Viet World Kitchen

Crisp Pot Sticker Duck Taco Recipe

I’m not ashamed to admit that I borrowed this idea from Trader Vic’s. It’s a terrific way to use pot sticker skins for crunchy little tacos. Last December, stylist Karen Shinto, my husband and I went to the original Trader Vic’s in Emeryville for happy hour. Along with our requisite Mai Tais, we ordered a few snacks. Their crisp pot sticker duck tacos was our favorite. Trader Vic’s has a track record of coming up with salty-sweet-rich snacks to pair with drinks. After all, the tiki bar-restaurant chain contends that it came up with the original crab rangoon – made from wonton skins.  

Turning a pot sticker skin into a crisp taco shell and stuffing it with roast duck is yet another brilliant dumpling skin move. I simmered on the Asian-Mexican taco mash-up for a couple of months. When we had Peking duck meat leftover from a Chinese New Year dinner, I had the perfect excuse to experiment.

The hardest part was frying the pot sticker skins into taco shells. I didn’t want to hunt down a taco shell fryer because what would I do with it afterward?

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!

Asian Tofu in Martha Stewart Living!

The February 2012 cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine says it all. I ♥ this issue. It just hit the newsstands and I’m in it. Seriously. Here’s the photo of executive food editor Lucinda Scala Quinn and me shopping at New May Wah market on Clement Street in San Francisco:

Look for the story on page 76 of the print edition, or in the table of contents in the digital version, which is what I decided to get for posterity. Lucinda and I were on the tofu trail.

Don’t know Lucinda? Along with her high level position at the magazine, she has a monthly column in Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosts the Hallmark Channel's Mad Hungry. She also wrote the show’s namesake cookbook and is working on a new book with her son. Lucinda focuses on the joys and challenges of cooking the daily family meal. She’s an ultra busy woman who champions taking time out to prepare food for people you love. It’s a major quality of life issue for her. 

Bathtub Gin Recipe

There are gin lovers and there are vodka lovers. My husband and I happen to tilt toward gin, though we keep a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka around for good measure. We didn’t think that the two would cross paths. But this past week, we put the vodka to use to make bathtub gin. The pale yellow result is what you see above.

My husband read an LA Times story by Greg Easter on using his family's Prohibition Era-bathtub gin recipe. Easter actually used his concoction to doctor up moderately priced gin. The result was supposed to be more "natural tasting gin." We were so intrigued by the idea of using vodka and white wine to create a gin-like spirit that we had to try it. Actually, we tried it twice in the past several days. 

Pan-Fried Cucumber with Red Perilla (Tia To) Recipe

Asian food expert Bruce Cost told me years back that two-toned Vietnamese tia to (red perilla) was also used by the Chinese. I didn't see it mentioned until I read Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. In her collection of Hunan recipes was this gem. It's unusual to cook cucumber but it's understandable.  There are few vegetables that are eaten raw in the Chinese repertoire so it's no wonder that cucumber gets cooked. Pan-frying turns cucumber into a juicy morsel with a slight pickle-like crunch.

The aromatics and seasonings enliven the flavors. At the end, chopped red perilla (aka purple perilla, zi su in Mandarin) is added for an herby finish. Our mild winter left me with a decent amount of tia to leaves in my garden. Thai basil could be substituted if you can't find the perilla, which is sold at Vietnamese and Chinese markets catering to Vietnamese shoppers. In Chinese, this Hunan dish is called zi su jian huang gua.