Viet World Kitchen

Homemade Condensed Milk Recipe (+ vegan options)

There are many foods that I take for granted -- until I make them myself. The process of doing so helps me to understand and appreciate those foods more. Pho noodle soup, banh cuon, soup dumplings, tofu, and butter are among them. Last week I added condensed milk (sua dac, literally thick milk in Vietnamese) to the list.

I saw a recipe for “milk jam” in Bon Appetit magazine and thought, man, that sounds like DIY condensed milk. Then I read the recipe headnote (introduction) and indeed, the BA editors said that you could sub condensed milk for the milk jam, which was mixed with creme fraiche for a dessert topping at Oxheart restaurant in Houston.  

The recipe was ridiculously simple, and got me thinking about making condensed milk from soy milk as well as regular cow’s milk. So I gave it a try.

DIY Gluten-Free Soy Panko

Someone suggested Inez recently via a post comment that you can use the lees leftover from making tofu to make a soy version of panko. The tip stuck in my mind and I gave it a try the other day. If you’re not familiar with the lees, they are the solids that remain after you’ve pressed out the soy milk. Professional tofu makers have so  much of it that they usually arrange for it to be hauled off to a nearby farm to be used as animal feed. But for home cooks who are small batching it, you can turn it into food for humans (you) to eat! Consider the lees a tofu byproduct bonus.

Soymilk lees, often called okara (their name in Japanese) are a great source of fiber and protein. In Asian Tofu, I have a number of recipes that use the okara, including croquettes, cookies and even a little fake meat. I didn’t think of turning okara into a gluten-free panko. It’s a brilliant idea and super easy to execute.

The photo at the top highlights how you can make flakes like oatmeal or cornflakes or crumbles like coarse ground cornmeal.  If you’re not making your own soy milk and don’t have the lees leftover, you can buy them or get them for free from a tofu shop. Japanese markets may sell it in plastic bags near the refrigerated tofu section. It looks like this:

Tasty Tofu Recipes in March Sunset Mag

From Sunset magazine. Tofu, bacon and avocado sandwich.

Over the weekend, a local newspaper reporter interviewed me about the Asian Tofu cookbook. One of her questions was: Do you see a rise in the popularity of tofu in America?

I paused for a few seconds to figure out an appropriate response, and the March issue of Sunset magazine was it. I’ve been a long-time subscriber to the magazine, which focuses on lifestyles in the American West – the region’s food, travel, gardening, and decor. Sunset has been around since 1898 and has a monthly circulation of  1.2 million plus readers. It has always been a great gauge for what’s trending in the mainstream American West. Last fall, food editor Margo True asked me to curate and develop a collection of innovative tofu recipes by chefs in the West.

Leftover Bonanza: Beef with Miso, Mustard, and Wine Sauce

 

This is what we just had for dinner. It’s not a great photo but tells the story of how last Sunday’s tri-tip and potatoes got turned into something “new.” My husband and I don’t eat a ton of meat so what we cook actually gets used up in many other meals during the course of a week.

Tonight it was a matter of eating up the roast, which we’d simply rubbed with lots of kosher salt, pepper, and dried summer savory, seared it stove top and popped it in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes per pound for medium or medium-rare (aim for 125-135F and rest for 10 minutes). You can also rub soy sauce or fish sauce on the roast along with pepper and garlic to marvelous effect. As we were getting things ready for dinner, Rory said, “I wish there was some gravy.”

That’s how this little impromptu sauce started. I remembered a conversation I’d had with chef Douglas Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg about the virtues of combining miso and mustard – something he’d picked up from a renowned chef in Kyoto. Years ago, I made a simple red wine sauce with lots of shallot and whole grain mustard from a Martha Stewart recipe. There was a tub of dashi stock in the fridge to serve as my stealth umami infusion. With all of that in mind, I made a quick savory-sweet-tart sauce for the beef. As with past posts on repurposing leftovers, this one is also about how I cook on the fly.

Chile Salt for Fruit and Veggies (Bot Muoi Ot)

I made the mistake of buying a so-so watermelon recently. It weighed over 8 pounds and looked decent on the outside but was flabby tasting on the inside. Watermelon, unlike other melons, does not ripen further after harvest. I was stuck with it. My husband wanted to throw it out and start over.

Wait, I said, let’s try some chile salt on the melon and see if we can perk up its taste. Fruit (melon, papaya, mango, pineapple, tart apple) and vegetables (jicama, cucumber) are often enjoyed with chile salt in tropical Asia; Latins share the same foodway. The result is a certain refreshing sweet heat on the palate.

I’d bought the following jars of chile salt. One is Vietnamese and the other is Latin (I got it while I was in Texas).

While both had salt, sugar, chile powder, and citric acid, the Trechas brand included colorant and preservative. I’d had the Viet one around for a year and it had changed color. However, the Viet one had more salt than sugar and a delicate tang and heat that sparked up the watermelon nicely. I liked its taste on its own. The Trechas was tangy more than anything else and lacked a pleasant flavor.