Vietnamese Sweet Rice & Corn in Crockpot (Xôi Bắp Nhảo)

Xôi Bắp Nhảo is another Vietnamese popular snack food. This food is served on a "bowl" made from a banana leaf and with a small part of a coconut branch for the spoon. It is cute to eat this way and a practical choice for container instead of using plastic kinds. I posted this recipe a long time ago using the recipe from a blogger names Opera. Recently, I watched this new recipe on YouTube demonstrated by a chef named Xuân Hồng. Her recipe is a lot closer to the taste that I remember from my younger years. I did not live close to a Vietnamese town now; therefore, I cannot get a banana leaf to make a bowl nor like Xuân Hồng who uses some of the palm tree plants in her garden to create a serving spoon.
I still use the technique that I learned before from the Opera blogger that makes this meal in a Crockpot. However, I changed a few things in the recipe to create my own for a healthier choice and for my taste. Xuân Hồng is very detailed in her demonstration. Go to YouTube.com to get her original version of this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 bag of Bắp Chà hay bắp dã  (12 oz)
One can of Coco Rico
2 cups coconut milk (from Costco)
4 cups water
1 tbs salt
1 tbs chia seeds

Topping ingredients:
Roasted peanuts
Roosted sesame seeds
Shredded coconut flakes

Directions:
Wash Bắp Chà hay bắp dã and drain well. In the crockpot, combine washed Bắp Chà hay bắp dã with the rest of the ingredients, except the topping. Cover the crockpot.

 Cover with lid and let it slow cook overnight. It will be ready in the morning to enjoy as down breakfast.

 

Add two tbs sugar and one tsp salt for every 1/2 cup of crushed peanuts and add 1 tbs crushed sesame seeds. Mix well. This is the topping for this recipe but also can be used for most of the sweet rice dishes in Vietnam.

Mexican Grilled Tuna with Fresh Herbs

During summer, my herbs garden produces a large volume of fresh herbs. I like to make a sauce for grilling fish or meat . This sauce is easy for people who grow fresh herbs, but not so convenient for some people who have to buy all the different kind of herbs. I served my brother-in-law and his girlfriend with this meal. They both loved this recipe, so I will share it now.

Ingredients:
Two 6 oz tuna fillets
Sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup of fresh herbs: cilantro, oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley and sage
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Garnish with orange and lemon wedges
Steamed vegetables

Directions:
Put all the sauce ingredients into blender and pulse a few times.
Place tuna in a container with lid. Pour  this sauce on both sides of fish (this recipe can be used for 4 tuna). Cover and refrigerate for at least  2 hours or overnight.
Remove from the marinade and reserve the marinade
In a nonstick pan, add about 1 tbs of olive oil. Grill fish on each side for 5 minutes. About 1 minute before tuna is done' pour the marinade and cook for 1 minutes.Remove from pan and serve.
This recipe’s ingredients can be wrapped in parchment paper or in a banana leaf to steam or to bake.

Daikon or Turnip Rice Cake

This Chinese rice cake is served at the Dim Sum hour in Chinese restaurants. There are many recipes that have been used to make this cake. Some include chasiu (Chinese BBQ pork) to add more flavor to the cake.
Here is an easy recipe to make this cake. It tastes wonderful.

Ingredients:
3 cups rice flour
2 cups  water
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup dried shrimp, soaked in water, drained, and finely chopped
1 small daikon (about 3 cups after shredding)

1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, chopped
1 Chinese sausage, finely chopped
Salt, white pepper, and sugar

 

Directions;
Line two 8” x 5” loaf pans with sheet plastic wrap with some wrap hanging over the sides.

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the shredded daikon for 5 minutes. Drain the cooked daikon. Let it cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour with water and chicken broth. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. Mix well.

In a large sauté pan, add 1 tsp oil. Add shallot and garlic and cook for a few minutes.

 Add shrimp and Chinese sausage. Season with salt and pepper or some soy sauce.

 Add flour and cooked daikon. Stir constantly until partly cooked (when your hand feels heavy while stirring, the batter is at the correct consistency).

Pour the batter onto the prepared cake pan and steam in a steamer for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This cake can be cut into portions and freezes well.

Salmon Baked with Roasted Tomato & Garlic

Throughout my blog, I emphasize healthy cooking. I also like to prepare simple meals with the advantages of fresh herbs. With those ideas in mind, we all have to feed our families with good food and enjoy as much time together as we can with a limitation of available time in our fast-paced society. Always spend time eating together and maintain a healthy balanced diet with limited fat. Nothing should be more appetizing after a tough day at work than supper with people whom we love!!

