Viet World Kitchen

Deep-Fried Apple Spring Rolls Recipe

Last year when I was in Beijing to do research for the tofu book, my friend Lillian Chou, food editor at Time Out Beijing, dragged me and stylist Karen Shinto to a McDonald’s. We were there to eat tofu but she insisted that we first try the fried fruit pies. “You can hardly get them anymore in the States so eat up girls!” Lillian said. I hadn’t been in a McDonald’s in years (primarily to use the rest room) yet there we were eating fried pineapple pies at McDonald’s in China.

It was surreal but truth be told, it was good. In fact, the fried pie took me back to my childhood, when my family would buy deep-fried fruit pies at the supermarket. We didn’t know they were bad for us. We got them on super duper sale along with the occasional Twinkies nearby. My favorite was the fried apple pie.

That experience in Beijing, my longing for fried apple pies, and a frozen package of spring roll skins leftover from the Chef’s special crunchy shrimp balls led me to create this spring roll. I should also mention that I have an abundance of apples right now – thanks to generous neighbors and my overbuying at the farmer’s market. I live in an apple farming area. You’ll be seeing another apple recipe or two later.

Crunchy Shrimp Balls Recipe (aka Chef's Special Balls)

The first time I ordered these deep-fried shrimp balls at a dim sum restaurant, they carried the honoric title of “chef’s special balls.” Yes, I just used the word balls twice in one sentence. My husband and I giggled at the English name as we ordered the crisp little wonders, coated with crunchy ribbons of noodles. Those balls were the size of golf balls and a little awkward to manage with chopsticks. I’m sure you’re smirking or laughing aloud by now. Nevertheless, they offered a nice contrast of textures and shrimp flavor. (If you've had this little wonder, what were they called in English and/or Chinese?)

It was probably the name but I’ve didn’t make chef’s special balls at home until earlier this week. Bee Yinn Low’s new Easy Chinese Recipes cookbook inspired me to do so with a recipe for “crunchy shrimp balls” which gave them a little more gravitas and got me over my giggles. (I contributed a cover blurb to the book so suffice it to say, I’ve been pondering these crunchy morsels since I reviewed the galleys months ago.) Bee is the brains behind the super popular Rasa Malaysia blog, a newish mom, and now a cookbook author.

Fragrant and Very Crispy Duck Recipe (Xiang Su Quan Ya)

What started out as my pursuit of homemade Peking duck has turned into a pursuit of Sichuan fragrant and crispy duck. As I mentioned last week in my initial foray into cooking a whole duck, the deep-fried Sichuan preparation is often served instead of roasted Peking duck at Chinese restaurants abroad. In many of the Chinese cookbooks that I have, authors such as Irene Kuo, Barbara Tropp, and Ken Hom say that the Sichuan approach is their favorite for home cooking. When you think about it, most Chinese home kitchens do not have stoves. Deep-frying is a fast and fuel efficient substitute for roasting.

That said, the first Sichuan fragrant and crispy duck was phenomenally good, but I wanted to make the skin a tad crisper. Last week, I went back to the Chinese market and carted home another duck, in addition to a wealth of locally grown, pesticide-free Asian vegetables.  Rory and I went at it again this weekend and the following things came to mind about creating a Chinese crispy duck:

Fragrant and Crispy Duck Recipe (Xiang Su Quan Ya)

“There’s nothing I can do to stop you,” Rory said when I laid out my plan to make Peking duck, which entailed borrowing a neighbor’s air compressor to detach the skin and fat. When I brought my duck home from the Chinese market, I realized that I couldn’t figure out where I should stick the pump. The recipe instructions in Eileen Yin-Fei Low’s Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking did not give me enough guidance. The duck was casting a gentle gaze at me in the fridge, and I had to figure out what to do with the dear bird.

I perused my Chinese cookbooks to discover a Sichuan preparation of crispy duck, which Fuchsia Dunlop says is the duck that most Chinese restaurants abroad actually serve. What I've enjoyed hasn't been roasted, but deep fried! Maybe that's why they get the duck to the table relatively quickly.My friend Carl Chu, a Chinese food expert and author of the Chinese Food Finder series , verified Fuchsia’s claim by saying that Peking duck at most Chinese restaurants are mostly made in advance and then deep-fried to refresh and serve. So I gave up on using the air compressor pump (Rory was relieved) and embarked on a weekend of Sichuan duck.

Best Korean Fried Chicken Recipe (Yangnyeom Dak)

Some people comically call Korean fried chicken “the other KFC” but Colonel Sanders would not recognize these super crispy pieces of deep fried wonders coated in spicy-sweet-tangy-sesame-seed-inflected-goopy sauce. I’ve been hooked on perfecting this chicken dish over the past two months, making it eight (8) times altogether. (I had to pace myself in between attempts, or I’d become as big as a house!)

The source of my obsession? I first tasted Korean fried chicken in 2006 but recently focused on coming up with an excellent rendition because frankly, I was trying to use up a big tub of Korean chile paste (gojuchang) that I’d purchased during a Korean market tour with some friends. I'd made Korean-Vietnamese grilled pork belly and lettuce wraps with the chile paste multiple times but those meals barely put a dent in the kilo of gojuchang in my fridge. Don’t get me wrong because I love the stuff and just don’t want to let it go to waste.