House of Annie

How’d it Get So Tender?

Oh, during the dinner, Nate and I had a discussion about how they had gotten the pork so tender and the beans so creamy. We ended up pondering double-boiled soups, pressure cooker cooking and slow cooker cooking. All of which I could not do as I didn’t have any of these items at home. Oh well…

I started the soup in the late morning as I wanted to make sure that I gave the soup plenty of time to simmer to get optimum flavor. I did my usual parboiling of the bones and tossing out water from the first boil. Then I started the bones again with new water.

Once that came to a boil, I put in my presoaked black beans and lotus roots along with some red dates. As soon as they all came to a boil, I turned the soup down to low and let it simmer for more than 4 hours.

How do I Get it So Tender?

After that time, I must say, my beans did not soften and get creamy the way the restaurant’s did. It wasn’t hard but it wasn’t creamy. I even made sure not to add any salt until the end as I had learned that beans don’t soften up when you add salt while cooking it. But somehow, the beans still had some bite to it. I couldn’t wait too much longer so I seasoned my soup and a little later served it for dinner.

Esther still drank up the soup and ate the beans but she told me, “mommy, the beans are not as good as the one we had yesterday, but I still ate it!” I guess that is not the worst criticism to get. Overall, I managed to achieve the same flavors in the soup as the restaurant but I didn’t manage to get the tenderness in the meat or the beans. If you know how I could have done this without using a pressure cooker or crockpot or double boiler, would you leave a comment and let me know?

Pork Lotus Root and Black Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
500g pork bones (usually the neck bones are good to use, or rib bones are also good)
8 cups water
10 red dates, washed and rehydrated
4-5 tubular pieces of lotus root (choose the ones that look least bruised and discolored), joints cut off and sliced 1/4 inch thick)

Sliced Lotus Root

1/2 cup dried black beans or peanuts, soaked for several hours before use (at least 2-3 hours)

Dried and Soaked Black Beans

salt to taste
dash of fish sauce
pinch of chicken bouillon

Method:
1. After parboiling pork bones and tossing out water from first boil, rinse bones and boil again in 8 cups water.
2. Once water comes to a boil, add red dates, black beans and lotus roots. Let stock come to a boil again and then set the fire to low and let simmer, covered for 4-5 hours.

3. Once the pork bones, beans and lotus roots are tender, add seasonings—about 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp fish sauce and a pinch of chicken bouillon (or to taste). Stir and simmer to incorporate flavors. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

This recipe using lotus root was entered into the Weekend Herb Blogging recipe roundup, organized by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything and hosted this week by Lynn from Cafe Lynnylu.

Leeks at the Market

Leek and potato soup first came into my consciousness when I read the book “The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden”. I don’t remember much about what he wrote but somehow he made this soup sound really heartwarming and it stuck in my head as something I should try to make someday.

Well, I’ve made leek and potato soup several times now and recently while shopping at the market here in Kuching, I came across a vendor selling leeks. They weren’t as large as the ones I find in San Jose but they were definitely leeks - when I picked them up to give them a sniff, they smelled very pungent and aromatic. That decided it for me and I took home three to make this very soup.

Good to Go

Most recipes you come across will tell you to cut the leek at the point where the green parts meet the white base and use only the white base. Well, I find that in soups, you can get away with using more of the green leafy part and so for this batch, I trimmed only the top third of the leek and used the rest. I think it’s quite possible to use the whole leek if they’re not too fibrous. What do you think?

Another thing about leeks—you have to wash them good. And the only way to get to all the dirt trapped between the layers is to cut them in half length-wise and get in there with water to rinse out every layer. Once they’ve been washed of dirt, they are good to go.

Extra Oomph

Now back to this leek and potato soup recipe. This is a seriously EASY recipe and the flavor is really good. When I made this last week, the whole family devoured the soup including my picky kids. I’m going to have to try to make this soup much more often now seeing as to how easy it is and how much everyone likes it.

You basically need some leeks and potatoes (um, d’uh!), a little bit of garlic, some butter/olive oil, some chicken broth, milk, seasonings and you’re done. If you want the soup to be smooth, you can blend it with an immersion blender or in a regular blender. But if you don’t have a blender, just mash the potatoes up a little in the soup and you’ll still have a yummy soup, just chunkier.

