Young Jackfruit and Lotus Root Salad with Chicken Feet and Vietnamese Ham

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Chicken feet  don't seem all that appetizing for some people but I am fond of its texture, especially when you cook it with the right ingredients.  The chicken feet's skin is delicate and soft. It's tendons appears gelatinous and yet chewy when steamed.  It can be crunchy and chewy when boiled.   

My oldest daughter who is 3 years old  loves to chew on this delicatessen.  We wouldn't leave the Dim Sum place without having at least one order of steamed Chicken Feet in a sauce flavoured with a sweet fermented black bean sauce. It has an exquisite taste.

A long while ago, I made chicken feet a few times and it actually didn't turn out bad.  It wasn't as tasty as the chicken feet at the Chinese Dim Sum, but pretty close.  The process of making it is somewhat complicated and time-consuming.  As always, to satify my curiosity, I would make it at least once  just to experiment.  The Chinese Chicken Feet definitely takes love and patience in cooking.   Chicken feet lovers will have to wait for this recipe on the next post, but for now I will introduce an authentic Vietnamese Salad with chicken feet: Young Jackfruit (Mít Non) and Lotus Root (Ngó Sen) salad with Chicken Feet (Chân Gà) and Vietnamese Ham (Chả Lụa).  It will make a great appetizer  as it is served with roasted sesame rice crackers. 

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Hue Shrimp Patty (Cha Tom Hue)

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Cha Tom Hue is a popular dish from the central region of Hue, the imperial capital.  it's a popular versatile item that can be used in different recipes. It can be used as a garnish, served as a main dish or acts as the main ingredient. The ingredients for this Cha Tom is real simple: shrimp, ground pork, pork fat, salt, sugar, ground pepper, baking powder, and whole garlic which infuses lots of favors.  The pork fat adds richness to the shrimp paste without adding moisture to the mixture. During the cooking process, the minced pork fat melts and creates moisture.    

 Yesterday, I threw a baby shower party for a friend.  As always, I like to make a new dish for my family and friends to enjoy.  Cha Tom Hue was an instant pleaser.  The guests made their own dinner rolls sandwich by stuffing a couple slices of Cha Tom,  add a slice of cucumber, sprigs of cilantro and voila a a mini sandwhich is born.   This dish went out so fast!  Cha Tom Hue can be enjoyed  as appetizer  It also goes very well with Bun Bo Hue (Hue Spicy Beef Noodle Soup).

RECIPE: Cha Tom Hue

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Vietnamese Quang Noodle (Mi Quang)

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I grew up in Pleiku, Vietnam where I was fortunate enough to  experience wonderful food from many regions in Vietnam.  Being the youngest of six children, I was usually spoiled by my generous, loving and the most caring eldest sister who would always buy food for me everytime she came home from the market.   One of my fondest memories was getting a piggy-back ride from my sister whenever she would stroll around town.  Pleiku is a small city.  We can practically walk or ride a bike to anywhere.  There were some great eating places that you can only find in corridors and alleys, so the best way to get there was by walking.


  The Quang noodle house was one of those places.  In Vietnam, it's common to see people live and operate business in their homes.  This Quang noodle place is a small house.  We would sit down on cheap plastic small stools with a small plastic table just like the table set that the kids here in the US play with.   The beautiful wide yellow tumeric noodles, covered with vibrant orange shell-on shrimps, fatty thin slices of pork belly, big chunks of spared ribs, fried fish paste, sesame rice crackers, roasted peanuts, fresh herbs, shredded banana blossom  makes this bowl of noodle so appetizing. 

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Chicken Pot Pie Ricipes

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During last Christmas, I had an opportunity to make treats for my husband's coworkers.  Since I had lots of puff pastries in the fridge, I decided to make Chicken Pot Pies.  After googling for the best Chicken Pot Pie recipe, Ina Garten's five stars rating with over 400 user's reviews recipe was the overwhelming favorite.  I was eager to try her Chicken Pot Pie recipe and the result was quite tasty.

