It's Friday, Friday! - It's not actually Friday.

For the past few months, mostly every Friday, a friend and I get together and cook something awesome for our friends. To add a bit of variety to my blog, I'll start writing about every Friday night dinner. This week we're on hiatus so look for it next week. For now I'll try to remember what we've done so far...

- 'Orange you glad' Chocolate Cupcakes. (These cupcakes entered a competition.)

- Chili (She didn't trust me to add beer, but it worked.)

- Herb Breaded Fish

- Paella (Best Ever!)
- Beer Can Chicken (Thanks Uncle Don!)
- Many others I can't remember!

- Tons of amazing side dishes provided by everybody over the weeks.

Most recently we had some Turkey Sloppy Joes, from Rachel Ray. My friend is usually the one to look up a recipe as she has a plethora of cookbooks. What do you call a group of books anyway? Like the way lions are called a pride? A library? If you were so inclined to click on the recipe link,  take note that this recipe was written for children. How ironic, though explaining how it's ironic may take away any semblance of irony that it may have once had. It was simple, quick, delicious and moderately healthy with the substitution of turkey.

You'll never guess what's coming next week! ...I never can.

Tomorrow is Saturday

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Gỏi cuốn - Summer Roll, Fresh Spring roll, Salad Roll, Fresh Roll...

This fun for everyone meal is a delicious combination of simple ingredients that requires little effort in preparation if such a path is chosen. This is one meal I've made before, on my own and with a group of friends, it's definitely great for groups.

While we were eating this, my wife told me about how the first she had this was at New Year's Eve with my extended relatives, as they host a party every year. It was the first time she had met many of them and they sat her in the middle of the room, put a blanket on her head like a cowl and danced around her, spouting gibberish Vietnamese. By 'they' I mean the adults, the kids were pretty normal with her. The meal we had for the kids was Gỏi cuốn and I remember my wife was just starting to get habituated to Nuoc Mam, but certainly not used to Hoisin sauce, or even stinky sauce (Shrimp paste mixed with stuff and pineapple). I insisted that Hoisin was the way to go with this but to no avail. It is now about 6 years later and she was loving the peanut Hoisin. Maybe it wasn't peanut Hoisin back then.

EDIT: Turns out that it is only called Gỏi cuốn if it's shrimp and pork. If it's a baked fish then it's called Cá Nuong Bánh Tráng (Fish Bake Rice Paper, plus many missing accents). How complicated although I'm not surprised as the baked fish is a special dish in itself! In any case, the rest of the fillings tend to remain the same.

Gỏi cuốn
Printable Version 

- A package of rice paper (Bánh Tráng)

- A bowl of hot water

Meat Filling:

- A whole Fish (Salmon!), Shrimp, Pork, whatever you like.

- Green Onion

- Onion

Filling:

- Vermicelli (Bun)

- Lettuce

- Bean Sprouts

- A couple sprigs of mint

- Chives

- Cucumber, sliced into long strips.

Dipping Sauce: 

- Hoisin Sauce

- Peanut butter (Chunky if you like)

- Crushed peanuts

- Chili sauce if you want to spice it up

- Lime Juice

Preparation 

For whatever the reason, my parents would always remove the roots from bean sprouts. Just snap them off at the bottom while you watch your favourite Jdrama. Sorting through your giant bag of bean sprouts is also important because there are so many little bits and some of them can be kind of rotten. 

Spoiler alert: He hadn't seen her face for a while.

They look nicer this way.

 I recommend doing this early as it takes a little while, about two 40-minute episodes worth.

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees while you prepare the fish. Prepare a baking dish with aluminum foil. Make a few incisions in the piece of fish. Season with salt and pepper, top with green onions and some slices of white onion. Drizzle with oil. When ready, wrap it up in the foil so it stays nice and tender and you can crisp it up at the end by opening the foil for a few minutes.

I remembered the white onion after I took this.

Now prepare the veggie fillings, wash them, slice them, etc. Put on a pot of boiling water.

 Feels like there should be text here.













Once the water boils, get your bun and toss it in. Once the noodles are able to be separated easily from one another (About 2-3 minutes) then pour the noodles through a strainer and run them under some cold water to stop them from cooking.

Bun, my mortal enemy.

But this batch turned out fine.

Prepare the peanut Hoisin sauce by putting a sauce pot on low heat and adding some Hoisin. Then some peanut butter. Squeeze in some lime juice and a dash of chili sauce. I have no measurements for this part since it's really to your taste but basically use more Hoisin than peanut butter. Play around with the lime juice to change the thickness, and you can always add water as well if it's too thick.

Boil up some water in a kettle and then pour it into a bowl, let it cool down a bit then dip the rice paper in the water. Don't give the rice paper a bath, just a quick dip to cover it all with water and take it out, rest it on your plate for a few seconds and then start piling on your ingredients. Roll it up, from one side, fold in the sides, dip it in sauce and enjoy your happy time.

