This ubiquitous, must-have sauce unifies the different flavors in many a Vietnamese dish and makes the entire composition come together and “pop.” Nuoc cham can effortlessly pull together a dish, making it a godsend for anyone looking to get breakfast/lunch/dinner on the table ASAP. I have a small airtight container of this stuff in my… Continue reading Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Basic Dipping Sauce)
Every gluten-free cook has his or her signature bread recipe. This is mine. A derivation of Neat Bread, Hippo Bread is superior in terms of texture, taste, and appearance thanks to its key ingredient, plain, homemade soy milk. Homemade soy milk acts as a binder, tenderizes the loaf’s crumb, adds a creaminess to the flavor, and imparts… Continue reading Hippo Bread
Soy milk is a kitchen basic in our household. It’s good for drinking, but it’s also indispensable in the kitchen as an ingredient in many recipes. Soy milk is an excellent dairy substitute in cooking. It’s also a great egg substitute in recipes requiring the binding (though not rising) properties of eggs. My family enjoys… Continue reading Soy Milk
Tasty, easy, and fast, “Catfish” Tofu — which contains no catfish — is my primary go-to dish on nights when I’m too tired to do anything but am having one of those gotta-get-dinner-on-the-table-NOW-or-else-hungry-toddler-is-gonna-have-a-meltdown nights.
If you’ve been to a dim sum restaurant, you’ve probably had har gow (a.k.a. ha gow, crystal shrimp dumplings). When done right, har gow can be a revelation: shrimp, paired with bamboo and/or water chestnut/jicama, enveloped in a thin, chewy, yet luscious, translucent wrapper that teases and leaves a person craving more.
I vividly remember the first time I had hash browns. My Aunt Rose had taken my mom, my brothers, and her daughter, my cousin Sabrina, to Hobo Joe’s, a chain eatery that no longer exists in Los Angeles. Aunt Rose ordered hash browns, and my, they were dee-lightful! The texture was light, ever so slightly… Continue reading Hobo Joe Hash Browns
I love this sausage recipe, which comes from Jeff Smith’s wonderful cookbook, The Frugal Gourmet, a companion to his PBS cooking show, which I grew up watching. I use this sausage primarily as a pizza topping, but it would be great over rice, in a red sauce — whatever strikes your fancy. The above is… Continue reading Italian Sausage
FYI: I’m in the middle of updating this recipe. I’ve had too many disasters, so consider this recipe problematic prone for now. Will post again as soon as I can get it right and duplicate good results reliably. Thanks! This dish relies on annatto seeds, not tomato, for its distinctive orange-redness and smoky, earthy… Continue reading Chamorro Red Rice
Kelaguen can be made with other protein sources, but chicken seems to be the favorite at the various fiestas, barbecues, and parties I’ve attended. Traditionally, the chicken is barbecued first, but to save time, I boil the chicken and then brown it in a dry skillet to achieve a similar effect. I picked up this… Continue reading Chicken Kelaguen
The evolution, which is still ongoing, of this recipe travels the globe. It started out as a Kenyan recipe for a sweetened, yeast-risen rice pancake tinged with cardamom. We were enjoying that for a while. Then one day, I ran out of rice flour and threw in a bunch of glutinous rice flour. Chewier and… Continue reading Bao de Bing, Bao de Beng!