My husband's coworkers enjoyed them tremendously. One of them even wrote a note saying that it's the best chicken pot pie she's ever had. Today, while I was looking through my food pictures, the Chicken Pot Pies I made still looked so good (thanks to Ina Garten's recipe). So I thought I would share this with my blog readers.   Below is Ina Garten's best Chicken Pot Pie recipe.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Roasted Duck Red Curry (Vit Quay)

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It was lunch time. My daughter and I went to a friend's house for cháo gà (chicken porridge) but instead ended up with a bonus dish of delicious roasted duck red curry over steamed rice.  I personally don't like curry in general but her Roasted Duck Red Curry was so good that I was inspired to replicate the dish  for my family to try, especially for my dear husband who is a curry fanatic.  I plan to make this dish for my youngest daughter's 2nd birthday.  So if  you cannot make the party, below is a recipe for you to enjoy.   

This Roasted Duck Red Curry recipe is very simple to prepare.  You can make a pot of this delicious curry in about 20 minutes.  There are many kinds of vegetable that would go well with curry.  However, yellow curry tends to go well with potatoes, avocados, onions and carrots. 
Red curry pairs well with pumpkin, pineapple, mangos, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, brocolli, carrots, eggplants and tomatoes.  Green curry goes well with bamboo shoots, green beans, eggplants,  bell peppers and carrots.

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Orange Sesame Ball (Banh Cam)

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This beautiful, delectable,  low key sweet treat is very common in Viet Nam. It's made of mainly sweet rice gluten wrapped around  a ball of mung bean paste and coated in sesame seeds.  After the deep fry, its gorgeous orange color makes you want to sink your teeth into its crunchy nutty shell. 

My husband is very picky on banh cam.  It has to be  crunchy, but not too chewy; the dough has to be tasty.  The filling has to have the right amount of sweetness, aroma and softness.  He prefers it in a smaller size so each bite contains both dough and filling. 

Last weekend, we spent the Vietnamese New Year with my parents in So Cal.  We had banh cam from a couple of diffrent places.  My husband really likes banh cam from a lady who sold it on the street at the New Year parade.  Her banh cam are about walnut size, but packed with flavor and a hearty crunch; they were quite delicious.  My husband kept some for the next day just to see if the crispiness of the shell would last; turns out it lasts for 2 days. We never had banh cam like these before. Unfortunately, we were not able to find these at any of the markets nor did we find the lady. With banh cam, it's all about the crunch and the flavor of the filling.

Just to sastify my husband's craving, I decided to do some research on banh cam.  Last night, I finally got my recipe down and started to experiment with the help of my oldest daughter. 

We made 90 golf-ball size banh cam.  The filling is mung bean paste and shredded coconut.  The result was better than we had anticipated;  they were crunchy, soft, flavorful, but not oily at all. My banh cam is still so crispy after I leave it out for a day.  In the middle of the night, my daughter woke up from her sleep to ask for them only to fall back to sleep seconds later; it was hilarious.  She ate at least 6 of  them for breakfast the following day.

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Pork noodles soup

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Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10mins
Cooking time: about 35 mins

Ingredients:
1.5 liters broth
300g (10 oz) pork (soft lean pork shoulder)
300g (10 oz) dried egg noodles
3 teaspoons stock granules (optional)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon ground pepper
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon browned shallots
100g (3 ½ oz) bean sprouts
1 lettuce head
3 sprigs scallions, minced
5 sprigs cilantro, well washed
100g (3 ½ oz) Chinese chives, well-washed, cut into 3 cm lengths
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
2 limes, each cut into 3 pieces

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Quang noodles

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Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 60 mins

Ingredients:
1 liter broth
300g (10oz) pork ham, cut into thin slices
200g (7oz) Vietnamese Sausage (or Hue Sausaga), cut into thin slices
300g (10oz) small fresh shrimps, deveind
1kg (2.2lbs) fresh Quang noodle (or 500g of dried flat rice noodles)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon annatto seeds (or annatto powder)
3 teaspoons stock granules
2 teaspoons fish sauce

