Family Easter Dinner

Spring certainly sprung this Easter weekend as we headed out of town for a family dinner. We all went for a walk in the park, came back home to fill our bellies with delicious, healthy food and then our family had a very nice evening as a family. Usually the adults and kids go their own ways during and after dinner, however this evening we were asked to take pictures out of Ba Ngoai's old photo albums. Questions started popping up from us 2nd generation kids as we saw old black and white pictures from Vietnam and from those came a plethora of stories. Mostly the stories were hilarious and the house was full of the laughter of both generations laughing together.  I'll leave it at that because, as you can probably imagine, with the past come stories that bring tears though not from laughter.

Our menu was mailed out a few weeks in advanced, as we are very organized about food. It's very important! I was in charge of the appetizer which was the black bean dip because we were shooting for a healthy meal.

1. Appetizer 
2. Mango salad & Fresh Fruit
3. Stuffed peppers & a green salad
4. Salmon & Rice
5. Beverages(fruit juice, beer & wine)
6. Tofu in tomato sauce (dau hu xot cachua) – doesn’t have to be home-made tofu
7. Shrimp salad rolls & dessert
8. Breakfast for those who are staying over

I'll learn how to make this nice Goi soon.

There's the salmon, ready for the oven.

This is delicious Tofu. Yes, we'll get everyone liking
tofu soon enough.

At first I thought this post would just be me writing about all this great food I got to eat without telling any of you how to make some of it. Luckily, I remember I was sent the recipe for the salmon we sometimes make for our various get-togethers. I made it at the cottage once. It's easy and tastes great, I just don't have a name for it. Here is the recipe my aunt sent me.


Baked Salmon
Printable Recipe
4 salmon fillet
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoon of oyster sauce
sesame seed(optional)
3 green onion finely chopped
olive oil

Cover tray with foil then add some oil on the tray to prevent the fish from sticking to the tray
put all ingredients (except olive oil) in a large bowl. Mix well. Place fish into mixture, cover and marinate for at least 30 min.
Preheat oven to 450F then reduce to 400.
Place marinated fish into tray sprinkle with olive oil then bake for 15 min or until fish is cooked.


Breakfast the next morning was amazing as always, as my aunt spoils me. D'awwwww. Before breakfast though, my six year old cousin had her Easter egg hunt, which involved little clues in plastic eggs that sent her around the house in rhyme. I had the same when for some of my birthdays as a kid and they were so fun and watching her run around, trying to figure out where the next egg could be found was adorable. After that, we found out that my little cousin had hidden chocolate eggs for us to find. You know how you make it easy for young kids to find their Easter eggs? Well, little kids return the favour! We then had to give them back and she hid them again! 

If you've never had a bagel with smoked salmon,
cream cheese, capers, red onions and a sprinkle of lemon
juice, then you should.

That hard boiled egg was dyed in beet juice. There were
blue ones dyed with red cabbage. 

After breakfast, we the two and a half hours back home and I got started on a Sunday night dinner I decided to have for a friend who couldn't make it to Friday night dinner and a couple other usual guests. We had some sweet corn, steamed broccoli, roasted potatoes and roasted pork tenderloin with a cilantro-mint marinade. I had a lot of mint and cilantro left over, so a simple Google search of "pork tenderloin mint cilantro" gave me that recipe. I subbed apple juice instead of orange juice. I didn't have the capability to grill it so I put them in the oven at 350 degrees F. I wrapped one of them in tin foil, with a little white wine, and left the other on the pan. After 45 minutes, the non-wrapped one was definitely more tender and juicy. Yeah, I experiment. I also mixed potatoes in the remaining marinade after I took the pork out, added some chopped garlic, some red pepper chili flakes, put them on a baking sheet and put everything in the oven. I made sure to turn the potatoes about halfway through the baking process. So, a bit of a food frenzy weekend, but that's what makes it a good one, ya?

Oh, and the biggest news of all from this Easter Family visit was a little note book that my Ba Ngoai had written some recipes in! How great is that? Oh, did I mention I'm Vietnamese illiterate? I can actually read a bit of it and I have a few corrections to make in some of my other entries. Most notably, some important changes to the Dua Chua .

Happy Easter!

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A Good Friday Passover Meal

I've never had Matzoh Ball soup before nor have I ever known what it actually was. I always thought it was Mozza ball soup, as in mozzarella (which sounds delicious) and now having just done a little research as to how to spell it, I've learned that it can be spelled about six different ways with "oh's" or "ah's" or combinations thereof.  Whether I knew how to spell it or not, this past Friday I got the ultimate Matzoh-experience learning first where to buy it in the Kosher aisle of the grocery store, then how to make it before eating it. You wouldn't think a ball of dough in soup would taste that good. I sure didn't. Oh, I'm actually lying a little bit. I stopped into the Juicy Lotus Café (vegan, kosher, pretty good food) during Passover and announced that I had never had a matzoh ball. I was promptly fed a piece of a whole wheat matzoh ball that was also most likely vegan and gluten free. I smiled and mumbled between my chewing "Oh, it's good." and I'm not gonna say it's not good, all I'm saying is that it tastes amazing in chicken soup. 