This time around, I chose to add a little extra seasoning to my soup. Normally, just salt and pepper will do it but I have plenty of herbs and spices lying around and sometimes I like to try them in recipes to see what will happen. So I decided to toss some dill in and after tasting the soup, I thought it still needed a little kick so I thought, why not some Old Bay Seasoning? So I did. Put some in, I mean. And it was wonderful—the celery seed and spices in Old Bay gave the soup an extra oomph this round. I think I will be adding it in on a regular basis from now on.

So, if you’re busy and need a quick weekday dish, try this soup. It’s hearty so that on its own, it’s quite filling. Add a salad or some bread and you have a meal. Or you could roast or panfry some meats and have this soup as a side (this is what we did the last time, we pan fried some lamb chops which is also a quick weekday dish).

Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

This recipe will serve 4 for a main course or 6 as a side.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter or combination of butter and olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large or 3 medium leeks, cut in half length-wise, washed and trimmed of the top third green parts, and sliced thin
2 large or 3 medium potatoes, diced small
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or if you don’t have it, use 4 cups water with 1 1/2 cubes chicken bouillon (of course, home made chicken broth is best but that makes it less easy)
1 cup milk (whole milk is tastier but if you would prefer less fat, it’s fine to use low fat)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp each freshly ground black pepper and white pepper
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp dill (I used dried but feel free to use fresh, just add more to taste)

Slicing Leeks

Method:
1. In your dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, put in the butter/olive oil and heat till melted on medium heat.
2. Add garlic and stir for less than a minute being careful to not let it burn.
3. Add leeks and salt and stir around and cook till leeks have softened but not browned, about 5-6 minutes.

4. Add potatoes and chicken broth and give it a stir. Let that simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

5. Add in your milk and then the rest of your seasonings—the peppers (don’t miss out on the pepper, they really add a lot to this dish), Old Bay and dill. Stir and let the flavors come together for another minute or two. Leave the soup at a gentle simmer at this stage.
6. Taste and adjust your seasonings accordingly.

Plate up and enjoy! We garnished with a little chopped parsley and some crumbled bacon.

Leek and Potato Soup

Cheers, Annie

This post was entered in the Weekend Herb Blogging roundup #216, administered by Haalo and hosted this week by Maninas

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Un-pho-gettable

When we got to San Jose, I discovered that the Vietnamese population here was even bigger and we got exposed to so many more Vietnamese dishes. But even as I learned to love many other dishes, I had to have my pho every so often and every time I sat down to a bowl of Pho, that first sip of the broth would have me sighing contentedly. There was just something so heartwarming about the soup—the spices and herbs along with the hearty meat stock marrying together and creating a fragrance unlike anything else.

Even though beef pho is more common, Nate and I will sometimes order chicken pho (pho ga). The broth is often cleaner but with a more distinctive sweetness from using chicken stock, I suppose. Whatever it is, it is just as compelling as beef pho. We love them both equally. How about you? Which do you pre-pho?

Looking Pho-ward

Now that I’m in Malaysia, I find that Vietnamese food is not as popular here. I suppose that Malaysians have so many noodle dishes already that people are not as impressed by the subtleties of pho (or maybe they just aren’t aware of it). Our family misses this noodle soup quite a bit (Daniel and Esther gave a cheer when they heard I was making it). Thankfully, we brought most of the spices we would need to make it ourselves.

However, I have never made beef pho. Every so often, I have made chicken pho in California. That being the case, I decided that I would save the more daunting task of cooking beef pho for another occasion (it seems more daunting because beef stock is very unfamiliar to me). So today, I went to the market to get all that I needed for chicken pho.

The first thing I did was to make sure I got myself a really good chicken (I bought a free range chicken) and some extra chicken bones (I had saved some from previous cooks). Then I went looking for the fresh herbs and beansprouts that I would need for the garnishing. The noodles were an easy acquisition since pho noodles are very similar to kuay teow and I could find fresh ones at the market.

Everything else I already had at home in my pantry so I was set to go.

Can We Say Pho-lavor?

Before I first made pho, I heard from friends that making pho broth is a real production that takes days. But I learned how to make this dish from a student friend in my graduate student days. She made it look so simple, basically just boil some chicken with spices and aromatics that had been charred in a fire, add some seasonings, garnish with fresh herbs and dashes of lime and fish sauce. She alone convinced me that pho could be a simple meal and soon I was making it like a pro.

