New Summer Food: Bun Xao Chay

After a month in Vietnam, I've picked up a couple of tricks and dishes. I tried to keep an eye out for things I could replicate/duplicate once I got home. My aunt made Bun Cha Gio Chay (I'll try making it when it gets cooler so I can fry spring rolls without dying of heat), my cousin made a vegetarian version of Banh Xeo for me, and we went to countless restaurants and food carts all over the southern half of the country.

One of my favorite things that I couldn't wait to make at home is a cool beef noodle salad called bun xao. If I'm correct in my tiny knowledge of the language, bun refers to the rice noodles, and xao suggests the stir-frying of whatever protein is in this. I've made it now with both vegetarian beef and chik'n chunks (I use Trader Joe's meatless beef strips and Quorn chik'n tenders. Morningstar used to have a Meal Starters steak strips that's similar to the Trader Joe's, but I haven't seen it lately).

Bun Xao Chay

Heat 1 Tb. veg. oil and add a minced clove of garlic (or 2!) and some lemongrass. Because I haven't been able to find fresh lemongrass here, I bought lemongrass paste in a plastic tube next to the flat pack herbs in the produce section. I used maybe 2 Tb of the paste-- add it to the oil and garlic and saute for a bit. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Then add your protein-- and continue sauteing until it's browned and coated in the lemongrass mixture.

In the meantime boil a pot of water. When it's boiling, add 1/2 a package of rice vermicelli noodles. Turn off the heat and let the noodles soak for 3-5 minutes. Once they're tender, drain them completely. It's fine if the noodles cool while you're prepping everything else.

The dressing is a vegetarian version of nuoc mam-- substituting low sodium soy sauce (preferably Vietnamese soy sauce, but we can't have everything) for the usual fish sauce.

Nuoc Mam Chay (also great with cha gio chay)

(all of this can be adjusted to taste, esp. the hot stuff)

1 minced garlic clove

juice and pulp of 1 lime

2 Tb. rice vinegar

2 Tb. low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic chili paste (the stuff like Sambal Oelek, not Sriracha)

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 c. warm water

The rest is lettuce, mint, thai basil, cilantro, shredded carrots, thin slices of cucumber, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts.

Assembly is a little messy. Usually each component is placed independently, rather than tossed together. Put down the greens and herbs, then a pile of noodles, then the protein and finish with bean sprouts and crushed peanuts. I topped mine off with some finely sliced jalapenos that went red on the plant. They were sweet and had just a little bite of heat. My relatives would probably throw on a ton of those tiny red and green bird's eye chilis. This is my humble approximation.
I topped everyone's serving with about 3 Tb. of the nuoc mam chay. I also added a little of my own pickled carrots and daikon radishes (just let them marinate in some rice vinegar, sugar, water and a little of those finely sliced chiles for at least an hour-- up to a couple of days). Pickled veggies were always present at every meal! I'm thinking of sauteing tofu with the garlic and lemongrass next time. We've had it twice in the past two weeks, so I guess everyone else likes it too!

Summer Fever!

We went to the local farmer's market yesterday morning and found it swung into high gear already. Locally grown produce, starter plants for herbs and flowers, a lady selling agua fresca, long lines for kettle corn. It smells like summer. We've got it bad. Just planted tomatoes and basil for the patio garden. Then, covered in dirt, I built a fire in the fire pit and grilled some veggie dogs and corn. Rather than buying that lady's agua fresca, Zips bought me a small locally grown watermelon (it's a little early in the season), and cut out all the flesh, whizzed it up in the blender, and strained it twice-- creating an entire pitcher of juice for the same price as a single styrofoam cup filled with melting ice and a little melon juice! Wanting to contribute more (and not overindulge in charred processed veggie meats), Zips found a recipe on the label of a can of garbanzo beans that looked good. The recipe is called "Rockin' Moroccan Pita" and involves cooking chicken breasts in cumin and chili powder, then tossing with garbanzos and stuffing it all into pita pockets topped with yogurt. All the elements are there for a new twist on a bean salad, so Zips took a 12oz. bag of Quorn chick'n tenders and grabbed a couple of ears of roasted corn and invented:

Mexican Double "Chick"pea Salad

blend together

1 Tb. ground cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

4 Tb. olive oil.

and toss in chick'n tenders, coating them thoroughly. Heat chick'n tenders in a pot (you can add 1/2c. water-- we did this in a pot over the fire and heated it until most of the water evaporated).