Finally, after a couple weeks of fending for myself, my partner in cooking crime returns in full force to educate me on her culture and the cuisine that comes along with it. She was even so kind as to let me smell the container that held some Gefilte fish. 

Good Friday Passover Menu:

- Spinach Kugel from Healthy Helpings

- Matzoh Ball Soup

- Parmesan Baked Tilapia (Halibut) Filets from Healthy Helpings with Sweet corn on the cob

- Matzo cake

A lot of our past dinner recipes have come from this book, so you can check it out here on Amazon if interested: Healthy Helpings: 800 Fast and Fabulous Recipes for the Kosher (or Not) Cook

Spinach Kugel 

This dish was super delicious and we put them into easy portionable muffin shapes. 

I ate four of these. Maybe five.

They had the consistency of pakoras although they weren't deep-fried, and they were delicious. The other dinner guests agreed they were pretty awesome.

Matzoh Ball Soup

I didn't have much of a hand in making this dish but if you buy a box of Matzo Ball Mix (See how they spell it there?) it'll have a recipe on the back. 

I learned to roll 'em up.

We dropped them in  homemade chicken stock for 20 minutes.

And served them in soup.

Parmesan Herb Baked Tilapia Fillets

- 4 White fish fillets
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- Dried Basil
- Mayonnaise
- Salt
- Pepper
- Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese (We used the powdery version)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the fillets on a lightly greased pan. Rub the garlic on the top of the fillets and season with salt and pepper. Brush the fillets with mayonnaise. Sprinkle with basil, cheese, paprika. Put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Matzoh Cake, a secret family recipe? 

She never told me it wasn't!

-  200 g of butter

- 3/4 cup of sugar

- 1 tbsp rum

- 1 tbsp honey

- 1/2 cup cacao

- 4 tbsp water

- 100g of halva (she had Vanilla flavoured. yum)

- Sprinkles!

Mix that all in a pot and heat on low until it all blends together (about 5 minutes). Once mixed, cool until it is spreadable, but not too runny. We got a secret tip from her momma to fill the sink with cold water and stick the pot in that while continuously stirring until the desired consistency is reached. Once ready, place a layer of matzoh in a dish, and spread with the chocolate mixture. Continue to do so until the final layer of chocolate. We then made it pretty with sprinkles. Let set in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until you're ready for dessert.

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate or desserts so take this advice seriously: do yourself a huge favour and stick your finger in that pot of chocolate and let your inner child take over. Like I said, I'm a die-hard savoury food fan and I nearly scraped that pot clean. Though I did scrape the Kugel muffin pan clean. However, once the cake was served, it went head to head against a chocolate cheese-cake from a nearby shop and it held its own. Go Matzoh cake! 

you say whatever...

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Rhubarb Cake - It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake...

Today was a cold, rainy day and we had just finished off a banana bread from my mother in-law. So to warm up the house and to keep us with a constant supply of delicious and moist cake, I decided to attempt to bake. A cake. I am a pretty terrible baker because of the way I cook, with no regard for measurements. My Friday night dinner partner reminds me to read recipes because of this one time when I sort of turned one of our baking projects into a disaster. I'm getting better. I promise.

I'm surprised I never learned anything about baking since I used to do a lot of baking with my aunts when I was younger and my mom baked all the time. The house never lacked a  container filled with a cake or some sort baked good. One thing she used to make all the time was Rhubard Coffee Cake, I think mostly because we had a rhubarb plant in the backyard that grew like a weed. A delicious, delicious weed. My wife made me this Canadian Living Rhubarb cake, with strawberries added, for my birthday  and had a lot of leftover frozen rhubarb. I would like to point out though (and this completely negates all I claimed to have learned about following recipes) that one can substitute regular milk for buttermilk and it tastes just absolutely dandy.  My birthday was 3 months ago, and it took me this long to finally use it. Work with what you got when you can.

you gotta do the cookin' by the book!
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Bánh Mì - Vietnamese Sandwiches Deconstructed

Crusty, white, French bread. Delicious, meaty pâté. Strips of succulent, grilled pork. A dollop of creamy butter slathered all over the bread. Pickled carrots, turnip and cilantro? This French influence on Vietnamese cuisine will pop up now and again as we work our way through the many foods I love to eat. Bánh Mì, which translates to 'bread', are a fantastic sandwich and they're usually quite cheap. They come in many forms, with many kinds of meat, some I couldn't tell you what animal it came from. On the show No Reservations, I saw it served in Vietnam with a fried egg inside it, amongst many more things that aren't put into them here. I really need to make a trip there, if only to eat that sandwich...

These were taken pre-lightbox.

I didn't make these sandwiches today, I bought them from "the best Vietnamese sandwich" place here in Montréal and considering I always buy my sandwiches from there, I guess I agree with that title. So what do you need for a good Bánh Mì? The things I listed at the beginning of this entry are a good start. The only variable in there would be the meat. As far as I'm concerned, any kind of meat could go into these sandwiches as long as the rest stays the same. 

