Viet World Kitchen

Spicy Basil Chicken and Tofu Recipe

The Hmong farmers have returned to our weekly farmer’s market with a wealth of Asian produce. Last Saturday, they had gorgeous Thai basil and I swooped down upon a couple of bunches. Basil discolors quickly, its shelf life under refrigeration is just a few days. I wasn’t about to let it go to waste and thought of Thai chicken and basil, a simple stir-fry.

The thing is, I didn’t want to make the dish with all chicken so I worked in some tofu. I substituted 10 ounces (300 grams) of extra-firm tofu for 8 ounces (240 grams) of the chicken in the original recipe, which called for a pound. That’s one of several strategy for using tofu for low-meat dishes.

The keys to this dish include (1) washing and drying the basil leaves (keep them whole) and (2) seasoning and panfrying the tofu.

To seal in the moisture in the chicken, I lightly coat it with cornstarch and soy sauce; it’s typically added to the wok as is, only to be embellished by flavors during the cooking process. Dark soy sauce adds color but the black soy sauce is semi sweet. With so little used, I suppose you could use kecap manis, if you want. 

 You can make this dish with mint or Italian basil but for the real deal, Thai basil’s warm spice note is magnificent. If flowers are present on the sprigs, use them!

Asian Souper Bowls (my Wall Street Journal article)

Last week was kind of a neat media week. Along with the Asian tofu story coming out in Martha Stewart Living magazine, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece I wrote on Asian soups. Why is the Wall Street Journal doing food? It’s been doing it for years. In fact, the Journal regularly published great food stories. Some are reportorial and business-y while others are practical with recipes.  

I was assigned to write about wintry Asian soups so I came up with a concept built on a master chicken stock recipe and four (4) soup recipes based on that stock. The pan-Asian collection of soups included Chinese hot-and-sour soup; Thai tofu, pork, and seaweed soup; Vietnamese chicken and cellophane noodle soup; and Japanese gyoza dumplings in smoky chicken soup.  The Chinese and Thai recipes are from the upcoming Asian Tofu cookbook so if you're inclined, give them a try!

Spiced Siamese Peanuts Recipe

I love the sweet-salty-and-slightly briny peanuts served at Hawker Fare in Oakland, California. Whenever I go to James Syhabout’s casual rice bowl-and-snacks cafe, I start off with an order of the peanuts (called “Siamese Peanuts” on the menu) to nibble on. A squirt of lime juice brightens up the funk of the shrimp paste that lends the roasted peanuts their umami depth. It also brings out the chile and fennel undertones.

The other dishes usually arrive before I finish the peanuts so I end up mixing some into my rice. These peanuts are at home as a nosh with beer or as a side dish. You could certainly make a light meal out of the peanuts, rice, and a green vegetable. 

Yesterday, I was jonesing a cocktail hour snack and thought of Hawker Fare’s Siamese peanuts. Not living near the restaurant, I took matters into my own hands and made my own, coming up with this recipe after a couple of tries.

Thai Melon Salad

I am at a week-long photo shoot this week for the tofu book, but wanted to share this summertime dish. It's an oldie but goodie in my repertoire of cooking. This is the recipe that got me to seriously think about the potential of kaffir (makrut) lime leaf. That is, it's not  just for curries!

I was introduced to this salad by virtue of having to make it on a regular basis at City Restaurant in Los Angeles, a now-defunct establishment by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. I’d answered a Los Angeles Times help wanted ad, and Susan hired me to work the pantry station. That was the first time I had stepped into a professional kitchen. It was 1993.

City’s Thai melon salad was full of salty, sweet, briny, citrusy, hot flavors. We made it with perfectly cubed watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew for a beautiful presentation. I was entranced by the sheer beauty and complexity that the ‘fruit salad’ offered. It was a wildly popular dish with customers, and in many ways, way ahead of its time. Few mainstream restaurants were serving fruit with fish sauce back then.

Mary Sue and Susan borrowed the idea from a preparation they’d enjoyed in Thailand. Though I’d never run into the dish at a Thai restaurant or during my travels, all the elements make perfect sense in a Southeast Asian manner. It is a refreshing burst of flavor, terrific for summer and all the melons that are coming into market right now.

Last Sunday, my husband and I brought it as an appetizer to a dinner party. Rory made the dressing and I prepped the melon. Just as I was about to cut the watermelon into perfect cubes, I decided to keep the melon on the rind as wedges. That way, people would have a handy handle to hold and a platform to support the chunky dressing. Plus, there was less waste in terms of imperfect pieces of melon flesh. It made for a novel presentation and I had turned a salad into a finger food. Except for Rory, no one else at the party cared about my cleverness. They just ate it up. Our host poured lots of riesling for a splendid way to start the evening.

Grilled Lemon Basil Chicken

My dear friend Linda came down from San Francisco for an impromptu lunch yesterday. I was too tired from having finished the Asian Tofu manuscript (hurray!) to make an elaborate meal for us. I needed something quick and easy. 

Linda loves big flavor and chile heat. My solution was in a lovely bunch of lemon basil (bai maeng-lak) that I’d purchased on Saturday from the Hmong vendor at our farmer’s market. If you’re not familiar with lemon basil, get a hold of some.

This is the fresh herb season and I typically overdose on lemon basil. Their delicate, light green leaves are slightly peppery with elements of lemongrass, basil, and mint. Lemon basil is not widely used in Vietnamese cooking as we have herbs such as kinh gioi and tia to. (See the Herb Primer for details.) However, lemon basil is used in other Southeast Asian cuisines. For example, the Thais employ it in soup with shrimp. (I recently it on a crostini topped with the sardine in spicy tomato sauce.)