In the meantime, combine

1 16oz. can of chick peas (drained, rinsed)

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 tomato, diced

1-2 cobs worth of roasted corn, de-kerneled

1/2 c. parsley, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

drizzle of olive oil

Combine seasoned chick'n to the bean mixture and serve warm or cooled.

I realize the bean company called this "Rockin' Moroccan," but with the cumin and chili and roasted corn, we agreed this tastes decidedly south of the border. The "Double Chick" comes from the combination of chick'n and chick-pea (and it's more fun to say than chickenchickpea salad) It's delicious!

My other obsession this weekend is the memory of the crepe suzette haunting me from La Creperie in Chicago. I already had a crepe batter recipe, so looked around for a Suzette a la Germain that resembled the orange-y goodness that we enjoyed. I settled on one, and realized partway through it that I had misread the directions, so improvised what I think is an AWESOME sauce:

Crepe Zipzette a la Germain (just the sauce)

Juice of 5 oranges

zest of 1-2 oranges

2Tb. sugar

1 Tb. butter

Heat these in a small saucepan about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in 2 Tb. Grand Marnier. Once I'd made a batch of crepes, I folded one in half, dipped it through the sauce and folded it again (now quartered) onto the plate. Drizzle with more sauce, and sliced strawberries, bananas, orange, and some whipped cream.

Try not to let your eyes roll back in your head too much!

New Quinoa Recipe for the New Year

I'm so happy to have a little time to cook and try out new things. I have only a week before school starts again, so I'm going to try to get a lot in!

We got the latest issue of Vegetarian Times in the mail and it has recipes submitted by students, including an excellent quinoa salad. Which I made. And am eating as I sit here typing this. It has a lot of tabouleh/arabic salad components, which of course are Zipper's favorites. And it has the added bonus of quinoa's magical properties and toasted pine nuts for crunch.

Quinoa Salad (from Veg Times with Zipper modifications)

Boil about 6c. of salted water and add 1 1/2 c. quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is tender (about 15 min). Drain quinoa and rinse with cold water. Drain again.

Toast 1/2 c. pine nuts in a dry pan. Don't let them burn.

Finely dice

1 english or 2 regular cucumbers (peeled, seeded) (2 1/2 c.)

2 tomatoes (3/4 c.)

1/2 red onion (about 1/2 c.)

1 bunch parsley

Toss quinoa, pine nuts and veggies. Add zest and juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 c. olive oil.

Salt & black pepper to taste.

Makes a large batch (it's supposed to serve 12). It'll be great next time I have to bring something to a potluck!

Very Easy Jicama Slaw

After writing out and posting photos of our salsa verde perfecto and guacamole, I've been salivating for a big taco extravaganza. As we were getting produce for dinner, I couldn't resist picking up a jicama, even though I've very rarely eaten it at home (what have I bought, like, one in my life?). Not knowing what exactly I was going to do with it, but positive it would be delicious, I brought it home and started looking for recipes for a jicama slaw. Frankly, they all looked weird (Bobby Flay's includes honey, Emeril uses yogurt!?) or really over-dressed (6 Tb Olive Oil??!). So I decided I'd start with the Mexican slaw recipe I worked out copying one of our favorite local place's slaw, and then modify it from there if it was too boring. It turned out to be delicious as is!

Jicama Slaw

1 jicama (peeled, julienned)

1 carrot (ditto)

1/4 small red cabbage (chopped)

1/2 c. cilantro (chopped)

And for the dressing, whisk together:

3/4 c. rice vinegar

2 Tb. vegetable oil

1 1/2 Tb. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp black pepper

(This dressing is good on just finely sliced green cabbage too. That's our La Posta-style slaw ). Zips is in the kitchen right now slicing avocados. I gotta go!

Spring and Summer Eats

Okay, first of all, I can't believe I haven' t yet posted a recipe for one of my favorite things to eat: Sticky Rice with Mango. And tonight's great new recipe is brought to you by a grocery store sample. Now, I'm not usually one to eat just anything that's sitting around in a dixie cup at the front end of a store. But we were stocking up on some munchies at our local veg-friendly co-op and there were little cups of a peanut noodle salad. Famished, I decided to check it out and feel so lucky that I did. I was also delighted that the recipe was printed out on a slip of paper, and is pretty much from scratch, with ingredients I almost always have:

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

1 package stir fry rice noodles (Pad Thai noodles):

Bring a pot of water to a boil, shut it off and soak the noodles for 8 to 10 minutes until they are cooked, but still firm (not mushy). Rinse with cold water and set aside.

