Viet World Kitchen

Sriracha Hot Sauce Week

Perhaps because we’re closing on winter’s end and longing to warm up in spring but it seems like everyone is talking about sriracha these days. I’ve written lots about it on VWK, with tastings of various kinds, a DIY sriracha recipe, as well as recipes using the Thai hot sauce. But it continues to gain momentum, particularly the Rooster brand made by Huy Fong in the United States. Dare I say it, yes I will, sriracha has gone mainstream.

BusinessWeek magazine ran a terrific in-depth article late last month on the remarkable success of the Rooster sriracha. The company uses no advertising, has no Twitter handle or Facebook page. The owner is Vietnamese-American David Tran. While I was happy to see an Asian-American food business article in a national publication, I noted that the sriracha was compared to other hot sauces, such as Tabasco and Cholula. Why wasn’t it compared to other kinds of Thai sriracha hot sauces? That would have been a more level playing field.

Dried Shiitake Mushroom Tips: How to Buy, Soak, and Prep

When I’m out of dried shiitake mushrooms, it’s practically a kitchen emergency. I use them all the time in East Asian cooking to amp up umami goodness, whether it's in a stir-fry, soup, dumpling filling, or a tofu dish. In Vietnamese, they’re called nam dong co kho or nam huong kho by southern and northern Viet speakers, respectively. The mushrooms in dried form are most often used in my house so we drop the “kho” (dried) when we refer to them. Shiitake mushrooms are typically added during the cooking process. I’ve never eaten them raw. (Have you?)

I decided to write about dried shiitake mushrooms because people ask for tips on how to buy them and prep them. Frankly, the ones sold at mainstream supermarkets are sad, thin capped and mildly flavored. They’re also expensive. Feel free to add your pointers to mine below:

Try Beige Rice: The Middle Path between White and Brown

Raise your hand if you dislike brown rice and love white rice but know that white rice isn’t the healthiest thing to eat all the time. If you did, we are members of the same club. I’ve tried to like brown rice but it’s too heavy for most Asian foods and takes so long to cook.

Several years ago, I discovered Japanese short-grain rice that was partially milled. It was at Nijiya market, a small chain based in California that organically grows its own rice in California. And, you could buy it at 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0 percent. The 100 percent is white rice and 0 percent is brown. (The Nijiya online store doesn't carry a full selection.)

I bought the 50 percent Akitakomachi rice and found that it cooked up at the same rate as regular white rice. Amazing and with half of the bran intact, the rice retained some of the healthy aspects of brown rice. I wanted to call it brown rice but my husband coined the term “beige rice.” The rice was delicious – separate fluffy grains with a faint earthy sweetness. We found ourselves eating more rice than we normally did. It was better for us, no?

Favorite Asian Cooking Oils and Fats?

I’m often asked what kind of oil I use for cooking up Asian dishes. This typically happens when I’m about to deep-fry or stir-fry so my immediate response is canola. In retrospect, I should be more clear. There are three cooking oils that I reach for most, and they sit right next to my stove.

Canola, sesame oil, and peanut oil. That’s the order that I have the oil in their refillable bottles. The bottles are recycled wine bottles outfitted with liquor bottle pourers.

Why those three oils?

Tofu Coagulant Guide: What to buy and where to find it

My friend Bee Yinn Low posted a recipe on how to make sweet tofu pudding on her site, RasaMalaysia.com. She asked me to give tips on doing it well because she had a little trouble with her sweet doufu hua recipe. Among the comments that Bee received were ones about what to use for coagulating soy milk to produce tofu. People were very confused and I fielded their questions. Obviously, they didn’t have my book but more importantly, clarification is needed. So here we are.

To make tofu you need 3 ingredients: soybeans, water and coagulant. What are your coagulant options and how to choose and get them? I hope to answer your questions here.

What does a coagulant do to soy milk? It solidifies the protein and oil in hot soy milk. 

Can you use agar agar or gelatin to coagulate soy milk? No, unless you want to produce soy milk gelatin. “Almond tofu” is gelled with agar agar or unflavored gelatin but it’s more of a jelly than a tofu. The term tofu is often used in China and Japan to denote many jelled things. Tofu is really a different animal. It’s not thickened with a starch or gelatin type of ingredient.

What can be used to coagulate soy milk for tofu: Many things, from everyday vinegar, lemon juice, and recycled/fermented whey to gypsum (calcium sulphate), Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), nigari (magnesium chloride), and glucono deltalactone (GDL).