The one key thing that I learned from her was that the flavors in pho formed from the charring of the spices (cinnamon, black cardamom, cloves, star anise) and aromatics (ginger and onion). When we were in the dorm, we didn’t have access to a gas stove so we just broiled these ingredients in the oven till they had blackened in some parts. The charring lends the soup stock more depth and color.

Charring Onion and Ginger

Once that is done, just put all the spices in a large stock pot and add the chicken and chicken bones. Fill with enough water to cover the chicken (about 15 cups). You want to have enough water at the start so that you don’t have to add water later which will then dilute the flavors. The stock is then simmered for a long time to extract the most flavor out of the chicken bones. You do want to take the whole chicken out midway (around 30-40 minutes) and cool it before removing the meat. The carcass is then tossed back into the stock to simmer some more.

As for seasonings, I find that you need to season quite strongly as the noodles themselves are very bland. I normally add salt and fish sauce and also a little bit of chicken bouillon. I also add some rock sugar into the stock to sweeten it up a little (I learned this from a former ESL student who was a cook at a popular pho restaurant in San Jose, and Andrea Nguyen also recommends it). When you taste it, it should be more strongly flavored than a normal soup. This will balance out once you add the noodles and beansprouts.

Pho-nishing Touches

The rest of the dish is really pretty simple. As the stock is simmering, just assemble the garnishes—beansprouts, Thai basil, sawtooth leaf herb, some jalapeno or other chilli peppers, and lime. Prepare the noodles—if you have dry ones, blanch in hot water quickly to soften, or if using fresh noodles, just give a quick rinse in cold water. Cut up the chicken meat into bite sized pieces.

One other trick that I have when serving I learned from observing the hawker stall vendors here that serve noodle soup. Ladle some hot soup into your assembled bowl of noodles and beansprouts and herbs, drain the soup back into the soup stock (which should be boiling hot by the way). Then ladle the soup back into the noodles again. This is to blanch and heat all the ingredients thoroughly and ensure that the soup itself is piping hot when served.

Finish by adding a squirt of lime and peppers to your taste. Serve hoisin and sriracha on the side if you like (I mainly use this as a dipping sauce for my meats but omitted it this time as the chicken was tasty enough without it)

Chicken pho (Pho Ga) recipe

serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 whole free-range chicken (the better the chicken, the more superior the stock), about 1.5 kg (3-4lbs)
additional chicken bones (I used some chicken feet and neck and also an extra 2 whole rib bones)
2 large yellow onions, skin removed
3 inches ginger, skin removed
3-4 star anise
3-4 cloves
1 inch stick of cinnamon (thank you White on Rice couple for providing us with authentic Vietnamese cinnamon)
1-2 black cardamom pods, slightly pounded to allow flavors to be released
15 cups water
2 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 inch chunk rock sugar
1 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp ground black pepper

Garnishes:
2 cups beansprouts (I err on the side of more in case some people like more sprouts in their bowl, whatever is leftover can be used in a stirfry or in making Vietnamese summer rolls later)
1 bunch Thai basil, washed
8 sawtooth herb leaves (optional)
2 limes, quartered
1 Jalapeno chilli, sliced
4-5 green onions, diced
Hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce on the side

1 kg (about 2 lbs) fresh pho noodles (koay teow noodles) or a packet of dried rice noodles that have been softened in hot water

Method:
1. Char the onions and ginger over an open flame till they have dark brown bits all over. Do the same with the star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom (I just hold it with my tongs under the fire for a few seconds).

Charred Onion, Ginger, Cinnamon, Star Anise, Black Cardamom, Cloves

2. Put the charred aromatics into a large pot with the chicken, chicken bones and water.

3. Bring to a boil. Skim off the scum that has risen to the top. Turn fire down to low and let simmer for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

4. About 30-40 minutes into the simmer, take out whole chicken and rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Drain and let it dry and cool. When cool enough to handle, remove wings, legs, thighs and cut off the breast meat. Return the rib carcass to the stock pot. Place the meats (uncut) on a platter and keep cool until needed.

5. Clean and wash beansprouts, sawtooth leaf herb, and Thai basil. Prepare plate with the garnishes, green onions, lime wedges and chillies, if using.