If you've never tried one, the best way to do it is like this: go to the shop, buy as many as you like though I supposed one is a good number to start with. Most places will ask if you want hot peppers in them or not. That's up to you. Some places can also toast it for you, but if not you'll have to go find an oven. Watch it carefully, I've burnt a good number of them in my day. You want a good crunch on that bread, and for the butter inside to have melted. If yours don't have any cucumber in them, slice up some cucumber in long sticks and shove them in there. If you love that soya sauce, some people put a little in their sandwich for an extra bit of saltiness, though I find they already have so much flavour in them. 

It can't hurt to enjoy your first Bánh Mì the way it was meant to be enjoyed, right? Right! However, the shops always slather on way too much butter so to make it a slightly healthier meal I grab a spoon and scoop it out. One piece of bread has the pâté and the other is full of butter, so skim as you please. There's still enough in there for it to melt into the bread when it gets toasted, so there is a marginal difference in flavour, if any. I've never noticed.

let's push things forward

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Trung Thit Heo Kho - Caramelised Braised Pork and Eggs

What better dish to have Dua Chua with than another one of my favourites. How did you guess?  It does go well with nuoc mam pha and is such a classic home-style, comfort-food meal. I remember mashing up the hard boiled egg in with my rice so there are delicious, soft, yellow pieces of yolk mixed in every bite. I also remember how my parents used to have one of these egg slicers that I loved watching. It was sad the day it broke. It was also sad the day we started cutting the eggs in two and eating only half an egg with a bowl of rice. I mean, it taught me to eat healthier, so I'm glad now, but at the time I just wanted to eat eggs.

You like that lighting? Very diffused and soft, eh? How are you enjoying that shoddy paper work in the back there? Yes, I had a craft session today. By myself. I used a lot of tape. I won't show you the final product but I must give credit to Sarah of simply cooked for teaching me how to make this lightbox.

Trung Thit Heo Kho
Printable Version

- 1 lb of Pork Butt, Shoulder, or Pork belly for a real fatty, delicious, traditional version. Cut into 1-2 inch cubes.
- 4-5 Eggs (Or more)
- 2 tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 cup of coconut juice or 7up as a substitute
- Ground Pepper
- A pinch of salt.

Caramelized Sugar Water
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar

Preparation

Boil up some water to hard boil the eggs. Prepare the meat. Then prepare the caramelized sauce. Put a sauce pot on medium-high heat, add the sugar and water. Stir till sugar dissolves. Watch it carefully but after about 10 minutes, the sugar should brown, throw in the meat, and coat it well with the caramelized sauce. Pour in the coconut juice, add  and then fill the rest with water or juice (if you like it sweet) to cover the meat.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer and reduce for about an hour. Since I used 7up as my coconut juice, there was a lot of foam to skim, so take note of that. About 15 minutes before it's done, put the eggs in, coat them in the sauce. Keep them turning, they burn easily! Serve on rice with pickled mustard greens and nuoc mam pha!

I only cook with the highest quality of ingredients.

Love those eggs.

The caramelized sugar turned out better.

If I make this in the future, I'll use the leaner cuts of pork as my sauce was quite fatty. I love having generous spoonfuls of sauce over my rice but what little inkling of 'healthy habits' that I had remaining told me not to.

and i'm like, forget you

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Dua Chua - Pickled Mustard Greens

Today we visit a staple side dish eaten with many delicious dishes, including the dish planned for tomorrow night. I finally got around to going to renew my passport and that office happens to be right next to Chinatown. In the hour that I waited in line, I could have:

- Headed over to the Hoang Oanh Banh Mi shop and bought some sandwiches.

- Bought my ingredients for dinner tomorrow. 

(I did these things, I just did them an hour later. )

While at the Asian grocery store, I was looking for the mustard greens but I wasn't 100% sure I had picked up the right greens (What? I've only ever really seen them in pickled form...I was 97% sure.) I noticed two old ladies wearing cute old lady hats, chattering to each other in Vietnamese while shuffling about the cramped aisles of the store.  Why not ask someone who would know while taking the opportunity to practice some Vietnamese?

Me: Excuse me. Can I ask Dear Elderly Granny (DEG) a question?
DEG #1 and #2 nod.
Me: Are these the correct vegetables for making Dua Chua?
DEG #1: Yes, those are the right ones.
DEG #2: You need to buy these too. *shoves a bundle of green onions into my hand*
Me: I was going to use white onion.
DEG #1: No, that's not right.
DEG #2: Why don't you just buy the ones that come in the package?
Me: Because I want to make it myself!
DEG #1: Are you by yourself? 
Me gives her a puzzled look.
DEG #1: Are you single?

When I told my wife this story, it turns out we both had different interpretations on this comment. I figured she was wondering why I wasn't asking my wife to either make it for me, or to tell me how to make it. My wife thought that she had a single grand daughter. Oh, how our culture differences show! In the end, I showed them my wedding ring, they laughed and the proceeded to tell me how to make Dua Chua, or at least their versions, which were both different.

Dua Chua
Printable Version

Apr 25, 2011 Edit: I've made a few changes to this recipe, notably use more sugar, and add vinegar. Based on these changes, my comment about an overly salt soup from Ravenous Couple's blog probably isn't what you're looking for anymore.


