Paul’s Vietnamese Satay Soup

Peel 3 or 4 medium size potatoes and cut into bite size pieces and microwave until mostly done. Set aside.

Heat 2T vegetable oil and fry about 1T Penang curry paste (I used Mae Ploy brand) for a couple of minutes.

Add:
1 onion (cut in small chunks) and fry for a few minutes til soft.

Then add:
2 scallions thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
1 inch of ginger finely sliced
1 red or yellow pepper cut into bite size
2 carrots thinly sliced
2 chicken breasts, skinless boneless and cut into bite size
Fry until chicken has changed color

Then add:
4 C chicken stock
4 C water
2T lemon juice
2T fish sauce
2T chunky peanut butter
2 kaffir lime leaves
the potatoes
2 tomatoes cut into bite size chunks

Bring to a boil and then add 1 can of coconut milk.

Simmer for about one hour and serve with cilantro on top.

Note: this was partly created to match a soup served in a local restaurant and also to remove the noodles from the arrangement.

Great food/photo blog; Eating Asia

This image comes from EatingAsia which I have been reading for some time. Check it out as an example of a great blog in every way.

Best Food Writing in Recent Memory

Fuchsia Dunlop’s book of last year, is perhaps the best food book I have ever read. The content alone is entrancing but she takes food writing to a new level.

She describes how even someone with exposure to many unusual cuisines might still find Chinese cuisine daunting. Intrepid, she will eat anything but relates how it took her some time to endure, then appreciate and finally seek out those textures we in the West find appalling. The gristly and rubbery among them. Her art is in conveying not only the grotesqueness of some of these foods but also how one could find them appetizing.

Not only does she eat her way through China, she trains as a cook in the cuisine. Its a wonderful inside look, informative, eye opening,and above all, entertaining.

Paula Deen’s Heartless Cooking and Vietnamese Soup

1. Paula Deen: Cook as Suicide Bomber

Over at SeriousEats they have an interesting little series of Paula Deen recipes under the header of Paula Deen is trying to kill us, now up to part 4. The latest horror is a hamburger patty, butter drenched fried egg and bacon sandwiched into a glazed donut. Previous entries include:Lady’s Fried Mac (for those so inclined here is the recipe); you make macaroni and cheese, then take squares of the mac and cheese, wrap with bacon, dredge in flour and egg, and then deep fry.

And then there are Paula’s Fried Butter Balls (recipe right here): take frozen balls of butter mixed with cream cheese, bread and then deep fry. The other recipe is a layered cake assembled out of deep fried layers.

2. Vietnamese Soup

I have a friend who now lives too far away. Though she is still my official beer buddy, she recently moved about a thousand miles away so the beer nights have become rare. We worked together for years, and many years ago started a tradition of going for soup at a little Vietnamese restaurant across the street called the Bach Dang. We had soup there about once a month for about five years. For a few of those years it was more like once every four months when she temporarily moved a couple of hundred miles south. Every time she was back in town, we went for soup.

It was, and still is, a humble establishment. We always had the same waiter, and we always got the same Chicken Satay Soup (which originally you had to know about to get ) and sometimes added a few spring rolls. The soup was a typical pho except that though it was always good, it was never the same twice, and sometimes it was great. And it was so hot you would have a chili endorphin rush for hours after.

No matter what was going on in the rest of our lives we had this little island, this assured good soup, this tradition. And then one day, the waiter was not there. It was odd but we had always thought it odd that he was always there. The soup came and it was not quite right. It was not only different, after all it had always varied, but it was not that good and it seemed to be an entirely different sort of soup even though it looked the same. We asked if it was the same soup and he told us it was.

We went back another few times, and each time our old waiter was still not there, and the soup was never that good, and the strangest thing of all since it was so obvious that either the cooks or the menu had changed, no one would own up to anything changing. And we had to look for another soup place. We found another that was okay but it was never the same again.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken

Absurdly easy and quite tasty:

1. Heat 1 C honey, 3/4 C soy sauce, 1/2 C minced or planed ginger, and 1/2 C minced garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add some orange juice to increase volume and add another good flavour.

2. Place 4 or 5 bone in chicken breasts, skin down in container and pour over marinade.

3. Refrigerate overnight. (Or at least 4 hours…)

4. Wait til the next day before preheating oven to 350.

5. Cook chicken covered for 30 minutes. ( Make sure that the sauce does not cover chicken, and only reaches about halfway up.)

6. Uncover, turn chicken pieces over, increase heat to 375, and cook for 30-40 minutes longer, basting occasionally.

7. The skin should get crispy and near black..really dark.

From Recipezaar

Chicken and Coriander Fritters

Chicken and Coriander Corn Fritters

2 C corn kernels
4Tminced cilantro
1 T cornstarch
2 eggs
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 to 2 T fish sauce
9 oz. (250 grams) ground chicken

Combine half the corn with all ingredients except chicken in a food processor until smooth. Add to the rest of the corn and the chicken and mix until well combined. Drop by tablespoons into deep-frying oil (2 to 4 inches at 350 degrees) for 3 or 4 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with:

Sweet Thai Chile Sauce

1/2 C white vinegar
1/2 C sugar
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 T dried red chiles
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine, boil for a few minutes and serve.

(Source: ASIAN TAPAS, Christophe megel & Anton Kilayko, Peripus Books,

Connie’s Pad Thai

½ pound wide rice stick noodles
2 T sugar
2 -3 T fish sauce
2 T ketchup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 -2 T Vietnamese chili garlic sauce
2 T vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into ½ inch pieces
8 0z shrimp, whole or coarsely chopped
½ tsp hot red pepper flakes
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups bean sprouts
6 sliced green onions
1 C fresh cilantro, chopped
½ C coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
2 limes

Follow rice noodle instructions on package.
Mix sugar, fish sauce, ketchup, Wooster & chili sauce in small bowl.
Stir fry chicken, shrimp and garlic in oil.
Add sauce mixture & stir fry 2 – 3 more minutes.
Add beaten eggs and stir.
Immediately add drained noodles.
Stir in sprouts, green onions and ½ cup cilantro.
Turn onto serving dish and sprinkle with peanuts and remaining cilantro. Surround with lime wedges for squeezing over the noodles.

Thai Barbecue Chicken

Marinade:

2 stalks fresh lemongrass
2T chopped fresh ginger
2 T chopped cilantro
1 ½ C llight soy sauce
1T sugar
1 tsp ground pepper
2 T red curry paste
2 pounds chicken parts, breasts & thighs, bone –in

Remove grassy parts of lemongrass, leaving stalks about 6 inches long and cutting off and hard root section. Using blunt edge of knife, bruise each stalk then chop. Combine marinade ingredients in blender & process until smooth. Pour into nonreactive bowl
and add chicken. Marinate covered in the fridge 4 hours or better yet, overnight.

Remove from marinade and grill chicken over high heat until brown all over then lower the heat and cook through – 20 to 30 minutes.

Serve with:

Sweet and Spicy Sauce

( so good that I recommend you double this recipe)

1 T finely chopped thai chiles
½ C white vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 T sugar
1 tsp finely chopped garlic

Combine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes until slightly thickened.

-Laurie