Garnishes for Pho: Thai Basil, Bean Sprouts, Sawtooth Herb, Lime Wedges

6. Prepare noodles (wash with cold water if using fresh noodles, and soften dried noodles in hot water).
7. Slice chicken into bite sized pieces. Remove dark meat from bone.
8. When ready to eat, taste broth and adjust seasonings if needed. Remember that the stock should be strongly flavored (it should have a nice saltiness with an underlying sweetness). Put in freshly ground black pepper and bring stock back to a rolling boil.
9. Assemble bowl: place noodles, sprouts, herbs and chicken on the bowl. Ladle hot stock into bowl and then drain back into stock pot, without letting the other ingredients fall in (use a slotted spoon to hold them back). Re-ladle stock into soup bowl. Finish with a handful of green onions.
10. Squirt lime and add chillies to individual taste.

Pho Ga: Chicken Pho Noodle Soup

Go Pho It! (i.e. Enjoy)

Cheers, Annie

Since we used White on Rice Couple’s Vietnamese cinnamon in this dish, we are entering this post in Weekend Herb Blogging #209, hosted by Paul Chen’s Food Blog and administered by Cook Almost Anything.

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Hokkien Prawn Mee

What is Laksa?

According to Wikipedia, laksa is a spicy, soup noodle dish, originating from the merging of Chinese and Malay cultures (also known as Peranakan or Nyonya) which is found primarily in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Okay now, show of hands: How many of you know have tasted laksa? All right, now how many of you have tasted Sarawak laksa? That’s what I thought, very few.

Like me, most people are familiar with the curry laksa, a coconut-and-curry-based dish found in Singapore or KL. There’s also assam laksa, that sweet-spicy-sourish, fish-based dish found in Penang (I am absolutely in love with assam laksa from Penang!). But I didn’t know about Sarawak laksa until one day on maybe my second trip to Malaysia, when Annie’s cousin in KL took us to a stall in Bangsar that was known for its Sarawak laksa.

At first, I didn’t know if I’d like it. The broth was thin and brownish. There were a few prawns in it, plus shreds of chicken and strips of egg omelette. There was coconut in it, but no sharp curry flavor like curry laksa. Instead it was a mysterious but harmonious blend of spices, punctuated by a generous helping of fresh coriander. After first tasting it, and then finishing the entire bowl, I knew it was something I could enjoy again and again.

Looking for Laksa

When we first arrived in Kuching, we tried some Sarawak laksa from a stall near the hotel. It wasn’t very good – heavy on the white pepper, which covered up the nuances of flavor. Disappointing, but not daunting.

Later on, we moved into a house rented from a friend. We were cleaning up the place one day, when the friend brought over some lunch (what did I tell you about Kuching hospitality?). It was Sarawak laksa (of course, being already in Sarawak, they just call it laksa here).

This laksa was awfully good. I finished it all in no time, and was left longing for more. Our friend said that the laksa was made by a relative who owned a laksa stall. She gave us the location so we knew where to find the place.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa Stall

One thing I have to note here. In Kuching, everybody eats early. This is especially true if you want to eat Sarawak laksa. The best laksa stalls are sold out by midmorning; after 10 am, you may either get the dregs, or you may get nothing.

So we were very fortunate when we recently showed up at 10:30 at the laksa stall, to find Aunty Rose still tending there. But as you can see, there wasn’t much soup left in her pot! She was literally scraping bottom to fill our order.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

Aunty Rose put a lot of effort into making a quality laksa. Every day, she would wake up at 4:30am to heat up her soup. By 6:30, she would be at the stall, selling her laksa. She’ll finish at around 2 pm, then head home to start prepping the ingredients for the next day. By 8 pm, she’d be done prepping and off to rest before the next day comes and the cycle begins again.

I don’t think I could survive that kind of life. But Aunty Rose does it with calm grace, and a smile.

Aunty Rose’s Laksa

Her laksa is thoroughly enjoyable from the first bite to the last slurp. Mix in a little homemade sambal belacan, add a squirt of kalamansi lime juice, and dig in. The thin rice vermicelli noodles still have a little crunch to them. The shredded chicken is flavorful in its own right. The bean sprouts, normally an afterthought, have their tips meticulously picked (another sign of the care she puts into her food).