The bowl of water is in the bottom left.

Gillian tip #1 : Don't put the bean sprouts on top as they
may puncture through the rice paper!

When I was younger my lack of manual dexterity hindered my ability to make a roll that would stay together, so I ended up having a mess of food in my dipping bowl. I compensated by adding more ingredients into the bowl and simply eating out of that. In fact, I adopted this practice for another one of my favourite dishes and find it tastes better that way. To allow me to be able to eat like a normal human being, my loving parents would roll a bunch of them and pile them on a dish for my brother and I to eat. Although it isn't quite in the spirit of the meal, I was appreciative for the fact that I didn't have to pause between rolls to make another one. As you can see below, I started stock piling some rolls this evening. This meal is definitely a winner amongst non-Vietnamese cuisine eater, so if you're looking to lure someone in, hit them with this first. Enjoy!

They may not be pretty, but they're functional!

Oh! In the true spirit of my family while I was preparing all the other ingredients, I made some noodles for an easy portable lunch tomorrow. I always have an excess of bean sprouts when I buy them since they're about a dollar for 30 pounds and since we tend to enjoy them in stir fries or noodle dishes, I figured why not? Otherwise they tend to go to waste :/

Throw a bunch of things in a pot. Soya sauce it.

Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby.

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Cá Kho - Beautiful Disaster

Last time I spoke of how Canh Chua was a dish I took for granted and found simple.Today, I take on Cá Kho (Caramelized Fish in a pot?), a dish with minimal ingredients but incredible flavour. A dish that I absolutely love. A dish that I miss terribly. A dish that I bungled up today but that's fine, I learn from my mistakes.

This is the kind of dish that reminds me of when my grandparents lived with us because even though it's such a regular, everyday meal, it always seemed all that more special to have dinner with them. They had their own kitchen downstairs and sometimes when my brother and I saw that they were having a meal which we favoured more, we would join them. I only realize now how lucky I was to have had that opportunity. Cherish those moments and enjoy the simple dishes of life, they won't always taste the way you remember.

Cá Kho Recipe
Printable Version


- 1 lb of fish
- 6 tbsps Fish sauce
- 2 tbsps Sugar
- 1 bulb Garlic
- A bit of oil
- Soya Sauce

Preparation:

I found some nice looking Atlantic Salmon cheap at the grocery store for this dish. Luckily, only one piece was used today for Cá Kho and the other will be used for the next recipe. 

An apron to deflect those flying fish scales.

After cleaning, the salmon was sliced into steaks and put into a bowl. I added a couple tbsps of fish sauce, the garlic, a couple tbsps of sugar, a sprinkle of pepper. I let it marinate for ...a long time, actually while I watched Dragon's Den.

Now for key part of this recipe: the caramelized sugar. From my extensive research, put a pan on medium to high heat and add about 1-2 tbsp of sugar, with a bit of oil and sometimes a splash of water then stir, stir, stir.  

I knew I was supposed to take the pan off the heat as the sugar was beginning to brown or caramelize but I'm pretty sure I took it off a little too late. It looked a tad too dark, but it certainly smelled okay. It would have been prudent to have tasted it and perhaps start over but I soldiered forth with my blunder.

Trouble...

 I then added the fish, spooned on a few more tbsps of fish sauce and a dash or two of soya sauce. Make sure to turn the fish a few times to coat them in the sauce of yummy goodness. At this point, it would've been smart to turn down the heat to low, cover, and let simmer. Although my name means 'brilliant, enlightened or bright' I had not flash of brilliance and left the heat on too high.

The pictures make it look a lot blacker than it was!
Although it was admittedly ...black.

There may be rumours of how I tried to save it by adding some more sugar, maybe even drizzling the fish with some honey to sweeten the slight bitterness of burnt sugar, but there is no proof of that ever happening. In the end, the salmon was actually cooked quite nicely, and we both enjoyed it.

 Would it be beautiful?

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Tay Dô - What does it mean?

Dear Family, thank you for the suggestions and stories. Please keep them up as I keep the posts coming.  The next recipe is currently marinating in the fridge which gives me a chance to pick the fish scales off of my face (spoiler alert: it's another fish dish). I'll write that up later tonight.

It was apron time. The fish scales were flying.

For now, meet Tay Dô, a bring your own wine/beer Thai Viet restaurant on Duluth Avenue, near St Denis. It was actually our second choice for dinner to an all you can eat place called Asian Fusion nearby. Do not let this name fool you as it fooled me! Let me be clear: Asian Fusion does not fuse Asian cuisines whatsoever. It instead calls itself fusion for serving various cuisines which to me means which they list to be: Szechaun, Thai and of course Asian. Unfortunately, we were turned away at the door for not having a reservation. We then saw a woman in a wedding dress rush into the restaurant to escape the -10 degree March air.  I do hope to go sometime, despite the deceiving name, as I cannot resist AYCE. 

