Viet World Kitchen

Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky Recipe (Goi Du Du Bo Kho)

 

Vietnamese green papaya salad comes in two guises and one of them features earthy beef jerky and heady Thai basil (hung que). The other version of green papaya salad is southern Viet and has shrimp, pork and rau ram herb; the recipe is in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. A northern Viet favorite, green papaya salad made with beef jerky includes slivers of smoked liver and on occasion, lung too. In Hanoi's Old Quarter, I recall a little street full of green papaya salad vendors. I’ve never had the lung in salads in the U.S. Both the jerky and liver are a tad chewy, the liver adding a slight minerally quality to the salad. It’s no great shakes. If you lived in Little Saigon, you’d go to the Vietnamese-Chinese jerky store for the beef and the liver. Or you make beef jerky at home, like I did last week. In my kitchen, I omit the liver and the salad is just fine. 

To dress Vietnamese green papaya salad, you have two options. One is a fish sauce and lime dressing. The other features soy sauce and vinegar. The former yields a salad that is lighter in taste and appearance that the latter. At places like the Asian Garden Mall food court in Orange County’s Little Saigon, it’s common to see the soy dressing. If you watched the movie, Scent of Green Papaya, the dressing is the fish sauce one. Regardless of your dressing, you can serve the salad pre-dressed or with the dressing on the side. Because the soy dressing turns the pale celadon green papaya a sad brown color, I like to let guests dress their own salad. The recipe below employs the soy sauce dressing.

Squid Stir-fried with Chile Peppers Recipe

Despite what you may think, Vietnamese food at core is very simple cooking that relies on a handful of fresh ingredients. Dishes like this one, inspired by an appetizer I ordered at Charles Phan’s Slanted Door in San Francisco, showcases how straightforward cooking can produce surprisingly complex and beguiling results. That's the genius of any good cooking.

Vegan Green Papaya Salad with Thai Basil

Maybe it’s because I live in Northern California in the heart of natural living and organic agriculture but I’m often asked if I’m a vegetarian. Folks, I’m an equal opportunity eater. That means I swing in many directions in terms of my diet. Vietnamese cuisine has an entire repertoire of vegetarian cooking that I’m frankly not adept at. Manipulating wheat gluten is not where I spend most of my time. However, I do okay with preparations like this one, which is nothing but a vegan riff on Vietnamese green papaya salad with beef jerky.

As you know from recent postings, I had some shredded green papaya and carrot leftover from test driving the kom kom miracle shredder tool. Also, there’s pressed tofu in my fridge from the stir-fry with Chinese celery. Thin slices of meaty pressed tofu (see the pressed tofu stir-fried with Chinese celery recipe for buying information) stand in for the beef jerky. The overall flavors were a little lean so I added roasted peanuts for richness. To save time, prep the vegetables and tofu a day in advance and toss everything right before serving. Cut the Thai basil about 1/4 inch wide so they add super pungent notes in each bite.

Pomelo Salad with Shrimp and Pork Recipe (Goi Buoi Tom Thit)

It's pomelo season, and in the last week, I've made Vietnamese pomelo salad three times. How could I resist? Everywhere I shopped -- from the San Jose Tet market where I bought my potted chrysanthemums, to the Chinese grocery store, to Costco -- there were pomelos for sale. The gentle giant version of grapefruit is favored in Vietnam as a palate cleansing winter fruit, and also as the star in a special event salads like this one.

Medium pomelos are the size of a volleyball and big ones make you think of playing basketball. I search for the heaviest one in whatever size that's available because then the flesh won't be so dry. Pomelo flesh is drier than that of grapefruit so that's why the dryness is an issue.

To get to the flesh, one also removes the out skin of each segment. Cut into each segment with a knife or pair of kitchen scissors, and then use your fingers to remove the flesh and break it apart into bite size pieces. In Vietnam, a super dedicated cook would separate each piece of pomelo flesh into individual teardrop cells. I've not that kind of patience, though sometimes the pomelo flesh will naturally fall apart. It's a tedious task, but one that's great for sharing with friends. My girlfriends Michelle, Thy and I attacked a pomelo last weekend for a salad for our Tet dinner and had quality girl time in the process.

Like grapefruit, pomelo may be whitish/yellow or pink. In this salad, my California grown pomelos were all pink in color so I chose to use some finely shredded carrot for a funky/cool contrast. If yours is whitish/yellow, use a small carrot and add 1/2 thinly sliced cucumber (halve it lengthwise and seed it first)> When using carrot and cucumber, I the cut veggies with 1/4 teaspoon of each salt and sugar to make them weep their liquid, then I rinse and squeeze them dry before adding to the salad.  Regardless, you'll end up with an unusual savory-tart-bitter-pungent blending of flavors that's also beautiful to look at. If you don't have time for frying the shallots, add a little more peanuts to make up for the loss of richness.