And the broth? Oh the broth! Rich, savory, coconutty, with a pleasant chilli heat to it, it is slurp-alicious! This is not a broth to be left alone once you’re done eating the noodles. This is a broth that is good to the last drop. Next thing you know, it’s all gone.

You push back from your bowl with a sigh, face slightly sweaty, nose lightly runny, lips and throat tingly. You’re satisfied for now, but you know you want to come back for more.

Grace Place Sarawak Laksa

Unfortunately, you can’t have any more. You see, as of the end of September, Aunty Rose has retired from her stall. (Notice the “Stall for Rent” banner in the pic below.) I literally got the very last bowl of Aunty Rose’s laksa!

I asked Aunty Rose what she is going to do in her retirement. She laughs. “I’m going to clean my house!” Too many years of dedication to the stall, and to her laksa, left her with little time to do anything else.

I say she deserves her break. Of course, it would be a shame to just let her recipe be lost, wouldn’t it? So we asked her if she would share it.

That’s right. We got her laksa recipe!

And we’re going to share it. Because you see, our shipping crate has arrived in Kuching and will be delivered shortly. We have a contractor who is coming to replace and upgrade the lighting in the kitchen. Soon, we’ll be posting recipes (including laksa!) once more.

Life is good!

Aloha, Nate

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Hungry for more Malaysian noodles? Click below:

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Sago = Tapioca pearls

Sago or tapioca pearls can be found in all your Asian grocery stores and probably in some of the regular stores as well. They look like little tiny white beads. I love these things and will put them into any “soupy” Asian desserts abundantly (be careful though as they are also a thickener and too much can turn your “soup” into “pudding”). There’s another dessert that is made entirely of them and I will blog about that later.

Working it out

So anyway, we had brought back lots of stuff from the farmer’s market, right? And Nate had told you that he was working on the grilled pork tenderloin dinner with all the other ingredients. (By the way, I did not agree with his post—we had a little argument about it after it was published, yeah, our first blog fight *lol*. What I think he meant to say was that I also do look at what I have before deciding on what to cook BUT once I decide, I settle on a recipe (or adapt it) and go from there. He, on the other hand, starts chopping the stuff on hand and then continues searching for how to make use of it and what else to make with it…not very efficient…tsk…tsk…).

I love him anyway and sometimes it works out remarkably well. I just have to stay away so as not to get impatient. So while he was putting together this wonderful meal, I took a nap. I woke up feeling refreshed and came into the kitchen to work on my dessert dish. The whole meal came out really great and because pork tenderloin and grilled halibut are pretty light foods, there was room for my honeydew sago dessert which was a delightful way to end dinner and the weekend.

Honeydew Sago Recipe

Ingredients:
½ honeydew melon (save the other half for enjoying plain)
1 cup sago (tapioca pearls)
½-1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your honeydew is)
½ cup water
1 cup coconut milk shake the can before measuring out the one cup otherwise you will have really thick coconut milk only)
½ tsp salt

Method:

Make a simple syrup: Put water and sugar into a small pot and boil till sugar dissolves to make a syrup. Cool.

Boil the sago: Put a big pot of water to boil (to hold about 7 cups or more of water). When water comes to a boil, add sago to water and cook on med-high heat. Stir occasionally. Sago is done cooking when it looks translucent, about 8-10 mins. Caution: Don’t overcook the sago as it can become a sticky mess. Better to have a few pearls that have not turned translucent than to have a glop of melting sago.

Cut and blend the melon: While sago is cooking, cut half of the half melon into chunks

and buzz in your blender till smooth.

Dice the remaining quarter of the melon into small ½ inch cubes (or if you want to be really pretty, you could use a melon baller).

Rinse the sago: As soon as sago is done, pour it out into a fine-mesh colander and rinse with cold water.

Assemble the dish: Put the melon cubes and the melon juice together in a large bowl.

Add the coconut milk.

Followed by the cooled sago.

Pour in the sugar syrup little by little, to adjust the sweetness.

Salt trick

The trick to getting your dessert to taste better is to add a little salt. Salt enhances the sweetness of any dessert!. Stir it all together and chill.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

This post was entered in the “Merdeka Open House 2009: My Sweet Malaysia” roundup, hosted by Babe in the City – KL

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