Viet World Kitchen

Peach-Lemongrass Granita Recipe

I am currently in possession of a very large quantity of the most perfect peaches and nectarines. They are sweet-tangy and so juicy that we often eat them standing over the kitchen sink. The peaches and nectarines were grown by the Masumoto family in Del Rey, located near Fresno, California. Mas Masumoto is renowned for his natural growing methods and champions varieties that are out of fashion. That’s to say, he wants to grow fruit with flavor. They are fragile and inconsistent in size but are full of the essence of summer. They are not fruit that you’ll find at the supermarket because they’re best eaten soon after they’re picked.

Mas, his wife Darcy, and daughter Nikiko work the farm. Romantic as small scale, family farming may sound, it’s not a glamorous life because Fresno is hot, the fruits have minds of their own, and the organic soil is so powdery at times that everything seems coated in a fine layer of dust. What’s glamorous and elegant is the fruit of the labors. Masumoto peaches and nectarines are legendary, prized by high-end restaurants and chefs, as well as home cooks who appreciate good fruit.

Revolutionary Blueberry Cherry Muffins Recipe

July is a month that marks revolutions and independence movements. I woke up on July 4^th wanting to break away from my usual breakfast of muesli. Lazy but desiring a little something baked and beautiful, I decided to make muffins. They’re easy. They are a quick bread! I had blueberries and cherries in the fridge, some toasted hazelnuts on the counter and the rest were staples in the pantry.

The problem was in getting the muffin pan from the garage. It was stuffed into a storage tub and we had to back out the car to retrieve it. I don’t often bake muffins and my beat-up Ecko pan was about twenty years old. No need to scrub it clean. Muffin cups found in the deep recesses of my pantry/closet came to the rescue!

Easy Apple and Walnut Coffee Cake Recipe

I haven’t baked a coffee cake in years but over the past four days, I’ve baked this apple and walnut coffee cake twice. I was inspired by my mom’s steal on a bunch of black walnuts and the need for something sweet as I push through the pho cookbook copyediting process. She found them in the bargain area of her supermarket, marked down to a ridiculously low price. Black walnuts are relatively hard to find, probably because they have very hard shells that make them tough nuts to crack (ha!). Compared to regular English walnuts, black walnuts have a winey, big flavor. In raw and cooked state, they exude a remarkable fragrance. Mom gave me several bags of her black walnuts because at 55 cents each, she bought all that the store had. I keep them in the freezer.

Last Sunday, I woke up wanting an easy old fashioned coffee cake for breakfast. I found a recipe in a 1994 Sunset magazine cookbook called “Breads” – the kind of cookbook you’d pickup at a grocery store. I loved the older one from 1966 because it was no nonsense and the recipe taught me a lot about American break baking. This one was somewhat of an updated version; I keep it in my collection for when I’m NOT in the mood for fancy, rustic loaves.

Triple Ginger Cookie Recipe

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to share this cookie recipe with you. It’s been a favorite of mine for many years. The recipe comes from the China Moon cookbook by the late Barbara Tropp, a Bay Area chef and restaurateur who also spoke Mandarin Chinese. She was one of the leading voices and scholars on Chinese cooking, author of The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (which I own 2 copies of).

Tropp knew traditional techniques and explained Chinese ingredients super well. She also created modern dishes for her restaurant, China Moon, that were really doable for home cooks. She was funny and friendly too, calling me one time after I sent her a thank you note. Food was fun to her, not precious as it’s often treated nowadays.

3 Easy Holiday Cookie Recipes

I was deep in the details of my pho manuscript last Sunday when my phone flashed an email of cookie panic from Wesley. He had gathered all the ingredients for Belinda’s amazing almond cookies and was ready to go when he noticed that I had some incorrect metric measurements. He was about to proceed until I clarified and confirmed the ingredient list.

Ai-ya, some big goofs were made when I published the recipe and tried to be helpful with metric measurements but was working too fast. I took a break from my work and checked the recipe, making edits where appropriate. Wesley went forward to make his cookies.

That got me thinking about a lovely holiday cookie platter with just 3 delicious, easy items of varied sizes, shapes and textures. Odd numbers are a good for display. That’s what my design friends and stylist Karen Shinto tell me. They’re right. There is a certain planned randomness to an odd number of items.

So here are 3 cookies from the Viet World Kitchen archive for you to slip into your schedule this week.