Daikon Soup Meets Pho Ga
May 26th, 2011 § 1 Comment
My ‘Daikon Pho Ga’; Daikon Soup at Stir Moon (Coral Gables, FL) the only restaurant where I’ve encountered it in Miami.
SUNDAY MORNING I AWOKE TO A FAMILIAR SCENE. A narrow alleyway, wafting with columns of steam, where small women in matching top and bottom house clothes command fragrant vats of rich broth from mini plastic pastel perches.
It was playing out on TV this time, on Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, a show on Cooking Channel where this Sydney chef/restaurateur returns to the country of his heritage to take a culinary journey through the northern regions of Vietnam.
Mornings beginning with Pho Bo were something to which I came to look forward last summer on a week-long visit to cousin Jonathan Hixon’s home in Ha Noi. The light, fragrant beef and pork bone broth becomes rich and layered with flavor from four to eight hours of cooking — eight meaning it hit the burner before bedtime.
Charred ginger and shallot, and toasted spices like anise, fennel seed, black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg build layers of flavor.
I learned how to make Pho Bo (Bo means beef,) down to the skimming of impurities after making the broth and then assembling the payday in a large white bowl of rice noodles, shaved-paper-thin white onion and beef, and a mess of chopped herbs such as cilantro and mint. And, typical to where I enjoyed it, a generous sprinkle of ground black pepper and a squeeze of kalamansi juice.
I recently reconnected with daikon soup, another favorite of mine from my days in New York City and traditional to the north in Japan, and decided to see what would become of the long ivory tuber with the amazing depth of a Pho-style broth as poaching liquid and eventual soup base made hearty with pulled leftover roast chicken (‘ga’ in Vietnamese.)
‘Daikon Pho Ga’ did not disappoint, but I’ll be sticking with dinner on this one until I have a glass of chilled Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk sitting beside it!
Adventures in Teena’s Pride CSA Continued: Broccoli Rabe & Purple Cabbage
January 2nd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I find my share comes in handy most when a couple of herbs and a veggie or two can play supporting roles in a great dinner. Like tonight’s colorful meal. Wild sockeye salmon was on sale (again) at Whole Foods, so I picked out the pin bones of a skin-on slab, poured on a favorite oriental marinade (not unfamiliar to this blog,) and grilled it quickly under high heat on the Salamader. While the salmon was cooking, I sliced discs of a small purple cabbage and sauteed them over medium heat in olive oil with some crushed whole garlic cloves, adding a bunch of broccoli rabe. By the time the fish was done, so were the veggies. I pulled them off first to plate as a bed for the salmon, served whole. A quick salad came together around the spearmint and tarragon from the share. Flowers and leaves were tossed with spring mix lettuces, fennel in matchsticks, raw corn, and diced avocado. I dressed it lightly with extra virgin olive oil and a mix of cider and champagne vinegars, but seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper. Dinner was simple and served.
Snap Crackle Pop, Banh Phong Tom
October 2nd, 2010 § 2 Comments
I waited so long to take my bag of instant prawn crackers – banh phong tom in Vietnamese – for a test drive, a souvenir from my trip to Southeast Asia this summer. It must have been a silly attempt to prevent them from running out! Silly of course, because I hadn’t been able to enjoy them which is, well… the point.
I have always loved noshing on these puffed snacks at Vietnamese and Indonesian restaurants stateside when they have them. They’re nom nom. In Miami, Bali Cafe downtown has a few kinds, even one made in-house! (Ask for kroepoek there.) « Read the rest of this entry »
