Tag: soup

Congee with Ground Pork/Chicken

Ingredients:

  1. Ground pork/chicken
  2. green onions
  3. salt, pepper & red pepper flakes
  4. rice

Instructions:

  1. Ground Pork/Chicken, use any cut as lean/fatty as desired.
  2. Season with chopped white sections of green onions, salt, pepper, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.
  3. Add one or two teaspoons of olive oil if using lean meat.
  4. Taste the seasonings by cooking a coin-size piece in the microwave for about 10 seconds, then adjust the seasonings.
  5. Boil some water, add meat, bring back to boiling point, then scoop out the meat foam.
  6. Add rice – one part of rinsed UNCOOKED rice to 6 parts of water, or 2 parts of COOKED rice to 6 parts of water. This measurement includes water already in pot used to cook the meat.
  7. When rice reached the desired softness, adjust the thickness of the soup.
  8. When adjusting the seasonings at the end, add fish sauce or chicken bouillon/fish sauce, or both
  9. Scoop into bowl and sprinkle with chopped green onions and cilantro. (If you don’t like the taste of raw onions, add them to pot, stir, and remove pot from heat.)

congee.jpg

Instant mì

Today is nấu mì &hủ tiếu ( instant one ) but must have the flavor of the real mì Lacaze that means including salted radish, roasted dry squid, onion and bouillon cubes into 4-5 cups of water. So you will have mì in less than 30 minutes as you have the ingredients on hand.

You also can keep some ground pork as you can buy 1 lb divide in 3 or 4 small parts into a sandwich bag kept in freezer to be used when you want.   To cook for any soup put ground pork in a bowl marinade with 1/4 tsp salt, black pepper , the white part green onion mashed . In the soup until done 3 minutes in low heat.

Boil your noodles then sit down and eat !!!

canh mẳn

Ingredients :

  • fish or shrimp
  • One or two stalk of green onion
  • Tomato and dicon ( optional )
  • Yellow onion
  • Fish sauce

Instructions:

Boil two cups of water in a small pan ,

mash and chop the white part of green onion

add two tablespoons of fish sauce , a little bit of bouillon

add your fish in just about 3-5 minutes

last but not least, add tomatoes in wedges in

let it comes up to a boil again then turn off the stove

add green onion cut up 1/2 in long . That’s it .

For dipping sauce: Have lime or lemon juice and few slices of red pepper in a small saucer.

Oh good cook rice will go well with that , make sure you cook the rice before cooking the dishes.

Hủ Tiếu

INGREDIENTS

  • Xuong Ong heo (you can google for images) and/or neck bone and or pork baby back ribs and/or ground pork and/or  pork shoulder or butt.
  • Optional: Dried baby squid, dried shrimp, Daikon, jicama.These four items serve to enhance the sweetness in the broth without using MSG.  Find the smallest size of dried shrimp you can find
  • Optional: Shrimp, pork liver
  • Trimmings: Shallot or green onion
  • Salt, pepper,
  • Sugar
  • fish sauce are optional
  • Been sprout, and basil leaves are also optional.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. As starter, it will probably be easier to go with baby back ribs, ground pork, and fresh shrimp.  The dried shrimp and the daiKon really enhances the flavor of the broth though, so try to have them.  The ground pork goes surprisingly well with the whole thing.
  2. Wash the ribs in warm salted water (do the same if you have bones).
  3. Peel and cut the daikon/jicama into a few pieces each so they can fit into the pot. A daikon or a small jicama is good for at least 4 servings.
  4. Boil water and add the ribs/bones, ground pork, squid, dried shrimp, daikon, jicama.  Season with salt and sugar.
  5. The important thing is to have a clear both so cook without lid and remove the residue from time to time
  6. Let the water come to a boil again so the residue can rise to the top for easy removal.
  7. When most of it it has been removed, start simmering the broth.
  8. Cook for about an hour, clearing the broth every ten minutes or so.
  9. Add the fresh shrimp when you’re ready to eat.
  10. Taste and season with fish sauce and or salt.

Canh chua

Simple beef tomato soup.