- 1 lb of Mustard Greens, sliced into about 1-inch  pieces.
- 1 bundle of Green Onions, just the white bottoms, not the green leaves. Leave them whole.
- 1/2 of an onion (or 1-2 shallots), sliced (Optional)
- 4 cups of water
- 3 tbsp salt
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 5 tbsp vinegar

Start on the brine. Boil up some water. Add the salt, sugar and vinegar. These are really just suggested measurements, there needs to be a lot of taste testing. According to Ravenous Couple's Dua Chua, you're looking for an overly salty soup, but I'm pretty sure I got something resembling sea water. Then let it cool.

Put on a second pot of boiling water (separate from the 4 cups) for blanching the greens. Slice the veggies.

Once the water starts boiling, throw the greens and the green onions in. Once they go in, don't leave them in there for too long. Drain them after about 30 seconds or about as long as it takes to snap a few pictures.

Mix in the sliced onion, and put it all into an air tight container. Pour the brine in. 

I learned a trick from watching Uyen Thi make Dua Chua where she puts some water into a zip lock bag and stuffs it into the top of the jar. This is because as they are pickling, they'll start to rise and the bag will keep them down. She also mentions using a bowl and now I remember my mom putting in the jar. 

I love Dua Chua, the crunchy middle parts, the sour, pickled leaves especially when eaten with the right savoury, salty meals. More on that tomorrow.

i'm not at home in my own home

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Thai Red Curry and Summit Salad made Vegan Friendly

Last night at 11pm, I stood in my kitchen and peered into the bottomless hole that is my sink and was in awe how this tower of dirty dishes could rival my sink's massive depth. I listened to the silence of a quiet kitchen when a mere couple of hours ago, the buzz of friends chattering, utensils clinking, small feet pitter-pattering followed by an occasional squealing of delight filled the air. Whether it was from the 2 and a half year old who attended this week's dinner or whether it was my wife, I couldn't tell. It's funny how slaving, (yes, slaving) in a burning, sweltering kitchen and then having a bunch of people eat it is so rewarding. I guess I am my mother's son. Really though, you have oodles of cleaning to do afterward and the constant feeling that you're not being a good enough host. Hm, I really am...

Our menu this week was Vegan inspired, partially because I like a good challenge and partially because one of our friends and her daughter are vegan. She is actually the author of a vegan blog, The Busy (Happy!) Vegan. So my strategy to meal planning is to use whatever fresh foods we have leftover to create something new and since the main theme of this blog is to make a ton of Vietnamese food, I tend to have a lot of that genre of ingredient. I'm also a big fan of Chef Michael Smith and his style of 'no recipe' cooking. I once saw him make a red thai curry with some interesting ideas involved, so I thought a curry would be an easily veganizable dish. We topped it off with a salad and about 2 hours before dinner, I surveyed our ingredients and decided we could also make a couple salad rolls per person too. 

Friday Night Dinner Menu - Everything Vegan!

- Black Bean Dip and pita bread (for nibbles)

- Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

- Summit Salad

- Red Thai Curry

Our friends also brought:

- A yummy side dish rice? salad type thing with vegan ham 

- An irresistible dessert Sundae Station? Who's lucky enough to get a whole sundae station brought to their house nowadays? Seriously.

Feta Tofu Cheese Preparation
If you're not looking to make this vegan, simply use regular feta cheese in the salad. This needs to be made the night before. We used this recipe.

I hadn't heard of herbed tofu before.

It tasted surprisingly similar.

Summit Salad - From Whitewater Cooks: Pure, Simple and Real Creations from the Fresh Tracks Cafe (Modified to be Vegan Friendly)

Serves 8

Printable Version

Salad

- 8 Cups mixed baby salad greens

- 2 cups beets, grated

- 2 cups carrots, grated

- 2 cups chickpeas, drained

- 2 cups tofu feta "cheese", crumbled (Feta cheese substitute)

- 2 cups sprouts

- 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

Vinaigrette

-1 tbsp Dijon mustard

- 1 1/2 tbsp agave nectar (2 tbsp Honey substitute)

- 1/2 tsp garlic, crushed

- 1/2 tsp basil

- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- Juice and zest of one small orange

- 3/4 cup safflower (we used olive) oil

- 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds

- Salt and pepper to taste.

Excuse my slang but this is a salad that has gone seriously beast mode. I like to imagine it is called the Summit Salad because of it's similarities to mountains that have been conquered by few. This salad was first introduced to me by one of my aunts, who lived in Banff for a while, ate at this resort and bought the cookbook. It really has some amazing recipes in it which I'll share in the future. 

Preparation

To prepare the vinaigrette, whisk together Dijon mustard, agave nectar, garlic, basil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, orange juice and zest. Add oil in a steady stream, Roast sunflower seeds in skillet over medium heat until lightly browned and add to dressing (we threw ours in the toaster oven and actually burnt the first round. They toast fast...). Season with salt and pepper to taste. To compose the salad (the recipe says to do individual salad plates) start with the salad greens, then beets, carrots, chickpeas, feta, sprouts and sun dried tomatoes. Spoon dressing over salads.

