Tofu with Tomatoes

This is a simple and tasty vegetarian recipe that dishes up in 30 minutes or less.  You won’t miss the meat because of the tofu.  For those who think they do not like tofu or have had bad experience with tofu, this dish will more than likely change your perception about tofu.  Bland, mushy white stuff this is not.  My favorite way to eat tofu is to have it fried, brown and crispy.

The tofu can be cut up in various ways.  Thick strips of tofu as outlined in the recipe will give more texture to the tofu when it’s fried. 

If you happen to have oyster sauce in your refrigerator, then by all means use it in this dish.  The oyster sauce will give an additional depth of flavor to the dish.  However, it will still be quite tasty if you skip the oyster sauce.

Tofu with Tomatoes

(Serves 4)

• 1.5 lbs tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 package of extra firm tofu (14 oz)
• ¼ cup oil
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp salt
• black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce (optional)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Remove tofu from package and pat dry.   Place tofu on cutting board with the longest side facing towards you and cut 6 even vertical slices still keeping it as a tofu block, turn the knife horizontally and cut 4 horizontal slices into the tofu block.  Now you should have about ½ in strips of tofu.  Blot the tofu strips dry with paper or dish towels – this limits some of the grease splatter.

2. Heat oil in large frying pan on medium high heat. 

3. Place the tofu strips, long side down into the oil and fry until golden brown on all sides.  Be sure to space out the tofu in the pan, or else they will stick together.   Place the fried tofu on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

4. Pour off the remaining oil except for 2 tbsp of oil to sauté the chopped onions.  Stir in chopped garlic when the onion is translucent.

5. Add chopped tomatoes to pan, sprinkle salt over tomatoes.  Stir fry for 7-10 minutes, until mixture becomes a thick sauce with chunks of tomatoes.  Add fish sauce, sugar and black pepper at the last few minutes (oyster sauce is optional).

6. Stir in the fried tofu and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes to incorporate the tofu with the tomato sauce.

7. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

 

Tofu with Tomatoes, originally uploaded by simpleviet.

 

Vietnamese Spinach Soup (Canh Mồng Tơi)

A northern Vietnamese dish that we grew up with is Canh Mồng Tơi /Malabar Spinach soup.   Canh mồng tơi is a very simple, home style soup.  This is a great light and healthy soup to accompany a meal.  Make sure you have plenty of white rice available.

Traditionally, this soup is made with dried shrimp but also great with fresh shrimp. Mồng tơi is in the spinach family and can only be found at an Asian market.  Regular spinach can be substituted.  This dish is very quick to prepare so make sure the rice is in the rice cooker before you start!

Malabar Spinach Soup (Canh Mồng Tơi)

Serves 4-6

• 8 cups of water
• 2/3 cup of dried shrimp
• 1 bunch of washed and cut Mong Toi  (or spinach)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ½  tbsp shrimp paste
• crushed black pepper to taste

1.      Soak dried shrimp in 1 cup of warm water bath for 20-30 minutes.  Drain shrimp and save the liquid.  Place shrimp into a food processor, pulse grind until the shrimp is broken up into small pieces.

2.      In a medium size pan, add 7 cups of liquid and the remaining liquid used to soak the shrimp.  Bring to a boil.

3.      Add chopped onion and salt to stock.

4.      Add cut Mong Toi to stock and bring to boil over medium high heat.

5.      Quickly stir the soup and add the shrimp paste.  Bring soup to boil for 1-2 minutes, when the Mong Toi is wilted.

6.      Ladle soup over a bowl of warm jasmine rice. 

  

Vietnamese Spinach Soup (Canh Mong Toi), originally uploaded by simpleviet.

 

Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Cha Gio)

My favorite dish has to be Vietnamese egg rolls. It’s one of the first dishes I learned to cook and enjoyed doing because I new the reward I would reap at the end! From start to finish, it’s about a two hour endeavor but well worth the time and effort. It takes even less time if you enlist the help of your friends and family. No one actually minds because they want the egg rolls to be done ASAP. (Of course, those involved in the cooking process have the right to taste test.) Another time saver is to buy pre-cut cole slaw package instead of shredding cabbage and carrots.

In our family, there can never be too many egg rolls. We always make a huge batch and it magically disappears. In the rare event that there are left overs, you can place it in a zip-lock baggie lined with paper towels and refrigerate. Just plop them in the oven on 350˚ for 7-10 minutes and they are nice and crispy again.