Pomelo Salad with Shrimp and Meat
Goi Buoi Tom Thit

Serves 6

 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 pound boneless skinless chicken breast or boneless pork chop, or ¾ to 1 cup matchstick-cut gio (Vietnamese silky sausage)
1 medium pomelo
1 carrot, peeled and cut into fine shreds
¼ cup mint leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, leafy tops only
1/4 cup chopped unsalted, roasted peanuts
1/3 cup Crispy Caramelized Shallot

Dressing
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 generous teaspoon Vietnamese chile garlic sauce, homemade or storebought

1. Put the salt in a small saucepan and fill 2/3 with water. Bring to a boil and then add the shrimp. As soon as they've curled up, remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.

2. Return the water to a boil and add the chicken or pork chop. When bubbles form at the rim, turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes to cook the flesh. Remove and set aside to cool. (If you're using the Vietnamese sausage, skip this step because it's already cooked.)

3. Cut the shrimp in the diagonal into large pieces that will blend well with the pomelo and other ingredients. Hand shred the chicken or cut the pork into julienne. Set aside.

4. Cut off one end of the pomelo to reveal its fleshy pith. Then use your fingers and knife to remove the pith so that all that's remaining is the white covered flesh. Pry the pomelo open and split into two parts. Then use a knife, scissors and your fingers to peel away the skin from each segment and remove the flesh. Separate the flesh into bite size pieces and deposit in a bowl.

5. For the dressing, combine fish sauce, lime juice, water, sugar and chile garlic sauce in a small bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.

6. Right before serving, add the shrimp, chicken or pork, carrot, mint, cilantro, peanuts and shallot to the pomelo. Toss with your fingers or tongs to combine well. Add the dressing and toss. Taste and adjust the flavors, as needed. Transfer to a plate, leaving any liquid behind and serve.

 

Spicy Cabbage Salad Recipe (Goi Bap Cai)

The heat of summer calls for grilling and simple salads. This colorful, crunchy, tangy spicy cabbage salad is a meatless version of the classic cabbage and chicken salad (gỏi bắp cải gà) often served at home and in restaurants.  Made without the poached and hand shredded chicken, gỏi bắp cải (pronounced "goy bahp kai") is more like a slaw. I love to pair it with grilled food, particularly pork or chicken that's been seasoned a bit on the sweet-garlicky-savory side. The salad's chile kick and vinegary tang provide wonderful flavor contrasts.

I add the cashews (or sometimes peanuts) to lend richness to the salad, which would otherwise be too lean tasting. Watch it on the chiles. The mortar and pestle pounding releases all the oils and the dressing can be fiery -- enough to make you sweat a bit or feel overheated.

Serves 4 to 6

Dressing
1 or 2 Thai or serrano chiles, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce
5 to 6 tablespoons unseasoned Japanese rice vinegar

1 (1 1/4 to 1  1/3 pound) head green cabbage, about 1 pound, quartered through the stem end, cored, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide ribbons
1 large carrot, peeled and finely shredded
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), cilantro, or mint leaves
1/3  to 1/2 cup toasted cashew halves and pieces (not whole ones) or coarsely chopped unsalted roasted peanuts

1. Using a mortar and pestle, mash the chile, garlic, ½ teaspoon sugar, and salt together into a fragrant orange-red paste. (Use a sweeping motion at first to crush the ingredients and then pound.) This releases and combines the oils from the chile and garlic. Scrape the paste into a bowl and add the remaining teaspoon of sugar and smaller quantities of fish sauce and rice vinegar, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt and to combine well. Taste and add more fish sauce or rice vinegar to create a spicy, tart, savory, lightly garlicky dressing.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrot, chopped herb of your choice and cashews. Toss to combine and distribute the ingredients well. (When making this salad in advance, leave the cashews out and add them right before tossing, lest they get chewy.)

3. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to mix well. The salad will wilt slightly. Taste and adjust the flavors to your liking, balancing the sour, sweet, salty, and spicy. Transfer to a serving plate, leaving any unabsorbed dressing behind, and serve.

Vietnamese Chicken Grapefruit Salad

Who would have thunk that there's Vietnamese food in Switzerland. Rosa, the Geneva-based blogger behind Rosa's Yummy Yums, tells me that Viet food is popular there. She makes quite a bit of it herself. Over the weekend posted a recipe for goi buoi thit ga and she served it with shrimp chips (banh phong tom) too!

In Vietnam, pomelos the size of volleyballs are used for preparing this salad. There's a special kind grown in the southern region that is particularly flavorful, with segments that are easy to peel. Note that hardcore, traditional Viet cooks cut away the peel, removed all the white pith, peeled back the translucent skin of each segment AND then separated each one of the tear-drop shaped bits for this salad. It is super labor intensive work and to get a small plate of such a salad is a treat indeed. I enjoyed such a preparation at Phu Xuan restaurant in Saigon this year. Wow.

But modern cooks don't have as much time or patience, so cutting up a grapefruit or pomelo works great. The flavor is more less the same. You can carefully separate the segments into smaller pieces, if you like to mimic traditional foodways.

Rosa's recipe, which used delicious pink grapefruit, is a terrific example of how the flavors and textures combine and harmonize:

• Rosa's Vietnamese Chicken Grapefruit Salad (on her blog)
• Pomelo Salad with Shrimp and Pork (Goi Buoi Tom Thit) my recipe on this site