Spicy Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

Asian food is tasty and provides high nutrition with medicinal values and contains very small amounts of fat. Thai food is widely recognized as an ideal healthy food because it uses a lot of herbs, such as lemongrass, ginger, galangal, garlic, shallots, and hot chili. All these herbs have medicinal properties; they eliminate gas and stomach discomfort, digestive disorders, and stimulate perspiration while easing nausea and motion sickness. In some cases, hot chili, fresh or dried, will improve absorption and detoxification. This recipe is the one I love to prepare when I feel "under the weather". I do not have the fresh galangal, so I used the powder instead. This soup can be served by itself or with cooked Rice noodles or rice.

Ingredients:
Soup flavoring:
10 cups good chicken broth
2 fresh lemongrass, cut into sections and crushed
1 fresh shallot, sliced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
Fresh ginger, 2-inch lengths, sliced
1 zest of lemon
5 dry chili, crushed
2 tsp salt or more to taste
2 tsp fish sauce (optional)
1 small chopped white onion
2 tsp galangal powder

Seafood (about 6 oz each):
1 tuna fillet, 1 salmon fillet, and 1 tilapia fillet, cut into bite-size pieces
8 shrimp, shelled and deveined

Juice of one (or more) lemon
Vegetables:
½ lb. total combination of fresh mushrooms, such as shitake, button, and oyster, sliced

Garnish with fresh basil, green onions, and chopped cilantro

Directions:
In a pot, bring chicken broth to boil and add the rest of the soup flavoring.

Simmer the broth for 1 hour (I like to add one piece of kelp into the broth about 30 minutes before it is done). Drain the broth.  Return the broth to a pot and bring it back to boil. Add all the mushrooms. Season with salt and black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes, and add all the fish. Turn the heat up to high. Add lemon juice. Add fish sauce at this point and shrimp.

 Turn the heat off when the shrimp turns pink. More fresh hot chili can be used for your own taste. Ladle soup into a serving bowl and sprinkle with fresh herbs and green onions.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls (Gỏi Cuốn Chay)

I always feel that cooking at home is best, and the best recipes are the ones that are created with love. I mean that sometimes I want to do things in a hurry; however, sometimes I have ideas about making dinner even a day before or just after I made a meal already for that night. I think most cooks can share these same feelings with me for the same reason – they love to cook. There are many intangibles that make meals taste good, but especially our thoughts and our attitudes at the time the meal is prepared. I read a book a long time ago emphasizing this principal. We, cooks, have to be the most important factor for how the recipe is created or perhaps the main ingredient. The old saying is that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and when food is prepared with love, it satisfies and nurtures our hearts and souls on many different levels.

Ingredients:
1 small potato – peeled, skinned, and shredded
1 small sweet potato – peeled, skinned, and shredded

 

2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots – peeled, skinned, and shredded
Daikon – peeled, skinned, and shredded (about 2 cups)
2 oz. fresh oyster mushroom, cut into matchsticks
4 fresh shitake mushrooms, cut into matchsticks

 

2 eggs to make an omelet to be cut into matchsticks
2 shallots, thinly sliced
Fresh herbs, basil, mints, and cilantro
1/2 cup oil
Salt, sugar, soy sauce, and black pepper
Red leaf lettuce torn into big pieces
Dry Vietnamese rice paper
Sweet hoisin-peanut dipping sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tbs peanut butter
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 tbs ketchup
1 garlic clove, minced
Fresh hot chili chopped
Soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste

Directions:
Soak both potatoes in cold water. Then drain to remove most of the starch.
Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch both potatoes quickly and let them completely dry.
In a saucepan, heat oil and fry the shallots until crispy. Remove and set aside.
In the same hot oil, fry both potatoes until crispy.

In a medium sauté pan, heat oil.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add daikon, carrots, and both of the mushrooms. Season with soy sauce, salt, sugar, and pepper. Cook the vegetables until just wilted but still can hold their shapes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked vegetables, fried potatoes, fried shallots, and eggs and mix well. At this point, you might adjust the seasoning again.

Use a wet, clean kitchen towel to dampen the rice paper, a few at a time.
Take one spring roll wrapper (dampened rice paper).

  Keeping all the ingredients on your side of the centerline, place a piece of red leaf lettuce then a spoonful of the filling over the top of the lettuce.

Then fold up your end of the wrapper over the filling, fold up each side to prevent the ingredients from falling out, and then continue to roll up tightly into a log

 

 

 

. Continue the same procedure for each rice paper wrapper. Serve with the dipping sauce below.

To make the dipping sauce:
In a small saucepan, add some of the shallot oil. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil. Season with salt or soy sauce, if needed. Sprinkle with chopped roasted peanuts, if desired.

Vegetarian Noodle Soup (Bánh Canh Chay)

Lately, most of us realize that eating vegetables is very important not just for our individual health but also for all of humanity. As a devout Buddhist like myself, I think about not eating too much meat to save as many animal lives as possible. It is always a good choice these days to maintain both a healthy body and spirit. Many studies have proven that all our cells will be better off with good, less processed sources of food. More non-vegetarians are moving toward eating healthier, balanced diets; therefore, at least once each weak or month they need to eat primarily vegetables. To make vegetarian eating attractive, meals not only need to be simple to prepare but also must assure that they have the combination of good taste and texture in the vegetable ingredients that provide both fiber and protein.  The recipe I am introducing now speaks volumes about what I just mentioned.