Vietnamese egg rolls are traditionally made with rice paper giving the egg rolls a nice crispy exterior. They can also be made with phyllo egg roll wrappers found in the frozen section of the Asian market. You can make do with Chinese egg roll wrappers avialbe at most grocery stores but the egg rolls will have a thicker skin and not as light as the other wrappers.

What ingredients go into an egg roll? It varies widely depending on your taste and what is in your cupboard or available at the grocery store. You can make it with just meat or vegetables. I like the combination of meat, seafood and vegetables. The recipe below is made with my favorite ingredients. Pork is probably the most common ingredient to any egg rolls but for the health conscious, other meats can be substituted. Below is a list of substitutable ingredients – you can choose one or a combination of ingredients:

Ground meat: pork, turkey, chicken

Seafood: shrimp, lump crab meat

Vegetables: shredded cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, shredded jicama

How to enjoy Vietnamese egg rolls? Of course, simply devouring the egg rolls without anything else. The sweet fish sauce makes a nice dipping sauce for the egg rolls. Often egg rolls are served at restaurants with the lettuce wrap fixings – I’ve included this option below. If you want to make egg rolls more of a meal, you can cut the egg rolls into bite size and serve with rice noodles. The rice noodles (thin, round variety – Bun) are cooked and cooled to room temperature. In individual serving bowls, top rice noodles with shredded lettuce, julienned cucumber, sprigs of cilantro and plenty of bite size egg rolls. Final touch to the cold egg roll noodle bowl is to dress it with the sweet fish sauce.

My recipe below will make between 40-50 eggrolls. The amount will be dependent on how generous the fillings are for each of the eggrolls. As long as you are taking the time to make egg rolls, I think you should have plenty for left overs! It may sound like a lot but it should easily serve a crowd. You can half the recipe if you plan to only serve this as an appetizer for 4-6 people.

Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Cha Gio)

Serves 10-15

Egg Rolls:

• 1 lb ground meat – pork
• ½ pound peeled shrimp
• 1 cup of lump crab meat
• 3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 carrot, peeled and shredded
• ¼ cabbage, shredded
• 1 medium size jicama shredded
• 2 ounce dried vermicelli noodles
• 1 ounce dried black fungus/cloud ear mushrooms
• 2-3 large eggs
• Ground black pepper
• 2-3 tbsp of fish sauce (depending on taste)
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)
• Egg roll wrappers – 12 oz package (30-50 rice paper sheets, 10 inch diameter)
• Frying oil – vegetable, corn, canola, peanut

Sweet Fish Sauce:

• 2 garlic cloves chopped or smashed
  
• 1 fresh Thai Chili (or ¼ tsp of hot chili peppers flakes)
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tbsp fresh lime/lemon juice
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2-4 tbsp shredded carrots (or Vietnamese Relish)

Lettuce wrap fixings (optional):

• 1 washed head of lettuce (crisphead, butterhead or red leaf)
• 1 cucumber julienned
• 1 bunch of cilantro

1. Soak vermicelli noodles and mushrooms in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes.

2. In a food processor pulse grind shrimp, crab meat, garlic until roughly chopped. Add to mixture, drained vermicelli noodles and mushrooms, pulse grind briefly until all ingredients are integrated.

3. In a large mixing bowl, transfer ingredients from food processor and combine with ground meat, shredded vegetables. Add black pepper, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and 2 eggs. Use hands to mix ingredients together. If the mixture seems dry, add the other egg.

4. Wrapping the egg rolls with rice paper. Fill a shallow dish with 1 inch of warm water. Quickly dip rice paper in the water bath, making sure all parts of the paper is wet. Place wet rice paper on a clean dish towel/plate and let it soften. Once it is soft and pliable, peel it off the towel and place on to a plate. Lay 1 ½ tbsp of filling on the lower edge of the rice paper, near you, leaving 1 inch edge. Begin to fold egg roll like an envelop: first, fold over the lower 1 inch edge over the filing, then the left edge, then the right edge. Now roll the roll up to the top edge. Place the wrapped egg roll on a platter and keep on rolling!

5. Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium high heat. Tess the oil by dipping the tip of a wooden spoon or wooden chop stick – if it bubbles around the tip then the oil is ready. Place egg roll one at a time into hot oil, with the seam down (this will keep it from unraveling) and then quickly turn the egg roll to ensure the skin crisp up and does not stick to other egg rolls in the pan. Adjust heat so that the oil is bubbling gently and not too vigorously around the egg rolls. Each egg roll will take about 5 minutes to cook – golden brown spots and skin is super crispy. Shake the egg roll over the pan to help remove the excess oil. Place egg roll on layers of paper towels to drain.

6. Next, make the sweet fish sauce for dipping. Either finely chop garlic and pepper OR use a mortar and pestle to smash garlic and hot pepper. If you are using pepper flakes, no need to smash. Place the chopped or smashed garlic and pepper into a small bowl then add the rest of the ingredients for the dressing. Stir well until sugar dissolves. If the sauce is not quite sweet enough add a bit more sugar. If the sauce is too sweet and not tangy enough for your taste, squeeze in some lime/lemon juice to cut the sweetness.

7. Prepare the lettuce wrap fixings. Gently unwrap and separate the lettuce, one leaf at a time and arrange leaves on serving platter. On another small plate, arrange the julienned cucumber and the cilantro.

8. Serve egg rolls with the dipping sauce and the lettuce wrap fixings. How to eat – use lettuce as a wrap and place the egg roll in the middle with the cucumber, coriander, roll the lettuce up (like a burrito). Dip into sauce and enjoy.

Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Cha Gio), originally uploaded by simpleviet.

Sweet Corn Pudding (Chè Bắp)

Desserts are usually not plentiful on a Vietnamese menu.  However, you will more than likely find something called ‘Chè’. Chè can be served warm, at room temperature, cold or over ice.  In our family, Mom usually makes a huge batch so that we can have some fresh from the kitchen with plenty of individual servings in the refrigerator for us to snack over the next few days.

Probably the closest description for Chè is pudding since it often is a thick texture but there are some that are more watery.  There are many types of Chè and the best places to try are at Vietnamese markets, bakery, coffee/tea shops, and then there are just Chè shops (mostly in Southern California). Chè can be made with various combinations of rice, fruits, vegetables, and legumes: banana, coconut, corn, dates, jackfruit, lotus seeds, lychees, plantain, red bean, rice, seaweed, tapioca, taro root, white bean.  Coconut milk and tapioca pearls are usually major ingredients and gives the creamy texture to Chè.  Some Chè can be topped with sesame seeds or peanuts.

To introduce you to Chè, I’ve chosen a very simple recipe, Chè Bắp (Sweet Corn Pudding).  If you have every made the savory creamed corn dish, you will be familiar with how to remove the corn from the cob.  Remember to immediately ladle the Chè into the serving dishes once you take it off the heat.  When the Chè cools, it thickens like pudding and becomes lumpy looking if portioned into serving dishes. 

Sweet Corn Pudding/(Chè Bắp)

Serves 6

Chè: 

• 4 ears fresh corn (yields 3 cups of corn)
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 tbsp corn starch

Coconut Sauce:

• 4 oz Coconut Milk (1/2 can)
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1.                  Cut the bottom of the corn cob.  Stand the corn cob on the cut end. Using a sharp knife, shave the corn off the cob with long smooth downward strokes until you reach the core , rotate the cob as you go.  Save the shaven cobs.

2.                  In a boiling pot of water on medium heat, placed the shaven corn cobs into the pot.  Bring to boil and simmer over medium high heat for 30 minutes to create a corn stock.  The stock should reduce down by a 1/3.

3.                   Remove corn cobs from the pot.   Stir in the corn kernels and sugar to the corn stock and bring to a boil.

4.                  Thicken the corn starch with a few tablespoons of cold water.  Stir cornstarch mixture into the simmering corn and bring to a boil to thicken.  Remove from heat and immediately ladle corn pudding/ Chè into individual serving dishes.

5.                   In a small sauce pan, add coconut milk and simmer over low heat.  Add to coconut milk the vanilla extract and bring to a low boil.  Remove from heat.  Drizzle 2-3 tbsp of coconut milk over each corn pudding dish.

6.                   Serve warm, room temperature or chilled (2 hours in refrigerator).  Can be refrigerated 2-3 days. 

Sweet Corn Pudding (Chè Bắp), originally uploaded by simpleviet.