Viet World Kitchen

Why Vietnamese Tet is for Home Cooking

Every year, I look forward to the week leading up to the Lunar New Year – Tet Nguyen Dan, or just Tet, as we call it in Vietnamese. Why? For the simple reason that I take time off to make some of my favorite traditional Viet foods. Many of us rush around these days, barely catching our breaths to meet deadlines, only to face new ones. Multitasking, I’ve learned, is overrated.

When Tet comes along, I shut down and shut out the world for a few days. Tune out and focus on cleaning, cooking, and celebrating. Vietnamese Tet is a low-key, family-oriented holiday. It's homey by nature and people love it. Tet is like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day and Father's Day all wrapped up into one. Traditionally, people took off a month from work. Modern times don't allow for that and we all create our own new traditions. 

My Tet ritual starts at Asian grocery stores. I try not to brave the weekend crowds at Chinese and Vietnamese markets and instead go there on a weekday. That way, I get to look at all the crazy sweets and snacks that are for sale for new year. They’re usually well positioned near the market’s entrance so you can’t miss them.

Year of the Snake: Lucky Dumpling Party Tips

When it comes to Chinese astrological signs, I suck. While I know my own – I straddle the curious monkey and preening rooster who cooks well, I don’t take it all that seriously. Some people are dialing it in for the upcoming Year of the Black (or Water) Snake, which starts on February 10. By some accounts, it will be one of instability and extremities but will generate overall peace and prosperity. I feel like that is my life in the main.  

Through web searches, I found out that snakes are sexy, lucky, and wise, albeit inclined to a certain measure of laziness. Famous snakes include Pablo Picasso, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Onassi, and Brooke Shields. Snakes gets along well with roosters, oxes, horses, sheep, and dogs. If you’re a rat, tiger, rabbit, or dragon, you’ll be an okay friend of a snake. Monkeys and snakes tend to create too much drama. I’m kinda covered during 2013, I suppose.

This stuff is lots of yin-yang, good and bad, lighthearted fun. I read Chinese astrological signs like I read my daily horoscopes. Their ambiguity offers constant life lessons. If they were spot on, I’d head to Vegas during my “four-star” days.

That said, it’s always good to start a new year with a positive outlook. I make my plans for Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) around the 3 C’s: cleaning, cooking, and celebrating. Since I am usually not with my family, I invite close friends over for a feast. More often than not, there are dumplings on the menu. I occasionally make an entire menu of dumplings and invite friends over to help out.

Roasted Kabocha and Vegetable Dumplings Recipe

I’ve had pumpkin dumplings in Monterey Park and Beijing, their pretty tangerine-colored filling of grated winter (hard) squash were unpleasantly bland and sometimes undercooked. It’s an Asian dumpling that I’ve let simmer on the back burner for a while and didn’t tackle till this week, when faced with leftover roasted kabocha squash. My husband Rory said, “Let’s make Italian raviolis with the kabocha.”

I responded with this dumpling filled with roasted squash, earthy shiitake and parsnip, and upbeat celery. The seasonings involve fried shallot, lots of ginger and enough garlic for pungent depth. I wanted the ingredients to support and elevate the natural sweetness of the kabocha. I’d planned on adding soy sauce but in the end, there was so much great flavor from the vegetables that the only seasoning I added was salt. 

In other words, gluten-free dumpling eaters, this filling is for you too! No need to get the wheat-free tamari out. See the link at the end of this post for gluten-free dumpling dough options. 

Rava Dosa Semolina Crepes with Chile Recipe

The temperature began dropping last week and my response was to make an warming Indian meal. I hankered for Indian crepes but didn’t want to ferment and grind batter. Something simple was in order and rava dosas came to mind. The southern Indian crepe is made with readily available ingredients and the batter does not require fermentation. Mix it up and an hour later, it’s ready.

I had them with a light curry, chutney and raita. The next day we had the crepes for lunch with a dollop of yoghurt that I mixed up into a quick raita, and a salad. I based the recipe below from one in Julie Sahni’s magnificent Savoring India cookbook.

She used bell pepper and lots of serranos and dried chile flakes. I dialed up the fruity fresh chile heat by using pasilla and Fresnos and lowered the others. Regardless of the chile combination, the result was something to rave about. We didn’t mind eating rava dosas two days in a row.

Asian Tofu Sneak Peek: Sample Video and Recipes

Woohoo -- now I can finally share a bit of the Asian Tofu cookbook with you! I've been cooking from my one copy and petting its cover, which has spot-gloss text so that all the letters are slightly reflective and raised. (That's the book design geek in me.)

Asian Tofu releases next week on February 28. Preview copies have been going out to media folks. I've been waiting for the green light to show you the insides of the book. Yesterday, Ten Speed Press and Random House posted sample content for public perusal at their Recipe Club website. For your convenience, I'm reposting the information here.

First up is one of the videos from the Asian Tofu enhanced ebook. The clip offers tips for understanding different kinds of tofu textures, which can be tricky to figure out at the store. I cover the main types used in the book:

 

Video by Ten Speed Press and Jaded Palate Productions

Along with these kinds of instructional videos, we also embedded travelogue videos in the enhanced edition. Those are among the great add-ons that you can include in digital publications.