Viet World Kitchen

Korean Chilled Seaweed and Cucumber Soup Recipe (Ohyi Miyuk Naeng Guk)

When I posted the northern Chinese celery salad a few weeks back, my friend Yun Ho commented that he wanted to send me this Korean hot-weather soup recipe. Yun Ho is an avid cook who lives in Seoul, Korea. We correspond about Vietnamese and Korean food on a regular basis. He and his wife put together this refreshing soup recipe for ohyi miyuk naeng guk (pronounced “o-yee mee-yuck naeng gook”) and emailed it last week.

I made some slight tweaks by adding wakame seaweed, which naturally thickens things a tad and lends extra umami. The result is an addictively good no-cook summer soup.  It’s akin to a Korean gazpacho. Seriously. And, you can keep it in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.

Crispy Scallion Tofu and Rice Cakes Recipe

Several people who read the post on Diep Tran and Good Girl Dinette remarked how tasty her tofu snack looked. And for those of you who’ve eaten it, you know that it’s true. I couldn’t agree with you more!

I kept thinking about it yesterday so I made my own version of it. I figure that what Diep was riffing on was a classic northern Vietnamese fried tofu dish in which the crisp tofu was retrieved from the oil and simmered in diluted fish sauce and green onion. The tofu sucks up all the seasonings and gets coated with the green onion. My mother made deep-fried tofu simmered in scallion (dau hu chien tam hanh la) on a regular basis for our family dinner. She still makes it today.

Trendy Tofu: Yuba is More than Tofu Skin Deep

When researching tofu history in America for the book, I came across this factoid: In 1986, USA Today reported that tofu was America’s most hated food. Poor little bean curd, maligned and loathed during the year of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Falco, and Huaraches sandals. I had just graduated from high school and had no idea of tofu’s plight in mainstream America.

After 26 years, 1980s music and Huaraches are making a strong comeback. John Hughes's movie airs on cable for wistful gen Xers like me. (I still get a kick from Matthew Broderick's hilariously subversive Ferris Bueller.) 

Tofu has luckily moved on to better places too. In fact, many chefs have hopped on the tofu train. For the March issue of Sunset magazine, I developed a recipe for tofu with a miso and mustard glaze. It was based on the vegetarian tasting menu dish at 2-star Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg. Douglas Keane shared his unusual and tasty technique with me for the story.

On Saturday, food journalist Charlotte Druckman wrote a Wall Street Journal story about tofu skin (often times referred to as yuba, its Japanese name). A seasoned traveler, eater and cook, she fell for tofu skin long ago. Charlotte wasn’t off base. She was actually ahead of her time.

In the article, she discussed modern tofu skin preparations at high-end restaurants, such as Coi (Daniel Patterson), Attelier Crenn (Dominique Crenn), and Alinea (Grant Achatz). These are among the most celebrated restaurants in the United States these days, and tofu is part of their repertoire.

To showcase tofu skin’s deliciousness, Charlotte prepared a riff on the spicy yuba ribbons recipe in Asian Tofu. She added vegetables to the dish for color and crunch.

Chinese Fermented Black Bean Magic (plus recipes)

While I’ve cooked with Chinese fermented black beans for years, I didn’t realized how versatile they were until I had about 2 pounds of them on hand, leftover from working on the Asian Market Shopper mobile app and the Asian Tofu cookbook.

The little beans are not the same as what you cook up for a pot of cuban black beans! In fact, they are slightly moist and soft, a preserved seasoning ingredient used in many southern Chinese (Cantonese) kitchens. Expect salty, pungent, and winy qualities from the beans.

Wanting to use them up, I started cooking with them, mining my Chinese cookbook collection for recipes and ideas. When I was through, I had enough information about fermented black beans (dou chi in Mandarin, dul see in Cantonese, dau/tau xi in Vietnamese) and a small collection of delectable recipes.

Food editor Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times agreed to an article on the beans. We polished it in March and it was published over the weekend under the title, “Chinese fermented black beans a versatile staple.”

Four recipes were included in the story:

Fried Tofu and Egg Pancake Recipe (Tahu Telur)

There are a number of recipes that didn’t make it into the Asian Tofu cookbook. Why? We just did not have enough space. This remarkably easy and versatile Indonesian treat is among the recipes that I set aside to post online. If you have the book already, add this to your Asia tofu recipe collection. If you don’t, this is a recipe that highlights how tofu can be transformed as well as transformative.

Tahu telur (tahu means tofu and telur means eggs) is like egg foo yung with pieces of fried tofu. In its elemental state, a block tofu is subtle in flavor, a canvas for receiving other ingredients. However, if you fry tofu, it gets a little crunchy and nutty tasting, almost like crisp chicken skin.

For these pancakes, small flattish pieces of tofu (I use Trader Joe's firm) get fried and then mixed with egg. The tofu absorbs some of the egg while lending its fattiness to reinforce that of the egg, as if it's an egg extender. 

Then the mixture is dropped into hot oil. The amoeba-like pancakes develop crisp surfaces and edges. The delicately rich and eggy result gets crowned with crunchy vegetables and savory-sweet-spicy sauce, typically peanut sauce or chile-spiked sweet soy sauce; both sauces are in the photo above. The combination of texture and flavors is amazing.