I also spilled water on the burnt sunflower seeds. By
accident. Don't ask how.

This is the biggest bowl we own and the salad isn't
even done yet!

If you get a chance to watch Michael Smith's  'Chef at Home' show then I would suggest you do. His carefree, "feel your way through the recipe" way of cooking is so peaceful and relaxing to watch, which is exactly how one should feel while cooking a meal. I actually had this discussion with my wife about how my mentality towards cooking isn't to stress out and get every part of the recipe exact (I mean, what is this? Baking? I scoff!). This came up when she pulled out our bag of carrots that only had about 1/4 of the carrots remaining and looked at me. It was a look that said 'Remember in the store when I said we should buy carrots and you said that we had enough? Yeah. Look at this bag.' It's no wonder we got married if she can communicate so much without exercising her vocal cords. I was told that there it didn't look like there was going to be 2 cups of grated carrot. I came up with such a clever response that even Aristotle himself was stopped dead in his tracks. I replied "So?"
As callous as it sounded, the goal of this work is to get people we like spending time with in the same place and forget our troubles of the week while enjoying a delicious meal. Half a cup of grated carrot won't stop that from happening. I cook to relax and lose myself in the smells and sounds of the kitchen which sometimes includes songs by Taylor Swift or Rage Against the Machine as my playlists don't have themes. I'm not saying to stop caring while cooking, but to not sweat the small stuff, you've already got a lot on your plate (and if you don't, you should spoon some more on).

Vegan Red Thai Curry inspired by Red Thai Curry by Michael Smith

(Modified and made vegan friendly)

Printable Version

Ingredients
- 2x 400 mL cans of coconut milk
- 2 tbsp of red curry paste (make sure it's vegan)
-1 bunch of cilantro, roots and leaves chopped separately
- A package of extra firm tofu, cubed
- 3 cups of vegetable stock
- 6 lime leaves
- 1 small ginger root, frozen
- 2 tbsp of soya sauce
- 2 stalks of lemon grass, tops cut off and the bottoms split open
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 4 green onions, minced
(I added the following two for more...stuff. Quite optional.)
- 1-2 cups of mushrooms, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
He puts rice noodles in, but we served ours over rice. Either way works.

Preparation


I followed the instructions listed on his recipe but since my ingredients differed, I'll make a few edits

1. Preheat a large saucepan over medium-high heat then scoop the thick coconut cream from the top of one of the cans into it. Add the red curry paste as the cream melts into coconut oil. The mixture will start to sizzle as the oil then heats up. Add the cilantro roots, mushrooms, green pepper and tofu and stir-fry until the tofu is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the coconut juice from the first can as well as the entire contents of the second can of coconut milk, vegetable stock, lime leaves, soya sauce and lemon grass. Grate the frozen ginger into the broth - noting how much easier it is to work with when it's frozen! Use a microplane grater if you have one or the side of a box grater. Simmer for 20 minutes, until the broth has begun to thicken slightly. Add the bean sprouts and simmer another minute or 2. Remove from the heat.
3. (If you're doing rice noodles) Place the rice noodles into the broth where they will quickly soften in about 5 minutes. Add all but 2 tablespoons of the cilantro leaves and stir gently. (I actually just threw in the green onions and cilantro all together. It mixes quite well, but garnishes never hurt).
4. Ladle into large bowls and garnish with the green onions and the remaining cilantro.

Yes, it was a bit of a shock when I realized I wasn't allowed to use fish sauce *gasp* but it was definitely fun to puzzle out how to make it more flavourful so that non tofu eaters wouldn't be turned off by it. I grew up on tofu, so when I tasted a piece while it was simmering, I thought "Man, that is some good tofu." but then realized I probably should add a bit more seasoning. Taste often with curries and soups and adjust as you go.

That reminds me, look forward to when one of my cousins and I make tofu from scratch because she actually was taught first hand from our Ba Ngoai. That'll definitely be a Delicious Vietnam worthy entry.

So an overall dinner success, while introducing one my friends to all sorts of new flavours and foods (he had never had a salad roll before! I really should invite him over more often). Oh, wait? I forgot something? You want to hear about the sundae station? Would I really deprive you of this?

One of our friends said she would supply dessert, and when she came with a bag full of littler bags and containers, we were all peeking in that sort of "Oh my, what do you have there?" kind of way. When she told those of us in the kitchen that she was creating a Sundae Station, the pitter patter of feet ran off towards the living room and there was a squeal of delight to announce to everyone there what surprise awaited on the table. My wife is such a good hostess.

Sundae Station 

- Soy Ice Cream

- Crushed Peanuts

- Chocolates of varied sorts 

- Sliced Strawberries and Bananas

- Chocolate sauce

- Really, you can go nuts here. I think we had sprinkles we forgot to bring out! Aww.

I'll assume you don't need instructions on how to put together your own bowl of ice cream so that will be all for today. Remember to not sweat the small stuff and cooking won't seem like a chore and instead probably be a lot of fun. 