Ingredients:
Two 6 oz salmon fillets
Salt and black pepper
1 large tomato or two plum tomatoes, cut in to wedges
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped olives
2 tbs olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary and thyme
1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions:
Line a baking sheet with foil. Arrange the tomato wedges, onions, and garlic. Drizzle with olive, salt, and pepper. Bake in preheated oven set to 350° for 15 minutes.

Mix chicken broth with Dijon mustard and herbs.
After 15 minutes, move the tomato wedges and onions on the side of the baking pan and place salmon on the pan.

 Top with chopped olives and pour the broth with herbs on top.

 

Return to the oven and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the fish are opaque. Serve with steamed asparagus and cooked brown rice.

 

 

Corn & Sticky Rice with Mung Beans (Xôi Bắp)

Bắp is one of my favorite breakfasts of the Vietnamese cuisine because of the sweetness of corn, beans, and the crunchiness of fried shallots that no one can resist. My mom used to make this rice when it was a lot harder without the many modern gadgets that we can now use in the kitchen. After the beans were cooked, my mom used a mortal and pestle to pound the cooked beans into a fine paste. Now, a food processor or blender is a big help to complete this step in a flash. I like to use hominy, the white corn in a can, which Mexicans use in a lot in their cooking. I find that this corn is perfect when making this dish and saves quite a lot of time cooking dried corn. We all want to have a good healthy meal but not take all day creating it. A few shortcuts will make our lives much easier.

Ingredients:
2 cups sweet rice, soaked overnight
1 1/2 cups mung beans, soaked overnight
Two 15.5 oz. cans of white hominy corn
1 tbs baking soda
2 tsp salt
Topping:
1 cup coconut flakes
Roasted sesame seeds
Mung beans
Crispy fried shallots – reserve the oil

Directions:
Open cans of hominy corn, then wash and drain the contents. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the washed corn, baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Cook for 5 minutes and then drain.

 

Mix soaked rice and corn together. Add 1 tsp salt to the mixture.

Over high heat, place a steamer and steam the soaked mung beans for 20 minutes or until the beans are soft. Let cool (you can do this step ahead of time) and place in a food processor and blend well or until all the beans look like a course grain.

Place mixture of corn and rice into a steamer; make a small hole in the middle of the steamer so that the steam escapes and then the rice will cook evenly.

 Cover with lid and let it steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

Use about 1 tablespoon of the shallots oil to the cooked rice-corn mixture. Add half of the mashed beans to the cooked rice-corn and then cover and steam for about 5 minutes.

To serve:
Place the rice-corn on a serving plate, top with the remaining beans, roasted sesame seeds, some sugar (if desired), and the crispy shallots.

 

Yuca Sweet Rice (Xôi Khoai Mì)

Yuca sweet rice or Xôi Khoai Mì is another of my childhood favorite dishes. After 1975, my mom, I, and some of my siblings were forced out of our own house in Saigon, We ended up residing on a small farm in Long Thanh. However, this period time of my life was very tough and also for my mother. Anyway, the farm stories for a city girl like me were interesting, but today I just want to introduce this recipe with special memories. Yuca is one of the root vegetables that are easy to grow, very fulfilling, and a friendly meal for poor people. I met my cousin right after the communists took over South Vietnam. My cousin was a communist soldier, and the story that he told us about the yuca plant was a big help to the North Vietnamese communist soldiers during the Vietnam War. While the Communist soldiers were traveling from the North to the South through the jungle, each of the troops had to plant the yuca after they harvested them, so every time when the new troops were deployed to the South, yuca was the food to feed them, and the yuca plantings served as a map through the Ho Chi Minh trail. The way to plant yuca is to cut the main branch of the yuca plant about 5 to 10 inches and stick them in the ground. The plant very much does not need any more care. When the plant reaches to 5 feet tall is the time to harvest them by pulling them out from the ground, and the yuca is the root of this plant. The more the plant grows, the bigger the yuca root will be. When my family was living at the farm, yuca was an everyday meal for us because we did not have enough rice to make a whole pot of rice. My mom had to mix yuca with rice to cook as it was then the normal way of life at the farm. I remember that so many times we did not have anything else to eat with the rice/yuca mixture, and the only way to make this meal tasty was to make scallion oil for the topping. However, the yuca meal that remains forever in my sweet memory with my mom when she had money and substituted the regular rice with sweet rice and that made the meal a whole lot more like a treat to us. In Vietnam, this treat is a snack food that is sold by street vendors for breakfast or anytime of the day. There are two ways to serve this recipe. One way is to serve it with scallion oil on top and with some spicy soy dipping sauce, and the other way is sweeter and prepared with fresh shredded coconut, roasted sesame seeds, and peanuts for the topping. Thinking back about those days as an adult now, I feel that each period of my life is very sweet no matter if rich or poor. Especially, as a young kid, we do not feel as bad as we become adults. For simply eliminating hunger pains, everything always tastes wonderful.

Ingredients:

Two cups sweet rice, soaked overnight
1 large or two small yuca, peeled, cut into big chunks, and soaked overnight
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
4 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1/4 cup oil

Directions:
Drain soaked rice, add 1 tsp salt into the rice, and mix well. Set aside.

Cut each of the yuca into quarters and remove the tough membrane in the center. Cut into bite-size pieces, add 1 tsp of salt, and mix well.

 

 

In a steamer over high heat, add the cut yuca into the steamer and steam for 15 minutes or until the yuca is almost cooked. Pour 1/3 cup of coconut milk into the partly cooked yuca and mix well.

 Add rice into the yuca and mix them well together.

Make a hole in the center of the steamer so the steam can distribute evenly while steaming.

Cover with lid and steam over high heat for another 15 minutes or until the yuca and rice mixture is cooked. Pour the rest of the coconut milk on the cooked rice and mix well. Cover and steam for anther 5 minutes so the coconut milk will be absorb into the yuca-rice mixture.
While the yuca rice is steaming, place a small sauce pan over high heat. Add oil, scallions, salt, and sugar. Cook for less than a minute and remove from the heat.

Place the yuca rice on a serving plate, top with scallion oil, and serve with soy dipping sauce.

Sweet Corn Congee (Chè Bắp)

The Vietnamese cuisine has so many delicious desserts, such as Chè bà ba, chè đậu ván, chè khoai môn, chè đậu xanh, chè trôi nước, and chè bắp. It is not because I am Vietnamese, but when I try some of the desserts from Korea, Thailand, or China, they are nothing compared to the Vietnamese desserts. Cooking dessert is an art in Vietnam. It is similar to baking a cake. It takes time to wash the beans, if making the  beans congee (Các loại chè bằng đậu). Personally, I am not a dessert person, but Vietnamese desserts always bring back fond memories when I was young. I had a group of about four girlfriends, and we created the rule that whoever eats less has to pay for the desserts. Of course, I always ended up of paying, because all they had to do was order another bowl of the dessert. Of all the Các loại chè, I like chè bắp the most, and also it is an easier dessert to make. I learned to prepare this dessert from my sister-in-law, Anh, who is an excellent cook when it comes to preparing Vietnamese desserts. Every summer, where I live has a farmers market that is open from late May through September. The sweetcorn is so sweet and incredibly dirt cheap – 20 cents an ear. Even though the sweetcorn is sweet, it does not replace the taste of chè bắp that sold in Vietnam because the corn in Vietnam is soft and pliable, like sweet sticky rice, and the sweetcorn here is watery-crunchy. Some of the recipes add tapioca pearls or thickening with cornstarch. I like to prepare this dessert using the sweet sticky rice, and it comes close to the taste that I remember. However, when poor and hungry, everything seems to taste better, but the fond memories last forever.

Ingredients:
5 ears of sweetcorn, shredded very thin
1/2 cup sweet sticky rice
3/4 to 1 cup  sugar
1 bag of vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp salt
 8 cups water

Coconut milk topping ingredients:
1 can coconut

1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbs water

Directions:
Peel and remove the corn silk from the corn. Use a peeler to remove the corn kernels from the husks shredded into very fine pieces.

Wash and drain the sticky rice and set aside

Bring a pot of 8 cups of water and place the husks into the water. Bring to boil and cook for 20 minutes.

 Discard the husks and drain the husks water very well. Measure about 6 to 7 cups of the husks water and bring back to boil. Add rice and bring it back to boil.

 Cover and turn the heat off. Let the rice cook in hot water for 20 minutes. Remove lid and add shredded corn kernels.

Bring to boil and simmer for another 15 minutes or until the kernels are cooked. Stir occasionally to prevent the kernels from sticking to the bottom and burning. Add sugar and vanilla.
Meanwhile, follow these directions to make the coconut milk topping:
Combine coconut milk, water, and sugar, and salt and bring to boil. Mix the cornstarch and water and add this mixture to the coconut milk. Stir and add vanilla and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Ladle the chè bắp onto a serving bowl and top with coconut milk. I like to eat this dessert hot, but eating it at room temperature is good too. Enjoy!