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Chicken congee

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Serves: 6
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: about 90 mins

Ingredients
200g (7oz) jasmine rice
½ chicken (about 1kg)
2 teaspoons stock granules (optional)
5 sprigs scallions, well-washed, minced
3 shallots, grilled to brown
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
50g (2oz) cilantro, well-washed, minced
Dipping souce: Salt with pepper and lime juice

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Chicken glass noodle soup

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Serves: 6
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time:50 mins

Ingredients
200g (7 oz) dried glass noodles
½ chicken (about 2.2 lbs/1 kg)
6 yolks
2 cloves garlic, bruised
5 sprigs scallions, minced
1 finger-length chili, thinly sliced
1 onion, peeled, thinly sliced
5 sprigs of cilantro, well-washed, mined
100g (3 ½ oz) canned bamboo shoot
100g (3 ½ oz) bean sprouts
1 inch thick ginger, smashed
3 shallots, tellow-fried
200g (7 oz) vegetables (Thai basil, shredded water spinach, Vietnamese coriander, shredded banana flowers, etc)
3 teaspoons stock granules (of 3 chicken flavor cubes)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Dipping sauce: salt with pepper and lime juice

Recipe
Drain canned bamboo shoots.

Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to a hot skillet, drop 2 bruised cloves of garlic to brown. Add bamboo shoots to stir-fry over high heat for 10 minutes. Season with a teaspoon of stock granules.

Boil 2 liters of water. Add chicken, smashed ginger, shallots and a little salt. Cook for about 40 minuteas. Don’t cover the pot. Remove the foam to keep the broth clear.

Remove and place the chicken in a pot with cold water. Remove chicken and let it dry. Thinly slice chicken meat.

Season the broth with 2 teaspoons of stock granules and ½ teaspoon of sugar. Add bamboo shoots. Bring to a boil and season again. Before serving, add onions to the broth and bring to a boil.

Soak glass noodles in water for about 20 minutes. When it expands, drain and cut into 4 inch lengths. Quickly dip and remove glass noodles in the boiling water. Then, mix noodles with a tablespoon of cooking oil.

Fill individual bowls half full with glass noodles. Sprinkle each bowl with shredded chicken, bamboo shoots and a cooked yolk. Then, pour boiling broth over. Sprinkle with minced scallions, cilantro leaves and ground pepper.

Serve with a dish of vegetables, thinly sliced chili and a bowl of salt, pepper and lime juice.

Note:
- Glass noodles and canned bamboo shoots can be bought at every asian food store.

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Asparagus crab soup

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Serves: 6
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: about 25 mins

Ingredients
1.5 liters broth
200g (7 oz) crab meat
3 eggs
300g (10 oz) fresh asparagus (or 200g/7oz canned asparagus)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 teaspoons stock granules or 3 bouillon cubes (optional)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, bruised
1 tablespoon browned shallots
3 sprigs scallions, minced
5 sprigs cilantro
Pinch of salt

Recipe
Cut canned asparagus into 1 inch lengths (or peel fresh asparagus, cook until it is soft and cut into pieces).

Heat a skillet, add a tablespon of cooking oil. When the oil is just hot, drop 2 bruised cloves of garlic to brown. Then, add crab meat and stir quickly, add a teaspoon of stock granules.

Boil the broth, add crab meat and cook for 10 minutes. Add asparagus, continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add stock granules and a little salt. Season the mixture depending on your taste.

Beat eggs, pour them gradually into the soup. Stir the mixture regularly while pouring eggs. Cook for about 2 minutes. Stir cornstarch with ½ bowl of water, add this mixture to the soup so that the soup turns biscid. Bring to a boil, add minced scallions.

Remove the pot from heat. Ladle the soup out into bowls. Scatter browned shallots, cilantro leaves and pepper on to for seasoning and garnishing.

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