Ingredients:
8 cups vegetable broth (homemade or store-bought)
8 oz firm tofu, fried, sliced

Combination of dried mushrooms soaked in water, sliced, about 2 oz
3 fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
2 oz fresh oyster mushrooms, sliced
1 cup daikon, cut into cubes
1 cup carrots, cut into cubes
1 lb. fresh rice noodles (Bánh Canh)
Fried shallots

Salt, soy sauce, and pepper to taste
1/4 cup cornstarch

Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro

Directions:
Bring a pot of the vegetable broth to boil. Add the dried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, daikon, carrots, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt, soy sauce, and pepper.
While the broth is simmering, bring another pot of water to boil and cook the fresh noodles as directed on the package. Divide the cooked noodles equally onto the serving bowls.
Slice one or two shallots and fry them in a sauté pan with oil over medium heat until crispy. Remove and set aside.

Mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and add into the simmering broth.
To Serve:
After placing the noodles on the bottom of each serving bowl, top with a few fried tofu slices, daikon, carrots, and mushrooms. Ladle the broth over them and top with fried shallots. Sprinkle with green onions and cilantro.

Rice Noodles Stirfry with Chicken

Stir-frying is a signature of the Asian cuisine. Most of the stirfry recipes use either egg noodles or rice noodles. The differences are based on the meat and the vegetables for these recipes. Some other countries, such as India, Singapore, or Thailand use curry or turmeric for those stir-frying noodles. Vietnamese and Chinese use almost the identical ingredients, except the Vietnamese use fish sauce instead of soy sauce. Use whichever is available to suit your own taste. I will make my stir-fried noodles recipe using chicken and vegetables. This dish can be a main meal by itself, or it can accompany most other Asian dishes. I will make it very simple, but the result will have a restaurant taste.

Ingredients:
8 oz. dried rice noodles, soaked in water for 1 hour and drained

8 oz. chicken breasts, sliced
1 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs peanut oil

1/2 cup chicken stock or water
Marinade:
1 tsp salt
1 tbs cooking wine, such as dry sherry or Chinese cooking wine
1 garlic, minced
1 tbs fresh ginger, minced
Vegetables:
3 fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 cup white onions, sliced
1 cup fresh bean sprouts

Garnish with fresh chopped green onion and cilantro

Directions:
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and add chicken. Marinate chicken for 1 hour.
Heat a wok until hot. Add the oil and swirl it around. Add the chicken and stirfry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add white onions and stirfry for 1 minute.

 Add mushrooms and carrots.

 Cook for 2 minutes. Add cabbage.

Season with soy sauce and some salt, if needed. Add noodles and more oil, if needed.

Stir in the chicken stock and beansprout.

 Cook for another minute or until the noodles absorb most of the liquid, and the chicken is cooked. Stir in green onions and chopped cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve.

Indian/Vietnamese Beef Curry

I grew up loving Vietnamese curry and always chicken curry or vegetarian curry made with sweet or regular potatoes. I don't know that I love curry because of the meat or the potatoes. However, after I knew about Indian curry, I like the Indian curry spice more. It has a stronger taste than the Vietnamese curry, and the meat can be any kind from chicken, lamb, or beef. I found that it was very interesting for me to learn about the following recipe. The reason that I want to combine both Vietnamese and Indian for this recipe is that the Indian curry does not include the potatoes and seems less liquidy for this dish after finishing the cooking. If this recipe is good to make, I suggest that buying the Indian curry spice is the easiest way to prepare this recipe; otherwise, making Indian curry spices has a long list of ingredients that will not be available at some grocery stores. I think it is worth it to try because the taste is wonderful and the aroma sensational.

Ingredients:

1 lb stew beef, cut into 2 inch cubes
2 tbs oil
2 tbs curry spice
Red hot chili and cayenne pepper
1 tbs ginger/garlic paste (1 tsp each fresh garlic and ginger, ground in the food processor into paste)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbs tomato paste
1 white onion, cut into chunks
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks
1 cup beef broth
1 cup coconut milk.
2 tbs lemon juice

Garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro.

Serve with white rice or bread

Directions:
Chop the hot chili. Add into curry spice along with cayenne pepper, tomato paste, and 2 tbs coconut cream to make a paste.

In a medium nonstick skillet, heat oil. Add onion and ginger/garlic paste and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions are golden brown.

Add the curry paste and cook for 2 minutes or until the aroma perfumes your kitchen. Stir in the beef and coat beef with this paste for 2 minutes.

Add stock and bring to a boil.

Cover with tight lid and turn heat to simmer.

 

 Cook beef for 30 minutes. Add potatoes and cook for another 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

Uncover the lid and add coconut milk and lemon juice.

 Bring back to a boil. Re-season again with salt, if needed. Cook uncovered and cook for 10 minutes.

 

  Sprinkle with green onions and cilantro and serve with rice or bread.

Salmon Braised with Red Onion

The sweetness of red onions released during the slow cooking process and the lemon juice add to the sweet flavor for the salmon. The onions can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until needed, and this dish will make a quick hearty dinner in the winter season. This meal can be served with baked potatoes, cooked basmati rice, or with a bowl of salad.

Ingredients:

Two 8 oz skinless, salmon fillets
1/4 cup white wine
1 tbs of oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbs butter
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt and black pepper

Directions:

In a medium cast iron skillet or nonstick sauté pan over medium heat, melt butter and oil. Add onions, lemon juice, fresh herbs, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat the onions with the seasoning and then sauté, stir, the onions until soft (about 7 minutes).

Cover and cook for another 20 minutes or until the onions are soft and sweet.

 Occasionally, reduce heat to prevent the onions from becoming brown.

In a baking dish, place the cooked onions and top with salmon.

Season salmon with salt and pepper.

Drizzle white wine over fish and bake in a preheated oven set to 400° for 15 minutes or until the fish is opaque throughout or flakes easily with a fork. Drizzle more olive oil on top before serving, if desired.