Cabo San Jose, Mexico, President's Day Weekend 2011

I've really neglected this blog... and I still find that cooking for one makes it hard for daily culinary inspirations. In any case, who doesn't like to see photos of other people's vacations? I know I do. Here are some (we didn't take photos of all the things we ate. sadly) from my latest adventures in the land of fish tacos and marlin fishing:

The beautiful Cabo Azul resort.



Infiniti pool and swim up bar...

Whales! Humpback to be exact.

Intense.

Hot sauce and Pacifico's at Milo's while we wait for our tacos.

Nothing like chips and salsa. However, the best chips and salsa came from Javier's at our resort. I def. ate that stuff up all day everyday. 





Crispy shrimp tacos... I found it to be a bit too rich for my taste.

He insisted we get some chicken mole... here it is - delicious and all.

Fried grouper for our tacos. YAY!



There it is...

I cut up some fruits for our last breakfast in Cabo. I love me some papaya.

I wish this guy would park his truck closer to my office in Boston. However, MPM believes that SF has better tacos than Mexico.

Yeah. Fried Fish. Doesn't get better than that in the back of a pick up truck.

Fixin's for my tacos.



One corn, one tortilla. I'm all for the corn.

More fixin's for my tacos in Cabo San Lucas...

Lookin' phresh with a "PH"

Eh. Yummy but not adventurous like the next one you're about to see.

Fried small intestines... yup, I ate me some of those.

Yours truly cooking dinner.

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)