Walking down the street, we find another BYOB recommended to us, Tay Dô. I glance at the menu, written entirely in French, and enter. I notice the staff chattering in Vietnamese as the host confers with the motherly leading lady behind the cash because they are unsure if they can seat our party of six. We are soon seated in a tight cozy corner in the back. This place is kind of pretty! Very unconventional of a Vietnamese restaurant. As I flip through the menu, I see that the dishes are not listed in Vietnamese. I can read French just fine, but the menu mostly consisted of "X sautéed with vegetables and rice" and I had trouble finding something that I wanted to eat. 

When the server came to take our order, I asked him "Do you speak Vietnamese?" 

He replied "Yes." 

Let my culture lesson begin!

I asked "Elder Brother, is there anything Vietnamese on this menu?" (Pretty polite, right?)

He replied "Yes." pointing out that there was Pho and Canh Chua. 

I asked him what 'Steak Vietnamienne' was in Vietnamese.

He replied it was like Bo Luc Lac, and then pointed at the item above it named "Cubes de Boeuf" and told me that was Bo Luc Lac. 

After all my friends ordered, I asked "Elder Brother, what is your favourite dish to eat?" 

He told me to try the Bo Luc Lac. 

I suppressed a chuckle, ordered that and a papaya salad (One of my favourites, must make this soon). 

Our meals started with a spring roll with Nuoc Mam. I saved my left over Nuoc Mam for my salad appetizer in case I needed extra. How necessary it was, as my salad came out with Hoisin sauce to put on it and when the server saw that I had kept a bowl of fish sauce off to the side, he looked at me and said "Elder brother, pour this on top." 

I looked back at him and then forlornly at my Nuoc Mam and said "I usually eat it with this but I will try  half with the Hoisin." It was good. Not better, but different and good.

When he came back, he asked me what I thought. I told him that it was ngon (delicious) and is even good mixed with fish sauce. He was patient and kind, I hope I didn't bother him too much!

Finally, for those of you who don't know, I'm more or less Viet illiterate and when asked by my friends what Tay Dô might mean, I replied "It could mean to change clothes."  Oh, how this road is long and uphill...

P.S. My wife ordered the General Tao's Chicken. My Vietnamese history is pretty terrible but I don't remember ever learning about him...

Ching Chong, It means I love you.

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Canh Chua Cá -"Pretty chua"

If you had asked me about Canh Chua  (Soup Sour if translated directly) when I was living at home with my parents, I would have told you that it's just a regular ol' soup. It's one of these many dishes that I didn't realize I absolutely loved until I found my life devoid of fishy sour soupy goodness.
Surprisingly, there has never been a time in my life when anyone has asked me about Canh Chua. In grade one, I was asked to write a journal entry about what I ate for supper last night. I distinctly remember having trouble bridging the languages and telling my teacher that I didn't know what to call it in English. She told me to just describe it and as can be expected from a kid in grade one, I wrote an eloquent laundry list of the ingredients in the soup. This is not very different from what is about to be written right now.

Canh Chua Cá (fish) recipe
Printable Version
(I got this one from my Mẹ, and she doesn't give me amounts, which explains why I cook this way. However, I threw in estimated amounts of what I used and amounts from various recipes I referred to online).

- 4 cups boiling Chicken Broth + water as needed
- 2-3 stalks of Celery, 1-inch diagonal slices, keep the leaves too. (Recipes use Taro Root, but celery works)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/2 540mL can of Pineapple (the other half can be frozen and used next time)
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 fish. (All of it. Trout, salmon, any fish. Or substitute shrimp)
- 2 tbsp seedless Tamarind paste or 1 tbsp Tamarind soup powder (less work!)
- 1-2 cups bean sprouts
- Some chopped Ngo Om (Rice Paddy Herb), I subbed Green Onion as the nearby Korean grocery didn't appear to have any.
- Vegetable oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 4 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar

Preparation:

The scenic route

If you decide to use Tamarind paste because the Korean grocery store down the block only sells the paste and you don't feel as though it's worth the trip to Chinatown, then you're going to have to do a bit of prep with it. Cut out the 2tbsp chunk of tamarind paste and mash it up in some warm - hot water. Let it sit to dissolve, then strain it to remove the fibrous, chewy bits. Thanks to this video from daolicious.com for this tip, as I'm sure I would've just thrown a chunk of paste in and watched as my soup was invaded by pieces of hard, chunky tamarind. Strain the dissolved paste and set aside. This is more work than using the powder, which is just thrown into the broth.

