Xôi Gà Mặn (Vietnamese Chicken Sticky Rice)

This is slightly different from the original chicken sticky rice I made and the part deux. I guess, I wanted to try different styles of cooking it and added a ginger-garlic-scallion oil (mơ hành) sauce that is very Vietnamese when it comes to making sticky rice. Some families only add scallion and oil but I like to add in ginger and garlic.

Broth:
8 cups of water
2 bone-in chicken thighs
2 Ts of salt

Filling:
2 hand shredded chicken thighs
1/2 cup of sliced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup of chinese sausage

Ginger-Garlic-Scallion Oil:
3-5 cloves of minced garlic
1 knob of minced ginger
1 bunch of chopped scallions (green part only)
2 Ts of neutral oil
1 T of salt

Sauce:
1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup of oyster sauce


In a large pot, I made chicken stock with two bone-in chicken thighs. Cook it on very low heat for clear broth. I saved the broth to make a nice homey soup - how awesome!

In a smaller pot, I added two cups of drained (previous soaked) glutinous rice and about 1 cup of broth). I cooked it low heat and covered. Glutinous rice does not need a lot of water to cook at all.

After 10 minutes over low heat, I get this! So fluffy and fantastic. Remove it from heat and placed in a large mixing bowl. Set it aside. 

Take out the chicken and allow it to cool before you shred. I do recommend soaking it in a pot of iced cold water. I was missing a pot... so, unfortunately, I ended up with chicken that was not as moist as I would like.

2 beautiful links of chinese sausage. As a kid, I could easily just eat white rice, chinese sausage, with some soy sauce, everyday.

Chop it up!

Pan fry it on medium heat until it crisps up a bit. It's fatty, like bacon, but not as fatty so you don't really need to use any oil to cook it.

Pour it over the rice but save the fatty goodness in the pan. I know it sounds difficult but try for the next part.

Shiitake mushrooms. 

Slice them up nice and thin. Oh yeah!

Throw the mushrooms back in that same pan with the fatty goodness from the chinese sausage. 

Now make the sauce.

Then pour it into the pot with the mushrooms. Cook for about 10 minutes - enough for the mushrooms to soak it all that nice flavors. 

Yum. I could eat these mushrooms over white rice, everyday, also. 

Make the ginger-garlic-scallion oil sauce in the mean time. I put in the garlic first, let that cook for a few minutes, then add ginger, then the scallions. Add the salt last. Cook for about 5 minutes or so. 

Shred the chicken and dump it over the chinese sausage.

Then the mushrooms.

Then the sauce.

Combine well and enjoy. Like MPM likes to say - there's crack in it.

Gỏi Cuốn Nem Nướng (Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Grilled Cured Ground Pork and Crispy Wonton Skin)

With MPM being here this weekend, I wanted him to try more varieties of Vietnamese spring rolls other than the classic poached pork belly and shrimp kind you get at the restaurant. So, I embarked on a journey to make him these kind... grilled pork spring rolls. I know the description is a bit vague so it's better that you read its description. It's uber delicious. Trust me.

The thing with making spring rolls is that you don't have to be exact. If you have other herbs on hand, use it! I didn't have all the herbs I would have liked so I used what I had. I definitely recommend mint.

1/2 package of vermicelli rice noodles
1/2 lb of grilled pork (I bought mine at the asian grocery market and cooked it at home). Click on the link for a recipe to make it at home.
1/2 cup of chopped garlic chives
1/2 cup of bean sprouts
1/2 cup of thai basil leaves
1/2 cup of thinly sliced cucumbers
1 package of wonton wrappers (I didn't use the whole package, use as many as you need - depending on how many spring rolls you make)
1 package of rice paper. I used this brand, Red Rose. With a pair of scissors, I cut the rice paper right in half because I like to roll mini spring rolls. :)

You will also need a bowl of very hot water to dip in the rice paper.

I used this brand of vermicelli noodles and cooked half the package according to instructions. If you can't read it (I can't either), basically drop them in boiling water and take them out when they're tender. It takes about 3-5 minutes with rolling boiling water.

Cook the grilled pork according to package's instructions. When it starts to brown, you're good to turn it over. Remember to let it rest for at least 5 minutes before you cut into it.

It's so handsome. I'm almost in love with the aroma. 