INGREDIENTS

  • Beef sirloin or beef round, thinly sliced (the pinkish “thit bo tai” in Pho or used to stir fry with common stir fry dishes like Beef with Broccoli, or beef with Gai Lan, or Bun bo xao, etc.
  • Wash and rinse the beef slices and let them dry.If you don’t like gunks in the soup (if you want a clear broth), boil some water and blanch the beef for one quick minute. Use a strainer to wash and rinse the beef.Marinate the beef slices with salt and/or fish sauce.
  • Tofu (optional), soft or medium.
  • shrimp
  • Tomato, cut into wedges
  • Yellow or white onions.
    • If you like onions, use about half of a small onion, and cut into wedges
    • If you don’t care for onion, just use half of a small onion (for about 2 servings) just to add sweetness to the broth. 
  • Salt to taste.
  • Fish sauce or soy sauce (optional).

INSTRUCTIONS

A. For a light broth.

  1. In a pot, add enough water for two servings at high heat.Throw in the onion half (or wedges) and bring the water to a boil.
  2. Throw in the tomato wedges and let it cooked to the near-firmess that you like.Reduce the heat as necessary. If you prefer a medium soft tomato, cook it at medium  low heat.If you prefer a more tender tomato, cook it at medium heat.
  3. Reduce the heat to low and season the broth to taste with salt. Add some fish sauce or soy sauce if you like.
  4. Bring the heat back to high. Once it boils again, add the beef slices, and quickly cut off the heat. Done.

B. For a hearty broth.

  1. Heat up some cooking oil in a pot.
  2. Throw in the onion wedges  (in this case, smaller wedges, or even chopped onions is better) and shear for about 5 minutes at high heat (reducing the heat if it’s too hot.)
  3. Throw in the tomato wedges and do the same, adding chopped garlic if you like.You lose the firmness, but you gain color and flavor.
  4. Add water and continue with (1) as in the first method.

C. You can combine the two methods (use half of the tomato wedges to shear,  and half later)  to have both a hearty broth and some firm tomato wedges.

D. Another variation is to batter an egg or two, season lightly with salt, and add it to the pot before step 4.

I’ve used this broth (and other variations) with Mi Goi (packaged noodle) by adding stuffs like celery, bean sprout, and various herbs like Beef seasoning, Italian herbs, parsley flakes, beef stew seasoning or Vietnamese “Bo Kho” seasoning/paste, fresh parsley, fresh dills, etc.

 

Ông Ngoại’s Phở

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 lbs. ox tails
  • 3 lbs. beef bones (short rib variety)
  • 2 onions, halved
  • 1 ginger
  • 3 star anise pods
  • 1 package pho soup base (at Vietnames grocery store)
  • chicken (or beef) broth
  • salt (to taste)
  • rock sugar (a pinch)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. in a big pot, add bones, a pinch of salt (1/2 – 1 teaspoon), and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat to clean bones
  2. remove bones and discard water.  At this time, thoroughly scrub and wash bones of all traces of blood using a good scrubber.
  3. in a big pot, place bones and enough water to cover the bones.  Add salt & rock sugar (optional).
  4. bring pot to boil, and lower to simmer.
  5. on another stove, grill onions (halving onions first) and ginger (lightly mashed beforehand) until lightly burned.   Add to pot while it’s stewing the bones.
  6. best if you let pot simmered overnight or at least 2 hrs on low heat, occasionally skimmer and remove any traces of fat/debris on top of pot.
  7. about 1/2 hr before serving, add the following items: chicken broth for additional flavor, 3 star anises (grilled lightly), package of soup base, salt to taste
  8. for rare beef, use flank steak and slice against grain into thin slices of meat, the thinner the better. You can also use the cooked short ribs as they tend to have more flavor.
  9. separately prepare fresh Pho noodle, a handful at a time in boiling water for a minute. In a big bowl, add noodle, meat, minced cilantro and onion and plenty of broth.
  10. while slurping and enjoying your bowl of Phỏ from Ba/Ông Ngoại , think of the times he comes over and smack you on the head. It’s his trademark of showing his love to you in place of a bowl of noodle.
  11. eat, drink, love noooodlllleeee .
pho