Sweet Corn and Rice Pudding

Growing up, I had a good mix of Vietnamese and Chinese food cooked at home since most of my ethnically Chinese family were born and raised in Vietnam. One of our favorite ways to end meals was to have che, Vietnamese dessert that usually consisted of some type of sweet soup. This is one of the less soup-like che, and it tends to fill me up way too much since it's just rice, corn, and rich coconut sauce. A little here goes a loooong way. Trang's recipe below.

Ingredients:
8 cups water
2 cups sticky rice
2 cups sweet corn
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 pinch salt

Coconut Sauce Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
2 TBSP flour
2 TBSP granulated sugar
1 pinch salt

Instructions:

1. Add water and sticky rice to non-stick pot, and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until sticky rice expands.

2. Add corn and continue cooking until thick. Add additional water as needed, to ensure that mixture does not get too thick before rice becomes soft.

3. Add sugar and salt and cook until porridge consistency. Serve with coconut sauce.

Instructions for coconut sauce:

1. Bring coconut milk to a scald, quickly whisk in flour, sugar, and salt so that flour does not clump. Turn off heat.

Peanut Sauce

No picture here, though you can see a smudge of the sauce in my picture for the Roasted Fish Wrapped in Spring Rolls post. This recipe will come in handy for almost anything you can think to dip in peanut sauce, so check it out! Trang's recipe below.

Ingredients:

3 TBSP peanut butter
4 TBSP hoisin sauce
5 TBSP sweetened vinegar*

* Sweetened Vinegar Recipe:
16 parts water
8 parts granulated sugar
5 part vinegar

These ingredients should be brought to a boil, so that the sugar dissolves. Also, this sweetened vinegar can be made in a large batch ahead of time, and stored in the pantry, as it comes in handy for several different recipes.

Instructions:
In a blender, combine peanut butter, hoisin sauce, and sweetened vinegar. Blend until smooth.
Your sauce is ready to serve! You can optionally top the sauce with some ground roasted peanuts if desired.

Roasted Fish Wrapped in Spring Rolls

Why did this dish seem like it took forever to prepare? I think it's because we were working on all the other dishes as well. I mean, what's so hard about washing some lettuce and mint leaves and buying some fried fish from Ranch 99? :P I guess there's also a technique to rolling up the spring rolls as well that might be better learned in person rather than through a carefully worded blog post, so just let me know if you need a lesson! Trang's recipe for our main course below.

Roasted Fish Ingredients:
1 whole cat fish, cleaned
1 bunch green onion, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Spring Rolls Ingredients:
Rice or tapioca paper
Green leaf lettuce
Mint
Rice noodles (vermicelli)

Instructions:
1. Brush the fish with olive oil and roast over high heat either on a barbeque or in the over. An easy alternative is to ask your asian grocery store to fry the fish for you.

2. In a bowl, combine green onions and olive oil, seal with cling wrap, and microwave on high for 90 to 120 seconds, until green onion is wilted. When fish is cooked through, smear the green onion mixture over the outside of the fish. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

3. Serve fish whole with spring roll ingredients and dipping sauce, and allow guests to wrap their own spring rolls.

**Traditional dipping sauces for this dish: Nuoc Mam/Nuoc Cham (Fish sauce vinaigrette) or Mam Nem (Fermented Anchovy Sauce), but for the uninitiated, peanut sauce is usually a crowd pleaser.

Lemon Chicken Skewers

This was one tasty appetizer, though we almost messed it up by putting in two tbsp of salt instead of sugar into the marinade. Oops. We tried to fix it by putting in FOUR tbsp of sugar, but I think it still came out a bit over-salted. Ah well. Now we know - don't replace sugar with salt! ;) Trang's recipe for the skewers as follows... We used a George Foreman grill, and the skewers came out great! (5 min. on one side, flip to other side for 3 min.)

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb chicken (thinly sliced)
2 TBSP oyster sauce
1 ½ TBSP granulated sugar
1 TBSP soy sauce
3 TBSP lemon juice
½T

BSP garlic (minced)
¼ tsp five spice
2 TBSP olive oil

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients for marinade, then thoroughly mix in the chicken. Let sit for approximately 15 minutes before grilling. DO NOT marinate over night as the meat will lose its sweetness and flavor.

2. String marinated meat onto bamboo skewers and grill over high heat until cooked.
Top chicken with fried shallots and/or ground peanuts and lemon slices. Serve with rice or noodles, or by itself as an appetizer.

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

As Albert says, "What's there to explain? It's chicken noodle soup, but Vietnamese." Indeed! Vietnamese-style usually means fresh veggies and a nice tangy taste to it, which is what you'll find with this delicious soup. It's tasty and easy to prepare; the laborious part is the chopping of the veggies. Below is Trang's recipe for the soup.

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
1 large chicken breast, sliced thinly
1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced thinly

2 cups cellophane noodles, soaked in water until soft

0.5 cups green onions, chopped

4 tbsp fish sauce, or to taste

2 tbsp rock sugar

Ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Add chicken stock and rock sugar to a pot. Bring chicken stock to a boil. Season to taste with fish sauce. Over season ever so slightly, because the seasoning will be diluted after the other ingredients are added.

2. Add chicken breasts and cook until almost done. Add Shitake mushrooms and green onions. Re-season with granulated sugar and fish sauce if needed. Cook for approximately 30 seconds and turn off heat.

3. Stir in cellophane noodles and cilantro at the very end. Sprinkle in ground black pepper if desired. Serve while hot.