Tag Archives: fish sauce

Spring Rolls with “No-Peanut” Sauce

Posted on February 28, 2013 by She cooks...He cleans | 5 Comments

Are there foods that you suddenly have an powerful desire for? I’m sure this happens to us all, whether it is for chocolate fudge or Chex Mix (ahem). I wonder what drives those cravings. Is it simply the power of suggestion, or is there some physical or psychological need that is begging to be filled?

I started craving fresh spring rolls – with enough intensity to send me to the crowded Dekalb International Farmers Market for rice paper wrappers and Thai basil. It started with a suggestion – photos found on Pinterest. I have avoided browsing that time-pit up to now, but two friends kept posting recipes there and made me look. (Thanks LGO and TFM!) Once I got there, it was non-stop pinning of things I wanted to make – including these spring rolls from Chaos in the Kitchen. There were other inviting recipes, but the idea of spring rolls would not let me go. After being on vacation and eating indulgently, perhaps my body was telling me some crispy, raw vegetables would be a nice change. Or maybe my soul needed the promise of freshness and spring after returning to dreary, damp, cold weather.

Whatever the reason, these colorful spring rolls brightened my day and made my taste buds simply ecstatic. I was intimidated with the prospect of working with the fragile rice paper, but this photo tutorial from White on Rice Couple made it really easy. You don’t really need a recipe – just gather ingredients that you like and roll them up! If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a start! I’m looking forward to also trying cucumber, jicama, avocado, and cabbage in the rolls.

Ingredients (for 8 rolls):

8 rice paper wrappers (spring roll skins)
Lettuce leaves (Boston or butter lettuce, hard spines removed)
Several sprigs of Thai basil (about 24 leaves). Other varieties of basil will also work.
Small bunch of cilantro, large stems removed
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
2 carrots, julienned (I use this wonderful kitchen tool)
Small, cooked pink shrimp (4 or 5 per roll)

“No Peanut” Sauce ingredients:

1/2 cup almond butter
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar
1 tablespoon Sriracha hot chili sauce
1 tablespoon gluten-free tamari sauce
2-4 tablespoons water, or as needed for desired consistency

Okay, before you get started make sure you look at these wonderfully photographed instructions. Right here!

Prepare sauce by combining all sauce ingredients in a small bowl; stir well to combine. Adjust to taste (more hot sauce, etc.). Adjust consistency of the sauce by adding water, a tablespoon at a time. Set aside. Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator, but you may want to warm it up to room temperature for serving. (A few seconds in the microwave will help.)

Have all the spring roll filling ingredients washed and prepped before starting.

Add hot water (bath-like temperature) to a large bowl. Take one rice paper wrapper and dip it completely in the hot water for 10 seconds (or less). The paper should be wet, but still stiff. Place the paper flat on a non-porous surface.

Starting layering the other ingredients on the lower third of the rice paper. I started with the shrimp because they look nice through the paper, once rolled. Add lettuce leaves, 2 or 3 basil leaves, carrots, bell pepper, a couple sprigs of cilantro, etc. Try not to overfill the wrapper because it will be difficult to roll. (After a little practice, you’ll be able to figure out the right amount of filling. You can eat your “mistakes” right away.)

Carefully pull up the rice paper from the bottom (nearest you) and pull it over the filling. Use your fingers to tuck the filling in toward you, to make the roll tighter. Start rolling away from you. After one rotation, fold in the rice paper on the left and right sides to enclose the filling. Continue to roll until the rice paper meets at the top – it will seal itself. Set the roll aside, and cover lightly with cellophane and a damp towel.

Continue making the rest of the rolls and set them aside with the others. The wrappers will stick to each other and tear if they touch each other at first, so space them out or place cellophane between them.

They are best served immediately or within a couple of hours, while fresh. The rice paper will start getting stiff and dry pretty quickly, especially in the refrigerator. If you want to have them for a later time (within 24 hours or so), wrap each roll individually in cellophane and place in a resealable plastic bag with a dampened paper towel. I kept a few rolls overnight this way, and while not as delicate as fresh, the rice paper was still relatively soft.

Enjoy!

Jay Farrar has been one of the leading figures in the roots music scene since he days heading up Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. To my ears, he’s rarely sounded as good and as open as on the new Son Volt release Honky Tonk. Created as an homage to the great Bakersfield country sound of the ’60s, this record is a winner, full of fiddles and pedal steel guitar. Glorious!

Farrar and Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard teamed up to do the soundtrack to a documentary to one of my favorite books, Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur entitled One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Music From Kerouac’s Big Sur. Low-key and intriguing, it captures the book and it’s time well. Recommended.

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Posted in Appetizers, Entrees, Sauces, Marinades, and Rubs, Seafood

Tagged almond butter, appetizer, asian, basil, basil rolls, brunch, cilantro, dipping sauce, easy, fish sauce, fresh rolls, gluten free, julienne, lettuce, low-carb, paleo, paleo sauce, peanut sauce, primal, recipe, rice paper, rice wrappers, rolls, sauce, shrimp, spring roll skins, spring rolls, Sriracha, tamari, Thai, Vietnamese

Vietnamese Clay Pot Pork (Thit Kho To)

Posted on July 28, 2012 by She cooks...He cleans | 19 Comments

I fell in love with a Vietnamese restaurant, and with Clay Pot Pork. Chateau Saigon is a gem of a restaurant in the mecca of multi-ethnic eateries that line Buford Highway. Restaurants in this area of Atlanta are mostly in shopping centers and strip malls, alongside pawn shops, thrift stores, and car dealerships. In other words…not the trendy area of town. However there is a lot of good food tucked away there, and often the most dive-y looking spots are the most authentic. I don’t know much about Vietnamese cuisine to know if Chateau Saigon is “authentic” or not, but the restaurant is clean and filled with light, the service is elegant, and the food is beautifully presented and delicious. If you’re looking for a new and different dining experience in Atlanta, give it a try!