Next week for Friday Dinner, I might actually be back to cooking with the original hostess and co-cook so look forward to meeting her. Until then, more Vietnamese recipes will be on the way. 

everybody learns from disaster

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Thursday comes before Friday Night Dinner preview

After making Bùn Bò yesterday, I had an excess of cilantro (and I still do). I hate when fresh herbs and veggies go to waste but the bundles of cilantro sold in stores are just so big! It's kind of a fun challenge to figure out how to use them before they start going yellow and rotten.

This week, Friday Night Dinner is going to be held here and I've been pondering a fun vegan menu to bring in the spring! I have an idea that uses some more cilantro but I'll make and write about it tomorrow. As for last night, I made a Spicy Black Bean Dip that was a surprisingly successful hit among my friends. It just goes to show how a few fresh, simple ingredients can come together to make something delicious and healthy. It's also ridiculously easy. Am I not demonstrating my fantastic cooking skills enough?? I'll have to challenge myself...some more.

The only substitute I made was to use Apple Cider Vinegar instead of the White Wine Vingear because I don't have any. In fact, I've made this recipe about five or six times and I've only ever used Apple Cider Vinegar. Maybe someone could tell me what it tastes like with Whine Wine Vinegar?

which seat should I taaaake?

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Bún Bò - Rice Noodles with Stir Fried Lemongrass Beef

Funny how such a short name can mean so much. When my aunt left a suggestion of Bún Bò, or (Rice Noodle Cow) I wasn't 100% sure what it was until I did a bit of searching around and then my brain went ohhh yeah. 

I found a recipe that involved grilling which looked great, except I don't really have a grill. Despite having a trick to get around grilling, I didn't feel like utilizing it and luckily found a second recipe that stir fries the beef. I ended up doing what I usually do: found multiple recipes, looked at them all,  looked at my ingredients and cooked until something I was happy with appeared. 

I don't remember this too much, I think we tended to have Bún Thịt Nướng more often (which this is fairly similar to!). I know that my Mẹ is going to call me and tell me that I ate it a lot...and ate a lot of it! My only defense is that I've eaten a lot of food in my life and I can't remember them all!

Silly Vietnamese food. You can never see the actual food cause all the toppings cover it!
 Not to mention the lighting in my kitchen is weird.

Bùn Bò

Printable Version

Beef Marinade

- 500g of Flank Steak, (Sirloin or top round beef works too)

- 2 Stalks of Lemongrass

- 2 Green Onions

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 1 1/2 tbsp of Fish Sauce

- 1 tbsp Oil

- Sprinkle of pepper

- A sprinkle of Chopped Cilantro (I did this on a whim...very optional)

The rest

- 1 onion

- 2-3 cloves of garlic

- Vermicelli Rice Noodles (I grew up on the thinnest of the Bùn, but use whichever you like)

- Bean Sprouts

- Cucumber, sliced into little sticks.  

- Lettuce, shredded

- Pickled Shredded Carrots

- Crushed dry roasted unsalted peanuts

- Your favourite aromatic herbs: Cilantro, Thai Basil, Mint

- Mixed Nuoc Mam, of course! Don't remember how to make it? I've got you covered here!

So yes, I love this dish because of its ever so serious relationship with Nuoc Mam. How serious you ask? Really serious, they're thinking of moving in together. 

Start with the marinade: Slice the beef into thing strips. A trick I learned from my Mẹ is to freeze the beef and then you can slice it paper thin. This is especially perfect for Pho Bò but I digress. I didn't have time to freeze it so I just sliced it as thin as I could. Chop up the lemon grass, onions, garlic, and mix it all in a bowl with the beef, fish sauce, oil and pepper. Let it sit for about an hour or overnight if you're nice and prepared, unlike myself. The other recipes proposed using a mortar and pestle to form the lemon grass, garlic and other stuff into a paste. As usual, I have a terrible habit of not closely reading recipes so only noticed this once it was in the fridge. However, when I made Bún Thịt Nướng, it was basically the same marinade so I was kind of on auto-pilot. 

I didn't notice my product placement in these pictures.
Unfortunately, this is the best picture of the bowl of meat.

I prepared all the veggies during this time, not to mention the usual bean sprout picking an hour before I started on the beef. Once the beef was ready, I heated up some oil in a pan, chopped up the onion, extra 3 cloves of garlic and threw them in the pan to sauté for a bit (About a minute). I took the onions and garlic out of the pan, and threw the beef in. There is really no way to describe how good the smell of lemon grass and garlic frying in a pan is. Yum. 

This is also a good time to put a pot of water on to boil for the bùn!

I love the colour of  raw meat.

As the beef was finishing (you don't want to overcook it!), I threw the onions back in. 

Cooked meat is also good.

So, once you've got all the pieces of the puzzle, it's time to put it together to reveal a beautiful scene and the beauty of this puzzle is that there's no right answer (well, there are a few essentials). 

You're going to need a big bowl. 

- Put some bùn in. 

- Put the beef and onion on top of that.