Then prepare the rest of your ingredients, I started with the fish. Our local poissonerie (fish store) moved locations so I got one from the big name grocery store, which allowed me to de-scale a fish as I've seen Mẹ do so many times growing up. I think a fishmonger will do it for you, if asked, it can't hurt to ask. One thing I learned was, lay down that newspaper so your counter and walls aren't covered in fish scales. Give it a clean in the sink, scrape off those scales with a knife, and slice into nice steaks. Keep the head and tail. Season with salt and pepper.

Transformed into sliced

Have those other ingredients ready to go, put a bit of oil into your soup pot and sauté the onions for a minute, throw in the celery and tomato. After a couple minutes, I poured in half the pineapple with some of the juice. No one said anything about the juice, but hey, this is meant to be a hot, sweet, salty and sour soup and I tend to be notorious for improvising. Then I put the fish in, and poured the boiling chicken broth on top. In went the strained tamarind paste, the fish sauce, sugar and some pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the fish is cooked. Remove from heat and add celery leaves, chopped green onion or rice paddy herb and bean sprouts. When I added the celery leaves, my kitchen began smelling of nostalgia. 

Do other bloggers have people to take pictures for them?
I kept having to wash my hands to take pictures.

 Serve it on top of rice and add a couple spoonfuls of mixed Nuoc mam (see my previous post) and you're set to eat!

I wouldn't normally say watch out for bones, but my wife is hyper-cautious of fish with bones due to the fear of asphyxiation caused by said bone. I alleviated her fear this evening by telling her that when I was a wee lad, I had a fish bone lodged in my throat when my mom took me out for lunch with a couple of my aunts. All I remember is that it hurt to swallow until they finally removed it at the hospital and that it was only after the first bite of my fish chips which made me sad because I didn't get to finish it. In any case, I explained a bone is thing enough such that one can still breathe. Crisis averted!

Mixed Nuoc Mam makes everything better

She then asked me if I thought it was good, if it fit my standard of being similar to my Mẹ's Canh Chua. The answer to this question is best summed up from a Skype conversation I was having with my cousin while cooking this:

Me: On the bright side, it smells like my mom's...

Her:  oo that's good

Me: and it tastes pretty chua

Her: that would be sad if it didn't

I don't think I'll ever recreate the same flavours and sensations that I get from eating my mom's, grandmother's or any cooking done by a relative. Instead, I will remain content with my satisfactory dishes that remind me I have something to look forward to next family get together.

 P.S. Browsing my pictures, I saw this fish head picture and remembered when my Ba (dad) would eat the fish eyes, which I found revolting. He would tell me that they make you smarter. Or see better. Both. To this day, I don't think I've ever eaten a fish eye and I'm not terribly smart and wear fairly thick glasses.

Hi, I'm a fish head, I add flavour to your broth.Yum.

Yummy yummy fish heads.

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Nuoc Mam Pha - Let's start at the very beginning

Fish sauce or Nuoc Mam might not be the basic building block in the same way that A, B, C or Do Re Mi are to a good song but it is a definite staple of Vietnamese cuisine. In its purest form, this dark, golden liquid smells and tastes so strong that it is rarely put straight onto one's meal. It's as if someone took a bunch of fish, threw them in a barrel and squeezed until all the smelly fishy juice oozes out, ready to be thrown into all your favourite Asian curries and soups. Oh, that's actually how it's made, isn't it?

My aunt told me about how she was able to learn a lot from Ba Ngoai while she lived with her and her surprise as to how much Nuoc Mam they went through during this. This makes me think of my Ba Ngoai as somewhat Julia Child-esque in her culinary style and I can't help but to smile a little (although I would never put Nuoc Mam on my toast...). My aunt then noted that this is why Ba Ngoai's soups and dishes always tasted so darn good. We currently have half a bottle in our pantry so I better pick up a crate.

The form in which Nuoc Mam is served with dishes as a dipping sauce, or as a sort of dressing, is in its delicious mixed form and every family has their own special recipe. Most Vietnamese restaurants tend to add more sugar, making them extra sweet and yummy. So here's a family recipe for anyone who wasn't fortunate enough to have one passed down to you:


Fish Sauce (Nuoc Mam Pha) Recipe
Ingredients:

Printable Recipe

- 1/4 cup Fish Sauce (We seem to like Squid brand)
- 1 1/4 cup Water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice or vinegar (Or mix of the two)
- Couple cloves of crushed garlic
- Chili Garlic Sauce to taste

Preparation: Mix everything together and stir well (with a chop stick?). Serve. Should make about 3/4 of a mason jar of this size. Refrigerate.

A few notes:

-  It's basically a 5:1 ratio of water to everything else.

 - Adjust as necessary to fit your taste, one of the great idealogies of the Vietnamese eating experience that will be discussed in the future!

Look at the difference in colour.

Having finally started on this journey, I hope to cook, eat and write about something (not necessarily Vietnamese) at least once a week, if not more.

That will bring us back to... d'oh!

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