A Vietnamese Moment

This is an easy and delicious Thai coconut soup recipe I found off AllRecipes! Ingredients: - 1 tablespoon vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger - 1 stalk lemon grass, minced - 2 teaspoons red curry paste - 4 cups chicken broth or stock - 3 tablespoons fish sauce - 1 tablespoon light brown sugar (or any sugar) - 3 cams coconut milk - 1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms - 1 pound medium shrimp - peeled and deveined - 2 tablespoon fresh lime juice - salt to taste - 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir ginger, lemongrass, and curry paste in heated oil for 1 minute. Slowly poor the chicken broth over the mixture, stirring continually. Stir in fish sauce and sugar, simmer for 15 minutes. 2. Stir in coconut milk and mushrooms. Cook until mushroom are soft, about 5 minutes. 3. Add the shrimp. Cook until no longer translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in lime juice, season with salt. Garnish with cilantro.  ...

My husband LOVES this soup. It's a very simple, minimalistic soup that can be made for a lazy indoor day! There aren't a ton of ingredients but it did take me a solid 2 hours to do! Ingredients - 2 yellow onions (charboiled) - 1 generous large knob of ginger (charboiled) - 1 whole chicken (about 5-6 lbs) - rock sugar - fish sauce - salt - chicken bouillon Noodles - Cellophane or glass noodles (cook according to instructions): can also use bean thread noodle, mung bean noodle ---- place noodles in hot water and let sit for 10-15 minutes, or until perfect texture 1. Charboil the ginger and onions. Shave the charboil parts off ginger and smash the ginger. Wash the charboil parts off the onion. *note: mom says I used too much onion and ginger - oops. I would probably just stick to 2 onions in the future, and probably just 1/2 or even 1/3 of that ginger. 2. Add ginger, onions, and chicken to large pot. Add water until chicken is submerged. Add 1 tablespoon of...

A very basic, simple porridge recipe for rainy days or sick days. Very minimal ingredients and very easy to make. Ratio:  1 cup of rice: 8-10 cups of water Ingredients  - 1 whole chicken - ginger  - salt - pepper  - sugar  - chicken bouillin - onions (about 2-3), can be white, yellow, or shallot onions  - rice 1. In a large stock pot, add water and bring to boil (almost enough to cover 1 whole chicken). Take about 1-1.5 cup rice (depending on how much you want) and place in cold water for 1 hour - after an hour, rinse the rice and set aside.   2. Add 2-3 onions, some ginger, and about 1 tablespoon of salt. Add chicken and bring to boil on medium heat. Remove scum. Once it boils, turn heat to low and cover - should be about 30-40 minutes depending on the size. I usually stick a chopstick in the chicken to make sure it's done. Skim the scum off the broth. 3. Remove chicken and strain broth. Rinse chicken under cold ...

Pho is the quintessential Vietnamese soup that every mom knows how to make. It simmers over hours to create a delicate broth. Surprisingly, it is very easy to make! Ingredients - pho seasoning bag (heat over skillet to wake up the aromatics) - rock candy sugar (about 1-2 inch chunk) - salt (about 1-2 tablespoons) - beef ox tail bones (about 2-3) - pork bones - fish sauce (optional) - ginger - 3-4 onions 1. Clean beef ox tail bones and pork bones. Submerge in cold water, add salt and vinegar. Rinse and exchange water. Do this twice. 2. Boil water, when it comes to a rolling boil - add bones. Parboil the impurities out for 2-3 minutes. Dump out the bones and water into a clean sink. 3. Wash bones again in cold water. Lightly scrub off the residues with your fingers. 4. Boil a pot of hot water, on high heat. Heat ginger and 4 onions over fire to make it more aromatic. Add 1 large ginger, 4 onions that have been grilled on the stove. 5. Add rock candy sugar. Add 1-2 ...

This is a very simple soup for busy week nights that takes less than 20 minutes to make with little ingredients. You can use any variation of box choy vegetables. Ingredients - salt - chicken builloin - fish sauce - moc - vegetables 1. Boil hot water 2. Add chicken bouillon, salt, and fish sauce to taste 3. Add moc 4. When moc is almost done, add vegetables.

This is one of my husband's favorite dishes that my cousin makes. He requests it almost every time he's in Chicago. It is a VERY simple recipe and warms up the stomach (and heart)! Moc is a pork-based meat paste that you can shape into meatballs. I use frozen ones that my mom sells at her store. Ingredients: - 3-4 onions (grilled on stove) - fish sauce - rock sugar - about a 1-2 inch chunk (and additional sugar at the end for tasting as needed) - salt (about 1-2 tablespoons) 1. Bring a pot of hot water to boil on high heat. Add parboiled (and cleaned meat) to the pot. 2. Add the onions, salt, and rock candy to the broth and let boil. Remove the bubbles that are created to purify the broth. 3. Once the broth is more clear, turn the heat to low-medium and simmer for 1.5 hours. 4. In a separate pot, boil about 2 large ladles of fish sauce. Add to the broth (a little at a time to season). 5. Add moc and re-season the broth as needed with salt and sugar. Enjoy ove...