- Pile on the rest of the toppings. (Cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, lettuce, herbs, peanuts)

- Drench in mixed nuoc mam (which I'm starting to notice a lot of other blogs/recipes calling it Nuoc Cham)

I was quite happy with the way this turned out. The beef was deliciously tender and I love the way the crushed peanuts add a crunchy texture and fantastic flavour to the dish. They go well in so many dishes, it's grood (good + great). This dish also requires next to zero cooking, just a lot of washing, cutting, crushing and all that. 

My wife asked what this was I told her it was bùn and beef as I tend to never give her a straight answer in hopes that she will work her way through a riddle and remember it better because of it (yeah, I know it's annoying but keep reading!). She asked me what beef was and I replied "Bò." She then exclaimed "Is it called Bùn Bò?!" Ah, look at that. I'm sorry, I'm having trouble typing this one-handed whilst I pat myself on the back. Wait, maybe I shouldn't be portraying myself this way in a post that is being submitted to a monthly blogging event? What's this you ask? Well, since you asked...

I recently stumbled across a monthly blogging event, for Vietnamese food lovers, from the blog of Ravenous Couple. It was thought up by Anh of A food lover's journey and together they brought it to life. Each month someone hosts the event on their blog and I'll be submitting this entry for the month of May 2011. This month's host is Jing of My Fusion Kitchen.

I lose myself in a daydream.
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Imadake - "Now Only"

We were going out to see a comedy show for charity on Saturday and it just so happened to be nearby a Japanese place we were curious to try. Long, long ago, one of my friends told me about a Japanese izakaya-style (tapas bar) called Godzilla's that was going to open downtown. We waited eagerly...and waited...

And waited...and forgot about it.

Finally, about a week ago, my friend visiting from out of town told me about this great little Japanese tapas bar that he ate at downtown and the location was exactly where Gozilla's was going to open! Turns out Godzilla turned into the now open Imadake and we were super excited to experience tastes of Japan again. Gillian and I went and were pleasantly surprised as we entered to the promising sounds of "Irrashaimase!".  We ordered Beef Tataki, a Daikon Salad, Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Karaage and some fried chicken skin! Our general consensus was that everything was satisfactory for two kids that lived in the Kansai area of Japan for about a year.

The Makino Family loves it too!

We realized it was a little silly to get Takoyaki since we have made it at home, we felt even sillier when we saw that they didn't put the little dried seaweed flakes (aonori) on top! It definitely lacked a bright, green colour. However, I did enjoy that they somehow got their outside batter extra crispy, as if they deep fried it quickly but other than that, it merely satisfied my need for Takoyaki. Oh, it also did not burn your mouth the way any good Kansai Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki should.

Our looked, tasted and burned much better! Don't worry, one
Friday Night Dinner will be Takoyaki.

I also had a brief conversation with our server to practice my terrible Japanese but when I asked what Imadake meant together (since Ima means "Now" and Dake means "Only"), he told me it meant "Just now" which fit quite well with my direct translation. 

It was definitely a fun little place to eat, and their selection of interesting ramen looks awesome. We would definitely go back with a group of friends or to try a bowl of special ramen. I'll bring a camera next time, since I think the ramen will look prettier than the dishes we had. 

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Hot Dogs...???

The first week I get to write about these special Friday Night Dinners, about our delicious, creative meals, about how we cook together and slave over the stove, and what ended up happening? We ended up with Hot Dogs.

This week we were blessed with the privilege of cooking in a nice, renovated kitchen at a home that our friend was house-sitting with the possibility of a barbecue. We had ideas of barbecuing some succulent chicken or burgers dancing through our heads, so I met my friend and we went to the grocery store in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the grocery store was only a fruit and veggie store which didn't help in the non-existent meat department. We decided to buy some veggies for a salad, some potatoes to bake and some asparagus to grill. At this point, our protein would have to come from somewhere and we were near ready to order burgers from the local delicious burger place. Hope came in a tightly plastic wrapped package of hot dogs from the corner store we stopped into to buy beer from. We grabbed some buns and had a debate over whether we should get a bottle of ketchup. I insisted that the house would definitely have some ketchup (I wouldn't mention this if the house actually did have ketchup, would I?). We picked up a slim-jim to munch on on the way back to the house. This was a peep into the less than healthy future of our meal...

First order of business was to get those potatoes baking in some tin foil on the barbecue. The asparagus was drizzled with olive oil (or so I assumed. I never found out what was in that opaque bottle), and seasoned with salt and pepper. Oh, the even firster (zeroth?) order of business was to check that the propane tank had gas in it which it did. We threw the potatoes on the grill with the asparagus as the smells of barbecue brought us hope that summer was coming. As I was going to put the hot dogs on the grill, I noticed that the fire had stopped.

Esso senses trouble. You were right, but you couldn't
warn me with your silent meows.

Yes, the propane tank was empty! The sweet, brain cell destroying smell of propane  ̶  nay, summer had dissipated into the air along with our dreams of the sweet taste of barbecued hot dogs. 

We quickly transferred everything into the oven and then were about to give in to the defeat of eating boiled hot dogs until we had a "brilliant" idea...

