisingly wonderful despite being the wrong noodle and all the frustration that went along with it.