My boo LOVES corn potage soup at Curry House so I decided to try my hand at it. Very minimal amount of ingredients and very quick to make! Made the mistake of buying frozen sweet white corn and it came out a little too sweet. Next time will try just regular corn. And also set some corn aside (before you puree it) to give it a little more texture. My imitation of Curry House's Corn Potage Soup Ingredients: - 2 tbs unsalted butter - 1/2 medium onion, diced - 2 tbs flour - 2 cups frozen or fresh corn - 1.5 cup chicken stock - 1.5 cup milk - salt and pepper to taste - green onion for garnish 1. Heat butter over medium heat. 2. When butter has melted, add diced onion. Cook until unions are translucent and then turn heat to low. 3. Add flour and stir to mix - will look a like paste 4. Slowly add chicken stock and stir while adding to prevent lumps 5. After all the stock as been added, turn heat to medium high and bring to boil 6. Once broth is boiling, add corn and ...

My boyfriend and I have renamed this soup after our dog, Kiki! It's not what you think - we're not that  Asian where we eat our dogs! We used to give Kiki the pork bones from the soup and eventually stopped because it's not safe to give dogs cooked pork bones due to risk of choking. It's a nice, easy soup with minimal ingredients but does take around 2 hours to make. It takes a while to simmer the broth but it's worth it! Ingredients:  Pork bones  Winter melon  To taste:  Salt & Pepper  Sugar  Fish Sauce  Chicken Granules  MSG Onions & Cilantro (garnish - optional) 1. In a large pot, add water and boil water. Cut pork bones into pieces and wash under cold water. Add to the first pot, you don't have to wait for the water to boil to add the pork bones. In another large pot, fill it 3/4 full with water and bring to a boil.  2. When the first pot boils, drain all the pork bones into a colander and wash...

I love love love tomato soup when it rains! It pairs very nicely with some grilled cheese. This recipe is great - just the basics and makes the best and creamiest tomato soup. It makes about three servings so I suggest doubling the recipe for some nice leftovers! 4 tomatoes - seeded and diced 4 cups tomato juice 14 leaves fresh basil 1 cup heavy whipping cream (I always use less, around 1/2 cup) 1/2 cup butter (I always use less, around 1/4 cup) salt and pepper to taste 1. Place tomatoes and juice in stock pot over medium heat and simmer x 30 minutes. 2. Puree tomato mixture with basil leaves and return puree to stock pot. 3. Place pot over medium heat, stir in heavy cream and butter (to taste). Season with salt and pepper. Heat, stirring until butter melted. Do not boil.

My boyfriend LOVES shabu so insists that we have shabu at least once a month. He prefers no trims and whistles, and likes the more traditional method of just hot water and meat. But I actually love the sukiyaki sauce to dip my meat in. Shabu sauce: *mirin and sake in 1:1, with a little less soy sauce 1/2 cup mirin 1/2 cup sake 1/3 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup sugar (recipe calls for this much but I always add WAY less like ~1/8, add to taste and dilute with water) 2.5 cups water (may need to add more) 1 pinch dashi Veggies to dip: Tofu Enoki mushrooms Napa cabbage Carrots Dipping sauces: buy at store in bottle Pon Shabu Sauce Goma Shabu Sauce Shabu Shabu meat Enjoy! 

So, when people think of Vietnamese food, they think of PHO. This is the quintessential Vietnamese dish - I have it several times a week (not by choice!). My dad and my boyfriend are both pho lovers ... seriously, I think my boyfriend loves pho more than any Vietnamese person I know and he's not even Vietnamese. I personally think pho is just so-so. However, I always crave pho on a rainy, gloomy, or cold day. It's perfect for when you're sick too because its flagrant aroma really wakes up your senses! Yes, this is my momma's pho recipe! WOOT! :D Warning: This recipe takes around six hours to make. I want to perfect this recipe... and to tell you the truth, my mother's pho recipe isn't that great. I've read some pho blogs and some recipes call for an 8 hr simmer instead of 6 hr simmer. One day, when I'm a lady of leisure and my only worries include shopping and cooking (trophy wife ;) I want to experiment with this recipe and improve it. Until then, t...

The cold cold weather in CA (it's been about 60 degrees... eek!) has put me in the mood for some soup :). I know, I'm a wuss when it comes to cold weather but that just makes me a big soup lover :) I love making fish soups because they cook so quickly! Well, today I tried my hand at another Vietnamese fish soup.... and it took me less than half an hour :) This is an easy recipe when all you have at home is fish and tomatoes... personally, I think this dish is just so-so but it hits the spot on a cold day :) Ingredients: 2 tomatos 2 fish (chopped) [preferably a white fish] Tamarind (me) Nuoc mam Sugar Chicken granules (bot nem ga) 1. In a medium pot, boil some water. 2. Half and slice two tomatoes. This is the sliced tomatoes next to some me (tamarind). Mommy likes to add tamarind because it makes it extra flavorful.  3. Add tamarind and tomatoes to the water. You don't have to wait for the water to boil while doing this. This is what it should lo...