We wanted grilled hot dogs, and by golly, we were going to get them. That is a part of a grill sitting over top one of the burners on the oven. In case you were wondering, we cooked them on medium-high heat. I bet that the burning question in every reader's mind right now is "What about the ketchup???" Pictured below is our best attempt at raiding the fridge for condiments. 

From left to right: Pickled roasted red pepper, pickles, dijon
mustard, black bean garlic sauce, chili garlic sauce, spicy
horseradish, wasabi, green chili chutney.

I almost don't want to show you the final product, and not because I didn't enjoy it, but because one of my friends announced that my choice of hot dog toppings made her sick. In the end, we opted to round out our meal with some Kraft Dinner Spirals to show that indeed it can go the other way around. Hot dogs in KD? KD on hot dogs? Yes. 

It's a delicious salad: green lettuce, strawberries, almonds,
goat cheese with a balsamic vinaigrette. Oh the rest? Never you mind.

After a small break from dinner, we finish it all off with a usual Friday Night Dinner Favourite: Babka. (Provided by our favourite Torontonian's mum.)

We did not make this. Oh but we will. We will.

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Gỏi - Vietslaw

*Read me, I'm italicized: We're always looking for ideas for Friday Night Dinner so check the link at the top of the page or simply click right here. Any suggestions welcome!

Do you find that there are some foods that you could just eat and eat and eat? As if that food that is going into your stomach vanishes into thin air no matter how heavy the meal actually is? I do.
You may be familiar with the popular dish Bun Cha Gio (Rice noodles and spring rolls) which I can eat bowls upon bowls of and not small bowls either because it's a dish that has many toppings. Most people that know me know I can eat a lot but there's something different about these dishes maybe it's because they're so delicious and seem so light that they never fill me up.

Gỏi is one of these dishes that I love because it's light, delicious and something you put nuoc mam on. There are a few kinds of Gỏi out there, probably the most popular in restaurants being Gỏi  đu đủ (Papaya Salad) that is usually served with shrimp (at least here in Montréal) though it is normally served with beef jerky. I did a little test run of Gỏi Gà (chicken) minus the gà because I only had shrimp. This salad uses cabbage instead of papaya and is usually eaten with chao (congee), rice porridge. That really doesn't sound appetizing but trust me, it's good.

Gỏi with shrimp 
Printable Version

- 1 head of cabbage, sliced super thin.
- 4-6 medium size carrots, sliced super thin
- 1 large onion, sliced super thin
- Shrimp
- Chicken, torn into pieces.
- Vinegar, I used about a cup ...and a half?
- Salt, a few tsp.
- Peanuts, crushed
- Mint, finely chopped
- Nuoc Mam


Preparation:

Seriously, slice those veggies super thin. My mẹ was not entirely impressed with my idea to use our lovely Kitchenaid food processor and described the utensil she uses to slice cabbage super thin. Now my understanding of Vietnamese is decent, but there are a few conversation topics in which I have never engaged in, for example the description of a bladed object used to slice cabbage super thin. As far as I could piece together the description, I'm sure it looked something like this. I have yet to receive one of those in honourable combat, however not all hope was lost. She told me of how my great grandmother (or was it her great grandmother?) was able to slice cabbage paper thin with merely a knife. Yes, a k-nife. So arm yourself with whatever weapon you may have in your kitchen drawers and slice the veggies long and thin.

The low quality of the camera does not do my paper thin cutting justice.

 Once you are done, put the cabbage and carrots into a bowl. Add salt and vinegar. This will soften the cabbage. Let sit for about an hour. I would turn the mixture now and then to make sure it got all coated in vinegar.

I know what you're thinking: Paper thin. Am I right?

After the mixture has soaked for a sufficient amount of time, squeeze all of the liquid out of the mixture. Ok, look, when my mẹ told me to squeeze the liquid out of the veggies, I pictured someone picking up a handful of stuff, and squeezing it until nothing came out. As I was doing this, my wife looks at me and says "You could probably just put it into a strainer and push down on it."  I looked at her and continued to squeeze chopped up cabbage with my hands. The result?

Perhaps she should've taken a picture of me in the squeezing
process. I certainly couldn't have.

I will let you decide what course of action you wish to take, but before you do, think to yourself, which way seems more fun? Finally, add the sliced onions, shrimp, (chicken), mint, crushed peanuts and nuoc mam. The idea is for the shrimp to be sliced in half and placed red side up on top of the salad to look đẹp (beautiful). I happened to have a bag of small salad shrimp so this wasn't going to work for me. One day I'll provide you with a picture worth looking at, as for today...

I threw on those mint leaves cause I had a lot leftover. 

Oh Nuoc mam, I see you hiding in the background there.

It keeps well in your fridge and tastes great the next day, and the day after that which is good because it makes a lot. 


Mẹ also reminded me that one of my aunts makes a reeeeeally good gỏi, so I'll make it a mission to learn that one. I'm also sort of running out of dishes that I can think of off the top of my head, so I may need to search for inspiration in Chinatown. I also need to renew my passport and it happens to be very close to Chinatown... That was probably the most unrelated way to end.

Edit: I was informed by my cousin that it's actually her dad, (my uncle) who makes the good gỏi. 

It was supposed to be so eeeeasy...


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