1 package firm/extra-firm tofu:

Cut into thin slices and saute until golden on both sides

Veggies:

green and purple cabbage, cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, green onions, cilantro

Sauce:

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/2 c. rice vinegar

2 Tb. sugar

2 Tb. minced ginger

1 Tb. minced garlic (2 cloves)

3/4 c. peanut butter

(the recipe includes 3/4 c. cold water, which I left out. I was afraid it'd be too watery.)

blend together in a blender and add

1/4 c. sesame

2 tsp. red chili flakes

Keep blending until sauce is smooth.

Toss everything together and chill or serve room temperature.

Sticky Rice with Mango

Sticky Rice with Mangos (quick n' dirty)

soak 1 c. sticky rice in 1 1/2+c. hot water for 10 minutes. Cover and microwave for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave 3 more minutes. Repeat until rice is cooked.

meanwhile, combine and bring to a simmer

1c. coconut milk

2 Tb. sugar

pinch of salt

pour 3/4c. over cooked rice and let it sit for 5 minutes. Spoon more over the rice and fresh mango slices when serving. (garnish with mint if you're feeling fancy). Aroi mak. Aroi mak mak. (that's Thai for "very delicious" and "very very delicious." Good to know.)

Aguas de Frutas y Amigos

Part I: Agua Fresca

New developments coming out of my kitchen this afternoon include Agua Fresca with the leftover cantaloupe and watermelon from a great weekend sale at the local supermarket-- Because our apartment is so hot right now, the cantaloupe got REAL ripe overnight, so I had to chop it up and refrigerate it, and promptly forgot about it. Blending the fruit pieces and then straining them does an amazing job of retaining the sweetness and bouquet of the fruit, while removing the gross texture of borderline overripe melon. It's totally delicious. Zips, who prefers watermelon to any other melon, and who is ambivalent about the delights cantaloupe has to offer, DOWNED the cantaloupe agua fresca in two gulps. The watermelon was excellent too. It was a wonderful GIGANTIC seeded melon. I added sugar as the recipe called for, so it ended up being a tad on the sweet side. Easily counteracted, though, with a couple ice cubes.

I got the idea for Agua Fresca earlier in the summer with a so-so not-quite-in-season watermelon. It made a horrid watermelon gazpacho, so the rest of it was an experiment. The remainder of the melon needed to be used, so I found this great site with recipes. Zips hated the first attempt at agua fresca. Probably because I cut the melon on the same board as the onion for the gazpacho-- not so tasty in juice.

Anyway, today, since I was only working with a portion of each kind of melon and only half a lime (other recipes call for as many as 2-3 limes), I fudged the measurements. Here's what I did:

Agua de Melon (Cantaloupe)

4 c. chopped cantaloupe
2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar

blend until smooth. strain. refrigerate.


Agua de Sandia (Watermelon)

4 c. chopped watermelon (remove seeds as you put it in the blender)
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
juice of 1/2 lime




blend. strain. refrigerate


Seriously, how can you resist? Have you no heart?


Part II: Arabic Salad

FINALLY, with the fruits of our labors! One of Zips ALL TIME favorites is arabic salad. I clipped some of our flatleaf parsley, some crazy abundant spearmint (about 1/4 c. of each, chopped), a green onion (chopped), two early girl tomatoes, and a cuke (each diced), the juice of a lemon (not from our garden, alas...I'll have to wait until we live in a different climate!), a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes when you've mixed everything together to let the flavors meld. Then grab a couple of spoons and dig in! (Of course, you could eat it in a bowl or plate, alongside some lovely tabouleh or couscous...but Zips can't wait that long).

Part III: Sesame Ginger Dipping Sauce

In the continuing quest to replicate a Veggie Tempura dipping sauce (that I've never tasted) from a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia (that I've never been to), I tried out this recipe that's attempting to copy a Asiatic lettuce wrap served at Chili's (that I've also never tasted). I love it when home chefs try to figure out restaurant recipes (and of course share them). One total success I've had is the KFC cole slaw that's out there. Anyways, Zips says this sauce is very very close to what she ate:

1/4 c. water
1 Tb. cornstarch (I added even more when all the ingredients were incorporated to thicken it up)
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/3 c. rice vinegar
1 tsp. minced ginger (I am usually prone to add more ginger, but I stuck with this measurement. I might add a little more next time)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. minced garlic (I used my microplane grater for both this and the ginger. I grated about half of one clove of garlic)

Heat the water and cornstarch to dissolve it. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 2 minutes. (And if you're me, use those 2 minutes to dissolve more cornstarch in water and add to the sauce until you achieve the desired consistency.)

Thumbs up. I think I'm going to try tempura tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes!