This month the Daring Cooks are cooking up a noodle recipe from Jaden from the Steamy Kitchen in celebration of her new cookbook, the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. Jaden has provided us with a recipe for easy Chicken Pho that cooks up quickly and tastes great!

This quick version of Pho uses store-bought chicken stock that is spiced up and enriched with an entire chicken breast. It’s amazingly easy to make, is ready in under an hour, and tastes just like the real thing. It has all the elements of a good recipe. Try it out, you’ll love it!

Pho:

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Large stockpot
• Tongs
• Strainer, sieve or colander
• Bowls for serving

Preparation Time: 45 cooking time + 15 minutes to cook noodles based on package directions

Servings: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:

2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

1. To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
2. In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
4. Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
5. Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
6. Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
7. Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
8. Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

Remember to cook the aromatics and season everything before the noodles are added!

Make sure the noodles are just cooked. They will continue to cook when they are added to the peppers and aromatics. At this point you can add some extra shoyu and adjust the seasoning if needed.

For our second go at the Daring Kitchen challenge, Jen from use real butter challenged us to create homemade Chinese-style dumplings. The rules this time around: create a filling for the dumpling, make the wrapper, fill it up, and turn it into a beautiful dumpling; the last part proved to be the hardest.

For my dumplings, I chose to make a pork filling and a shrimp and tofu filling. I varied the recipes a little bit but kept with the overall theme of the recipes; I didn’t do anything illegal and no, I didn’t cheat! As suggested by the recipe, I doubled the wrapper recipe to accommodate for all of the extra filling. For the two pounds or so of filling I made, the double recipe was just enough to use up all of the filling but I probably could have used a few more wrappers at the end.

Wrapping the dumplings proved to be a bit more difficult than expected. This is only the second time I’ve ever made dumplings and the first time I attempted pleating the dumplings. It took me a few tries to get the general idea down and about and half of a recipe of dough to get consistent making them. Brimming with confidence, I switched gears and changed shapes from to more of a shumai style dumpling. Again, this took a few disasters before I got into the groove.

Overall I’d say the dumplings came out successful. The early ones were a bit ugly but by the time I was done, I was getting more consistent and more confident. The only real downer for me was I didn’t spice up the filling enough and they were a little bit bland. I’m sure if when I make dumplings again, it will be corrected.

Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers
recipe courtesy of Jen from use real butter

pork filling
1 lb ground pork
4 large napa cabbage leaves, minced
3 stalks green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced (if dried – rehydrated and rinsed carefully)
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, minced
1/4 cup ginger root, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch

OR

shrimp filling
1/2 lb raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb ground pork
3 stalks green onions, minced
1/4 cup ginger root, minced
1 cup water chestnuts, minced
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch

dough
Note: you will want to double this for the amount of filling listed – I just tend to use leftover pork filling for soup meatballs. A single batch will yield about 40 dumplings depending on size.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water
flour for worksurface

dipping sauce
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the dough, Method 1: Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).

Make the dough, Method 2 (my mom’s instructions): In a large bowl mix flour with 1/4 cup of water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. We want a firm dough that is barely sticky to the touch.

Both dough methods: Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side (see images above).

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface and steam for about 6 minutes.

To pan fry (potstickers): Place dumplings in a frying pan with 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until bottoms are golden. Add 1/2 cup water and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away and then uncover and reduce heat to medium or medium low. Let the dumplings cook for another 2 minutes then remove from heat and serve.

To freeze: Assemble dumplings on a baking sheet so they are not touching. Freeze for 20-30 minutes until dumplings are no longer soft. Place in ziploc bag and freeze for up to a couple of months. Prepare per the above instructions, but allow extra time to ensure the filling is thoroughly cooked.

To serve: Serve dumplings or potstickers hot with your choice of dipping sauce combinations.

Nope.

It’s not all pastry and French food here, sometimes I want food and I want it quick. I know the lowly ramen isn’t what you would expect, but this is reality. Ramen is cheap, versatile, and easy to find.

There’s no reason to eat ramen just as it is: dried noodles with flavored broth package. With very little effort you can transform the paltry ramen into something you’d probably pay extra for outside of home. In fact, ramen doesn’t even need to be a soup, it can be transformed into anything from salad topping to what I have created here, yakiramen.

Yakiramen is my take on the Japanese dish, yakisoba. Yakirsoba is basically cooked soba and assorted vegetables stir fried. Replace the soba noodles with ramen and you get yakiramen. If you’re keeping score on the ramen, the noodles are fried, dried, boiled, and the fried once more. I guess you could call this refried ramen, but I don’t see that catching on anytime soon.

There’s not much of a recipe to this dish but here’s what’s in my creation. Ramen noodles (Top Ramen shown above), sliced carrots, green beans, cabbage. I used diced shallots and garlic for the aromatics and made a simple shoyu sauce (shoyu, vinegar, chile paste, water, and mirin). The sauce was thickened at the last minute with a small amount of corn starch slurry.

Here’s what the final dish looks like. Looks better than the picture on the package, eh?

Shortly before I moved away from San Diego I discovered this Vietnamese bakery that sold some of the best sandwiches. Crunchy baguettes filled with just the right amount of lettuce, barbecued pork, pickled vegetables, and cilantro; these little sandwiches were not only tasty they were very cheap – about THREE BUCKS! We had these sandwiches several times before we made the trek back east.

It wasn’t until recently that I found out the name of these sandwiches: Bánh mì . A trip over to wikipedia sums up what they are:
Bánh mì is a Vietnamese baguette made with wheat and rice flour or a type of sandwich traditionally made with this type of baguette. The sandwich is made up of thinly sliced pickled carrots, daikon, onions, cilantro, and meat or tofu. Popular bánh mì fillings include pork, paté, chicken, and head cheese. The contrasting flavors and textures of the sandwich — as well as its relatively low cost — make it a popular dish.
I made a cursory search of my immediate surroundings and haven’t been able to find a Vietnamese shop that offers these sandwiches in the way I remember them. So I did what any self-respecting ex-chef would do, I recreated them how I remembered.

For these sandwiches to be successful, they needed to include the following:

• Crunchy, salty, tangy pickled vegetables
• Fresh greens, cilantro, cucumbers, and jalapeño peppers
• A savory pork, chicken, or egg filling
• A light, crispy, yet not too crusty baguette

I searched around the web for a pickled vegetable recipe and finally settled on the recipe over at Battle of the Banh Mi. I wasn’t able to find daikon at the normal mega-mart and didn’t make a trip to the Asian stores so I just used carrots. I think the flavors would have turned out a little bit better with the mix of carrots and daikon but the thought of not having any pickles on my Banh MI was out of the question. I should warn you that their recipe makes quite a large amount of pickles, which isn’t always a bad thing, is it?

The vegetables are a pretty standard sandwich mix. I decided on red leaf lettuce since it looked good. A plain old cucumber, bunch of cilantro, and jalapeño pepper rounded out the mix. I’m sure once the summer comes around the selections of vegetables in the north east will drastically improve. For now, I settled on the best looking ones I could find at whole foods.

For my first run of sandwiches I decided on using a nicely marbled pork shoulder. The pork shoulder was thinly sliced, marinated in a soy and ginger sauce, then quickly pan-fried. I then thinly sliced the pork into fat, match stick sized pieces. I had the pork both warm and cold and both were winners. If I knew it was going to come out so well I would have made much more!

The last obstacle to overcome was getting a baguette that was somewhere between crunchy like a French baguette but also soft enough that it made for a decent sandwich. Right away I decided against buying a baguette since I’m almost never happy with that is available at the supermarkets. Rarely do I find a baguette that is worth the $3 price point it commands. I scoured the internet and pieced together a recipe. It took a few tries, but this is the final recipe that I’ve been using.
Vietnamese Baguettes

1 cup warm water (between 85-110F)
2 teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup Rice Flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Place the yeast, 1 cup lukewarm water, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook. Mix together the all-purpose flour, rice flour and salt in a separate bowl.

Starting the mixer at the lowest speed gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until well combined, about 3 minutes. Add the butter to the dough.

Increase the speed to medium and continue beating the dough until it is smooth and comes away from the sides of the mixing bowl easily. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise (double in volume), 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and separate into 4 portions. Shape each into an 8-inch-long baguette. (The dough may be sticky and hard to handle at this point. Do not overwork it, just gently shape it.) Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise a second time, about 45 minutes.

Place baking stone on a rack set in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 415 degrees Fahrenheit.

With a sharp knife blade or a clean razor blade, make three diagonal slits along the top of each baguette.

Bake either directly on the stone or on a sheet pan for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
There’s nothing special about how the sandwich is put together. If you’ve ever made a sandwich before this should be pretty simple. A thin layer of Japanese mayo ties the sandwich together while the thinly sliced jalapeños and sriracha hot sauce added the much needed spicy that this sandwich deserved.

These came out so well (and I made so many pickles) that I was able to experiment a little bit. What isn’t pictured is a version of this sandwich with a thinly rolled omelet. I’m trying to get the courage up to try a spam version of this sandwich. I’m sure it isn’t an original idea, but the thought has invaded my mind recently.

]]> http://www.myfoodgeek.com/2008/02/08/banm-mi-im-bringing-spicy-back/feed/ 9 http://www.myfoodgeek.com/2007/11/03/happy-fish-day/ http://www.myfoodgeek.com/2007/11/03/happy-fish-day/#comments Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:32:40 +0000 geek http://www.myfoodgeek.com/2007/11/03/happy-fish-day/

My parent’s birthdays were Sunday and Tuesday respectively. I thought it would be nice to celebrate both days together so I invited them over to my place for a nice dinner. I already planned on serving them my Daring Baker’s dessert, the Bostini Cream Pie, but I didn’t have a main dish to serve. After talking with my mom about the plans, she mentioned she’d like to have seafood. This seemed like a quite wide open answer but I decided I could take yet another challenge and come up with something.

I knew I wanted to try and make something my parents weren’t expecting so I decided to take some inspirations for the halibut dish I made a while back. I was pretty sure that my parents, being from New England, would expect their seafood deep-fried or broiled since that’s the norm around these parts. Going against the grain, I decided to go with pan searing, as I was sure they weren’t expecting it.

I made my way over to the local Whole Foods to see what sort of interesting seafood they had fresh and available. I eventually settled on a nice loin of cod and some mahogany clams. While I was there, I picked up a small bag of multi-colored, fingerling potatoes: red, gold, white, and blue, to round out the dish. I also managed to get some fresh, local green beans from a nearby farm stand that would find their way into this dish.

The fish was seasoned with a mix of pink alea sea salt, sichuan pepper, and black sesame seeds that I coarsely ground up. It was then seared in coconut oil until a nice crust formed and was finished in the oven. The fish was cooked until just done – medium well. I par-boiled the potatoes, drained them, and finished them in a coconut milk and butter sauce that was seasoned with sichuan pepper as well. The green beans were quickly stir fried in sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and drizzled with soy sauce. The clams were steamed in rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and star anise. They were then removed from the steaming liquid and topped with a coconut milk reduction. The whole dish took on a Pan-Asian theme before I even realized it.

I’m not sure my parents have tasted my cuisine since completing culinary school and moving away four years ago so I don’t think they knew what to expect. My mom confessed she didn’t usually like green beans but loved my preparation of them (and ate them all). My dad pretty much likes everything and won’t pull any punches when it comes to complaints. His plate was empty and there were no complaints so I’m pretty confident it was a success. It was the first time that either of my parents have tried mahogany clams before (my personal favorite); my mom especially enjoyed them.

We finished the meal off with Bostini Cream Pies which quickly disappeared even though my mom claimed to be full.

Here’s a little Japanese inspired dinner we had the other night: Avocado and green leaf salad with sesame-miso vinaigrette, steamed edamame, and a chirashi style California roll.

I first saw this style of sushi preparation at a local Japanese supermarket, Nijiya Market. They served their versions in a small container with a bed of rice on the bottom covered with the toppings of your choice; popular varieties included California, Spicy Tuna, and Spicy Yellowtail.

I figured I would add a little extra presentation to mine by using a ring mold and piling the ingredients on top. I used a layer of sweetened rolled omelet, shrimp, avocado, and topped the whole thing off with mayo and sriracha.

The eater poured a glass of crazy milk, unfiltered sake served chilled, which completed our pseudo Japanese dinner.