Slice the meat thinly. Yes, like this. It's very hard not to just eat them all in this form. So convenient and bite size. 

Take wonton wrappers and roll it. Like this. Put some canola oil on it. 

For health concerns, I broiled this in the oven on low to get it to crisp. It took about 10 minutes. 

Sweet. 

Here's the set up. 

I cut my rice paper in half, dipped it in the hot water and take it out quickly. It takes a few seconds to soften up. If you use colder water, it will take longer to soften up. I recommend waiting for the rice paper to soften up a bit before you start piling on the ingredients. 

I find it easier to roll w/ half the rice paper since I don't close in the ends. I just simply roll it. 

MPM came over and took the first roll. Voila!

Dinner is served. 

I made a fish sauce* previously to use for the dipping but feel free to make peanut sauce if that's what you prefer. 

Recipe for Vietnamese Fish Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham)

1/2 cup of water

2 lime juice

1/2 tsp of distilled vinegar

2 Ts of sugar

3 minced garlic cloves

1 (add more according to your spicy preference) chopped thai chili peppers

1/6th cup of fish sauce (add more or less according to your preference)

New Year Dinner with Friends and Family

Phew, it is nice to be back home even though I had a great time being out in SF and miss it every bit. I took the red eye back and gung-hoed it out at work until I must have fell over and slept on my desk. I went home an hour earlier than usual, which is not so bad considering I was unable to sleep at all on my flight due to my aisle seat and super packed flight with lots of babies. Holiday traveling is the worst! However, my colleague's perspective is that she should always book a flight during the holidays just to give up her seats for those hefty vouchers. On the 28th, AA was offering $500 vouchers for those who were willing to give up their seats. Like she said, she just needs two of those to make it to Beijing.

Oh I digress. On a nice Thursday, we decided to host a dinner party with the family and some good friends. It was a total success. We went to the Berkeley Bowl out in Berkeley, of course, to get most of our ingredients. I thought it was a pretty awesome place. The produce was super fresh and I found everything exciting from rainbow swiss chard to carrots. And did I forget to mention that for this time of the year, they were still selling pints of super sweet blueberries for $3.99! My Panda Man was in blueberry heaven all week.

Due to memory card confusion, MPM has some of the photos of us in Napa and of the rest of the dishes I made for the night. I will demand them at my earliest opportunity.

I have all recipes and cooking directions/instructions for anyone who is interested. :)

The first half of the spread,

Back row L to R: simple golden beets w/ fresh sweet basil and some capers, artichoke leaves w/ lemon garlic butter sauce, baked acorn squash w/ maple syrup, and a spinach salad w/ some grapes and homemade candied almonds topped w/ some bosc pear

Front row L to R: sauteed rainbow swiss chard w/ a simple red wine reduction topped with crispy garlic and chives, roasted leg of lamb rubbed with garlic and chives served w/ rainbow carrots and au jus, braised pork shoulder with coconut juice and star anise (I've made this dish before).

This dish was definitely the star of the night. Everyone went back for seconds and thirds and it totally made my night! How beautiful are those star anise?!

The leg of lamb was made with a traditional Greek recipe that I've since adapted to my own. The first few main ingredients are lemon juice, garlic, and butter. Since the carrots were so young and fresh, I only slightly roasted them to give it that nice crunch. 

MPM designed the plate of artichokes and felt so proud of himself all night. 

That is yours truly focusing on plating. 

We also hosted a NYE "pre-game" party, btw - doesn't that just sound so juvenile... we hosted a NYE get together but since we were exhausted from cooking the day before, we kept it simple...

I can't let MPM be in charge of the camera, he is definitely not good about moments. Who take photos after half the food has been eaten?! Crackers, cheese, cured meats, and dips were our basics. Guests brought yummy dips, cocktail shrimps, and poached pear with vanilla. Do make note of the cup of pocky's and fruit roll up. Ingenious!

Melissa made the dish of figs stuffed w/ goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto that disappeared within seconds of serving. The evidence is seen above as there are only 3 left standing. 

At only 9PM, we  have meekly drank any champagne! Come on now guests...

No worries... more empty bottles did end up complimenting the rest of the stove's surface. 

The crowd mingling. I was so happy about the success of our two parties that I missed countdown at The Pub and fireworks supposedly being done at the Ferry Building.