The Clay Pot Pork is an intensely flavored dish – served at Chateau Saigon in a heavy, piping hot pot. The meat is tender and is bound with a deeply rich sauce that has cooked down to the sticky essence of all its ingredients. Wanting to make this at home, I browsed through several cookbooks and the internet to find recipes. This recipe is modified primarily from Weave a Thousand Flavors – a blog that drew me in with mouth-watering photography and beautifully detailed instructions.

Using a good quality fish sauce is probably essential to this dish, since there is quite a bit of it in the recipe. I like Red Boat Fish Sauce because it is 100% pure, first pressed, high-protein fish sauce – made in Vietnam with only 2 ingredients: black anchovy and sea salt. Looking for “umami”…here it is! It is available in some stores (see their website), but you can also order it from Amazon.

You don’t have to have a clay pot – a good Dutch oven or braising pot (with a lid) would work. I used our Tagine- also a clay pot.

Ingredients:

3 pounds fatty pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into cubes
5 to 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup (heaping) shallots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup coconut oil (or more if needed)
1/2 to 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1 tablespoon Sriracha hot chili sauce
1/3 cup Vietnamese Fish Sauce
1/2 cup water
3 to 4 scallions
fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon or to taste

Preheat oven to 325F. Melt the coconut oil in the clay pot (or Dutch oven) over medium heat for a few minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high, then add the pork in small batches and brown on all sides. (This will take several batches. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan or the meat will steam instead of brown.) When each batch is done, transfer the browned meat to a bowl. Add more oil if necessary.

Turn off the heat and add the sugar to the pan. Stir well to combine, then turn the heat back on to medium. Stir the sugar constantly until it melts and starts to separate from the oil (it will glob up, bubble and look pasty…don’t worry).

Add the shallots, garlic, and ginger to the sugar. Saute for a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the fish sauce and Sriracha sauce. Add the meat and all the accumulated juices to the pot. Add water and ground pepper. Stir well, tossing the meat until it is well-coated with the gravy. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the pork is caramel in color and tender, and the sauce is thick. Add more water if needed during cooking to keep the sauce from drying out.

Note: None of the recipes mention it, but I found that a lot of fat accumulated as the pork cooked. I spooned off excess fat near the end of the cooking time, reserving some to saute the green onions (next step).

While the pork is cooking, trim off the root and any wilted green parts from the scallions. Wash and dry with paper towels. Slice the white part of the scallion in thin pieces, and cut the green parts into ~1-inch segments. When the pork is almost ready, briefly saute the scallions in 1 tablespoon reserved oil from the pork (or coconut oil), until they are glossy and fragrant.

Serve the pork with Jasmine rice, topped with scallions.

Now that was tasty! The same can be said for our musical guests…Little Feat! One of America’s greatest bands, led by Lowell George, they served up some of the greatest tunes you’ll ever come across. Such as on Sailin Shoes with the classics such as “Easy To Slip” and the truckers anthem, “Willin’”

Waiting for Columbus captures Little Feat at their live zenith, and when they were cookin’, ain’t nobody better. Except of course for She Cooks! Enjoy!

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Posted in Entrees, Pork, Product Review, Soups and Stews

Tagged Buford Highway, butt, Chateau Saigon, clay pot, coconut oil, coconut palm sugar, fish sauce, paleo, pork, primal, Red Boat, shoulder, Sriracha, tagine, Thit Kho To, Vietnam, Vietnamese

London Broil with Lime-Garlic-Ginger Marinade

Posted on January 9, 2012 by She cooks...He cleans | 4 Comments

Last year we bought a 1/4 grass-fed cattle share – most of which has been consumed. There were a few odd cuts of steak remaining, like this large package labeled “London Broil”. Now best I can tell, “London Broil” is not the name of a cut of meat, it is more of a preparation method. My guess is this piece of meat is a top round steak because it is very lean and it is pretty large (around 2 pounds). Top round steak has a nice beefy taste, but it can also be chewy and tough unless prepared correctly. You could also use flank steak, sirloin, or skirt steak for this recipe.

I marinated this steak for about 6 hours for additional flavor, using a marinade recipe with lime, garlic, and ginger slightly modified from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. He suggests leaving the meat in the marinade for 1 to 2 days to really soak up those flavors, which I would recommend. At six hours, the garlic and ginger flavors were there, but subtle. However, I probably overcooked our steak a little, trying to photograph it in the dark by lantern light. Even so, the steak turned out pretty well and was great with grilled multi-color bell peppers and eggplant slices!

Since this is not a tender cut of meat, it should be sliced thinly across the grain when serving – this keeps it from being chewy.

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds top round steak, flank steak, sirloin, or skirt steak
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon coconut aminos (gluten-free, soy-free sauce)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping teaspoon minced or grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine lime juice, fish sauce, coconut aminos, garlic, ginger, and honey.

Make shallow slashes across the surface of the steak with a knife. Place the steak in a resealable bag or shallow glass dish. Pour the marinade over the steak and rub it into the surface well. Marinate, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. Turn occasionally so that all surfaces of the steak have good contact with the marinade. When near the end of the marinating time, remove from the refrigerator and allow to return to room temperature.

Prepare a grill for direct cooking at 450-500 degrees. Dry the steak well with paper towels. Season with freshly ground pepper and salt. (Go lightly on the salt since coconut aminos and fish sauce may be salty.)

Grill the steak for approximately 5 minutes per side, until internal temperature reaches 125F. Let steak rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing, covered, to allow the meat to relax.

Went to Memphis a few weeks ago- talk about food!- but in between bouts of ribs, saw some local history at the Stax Museum. Fascinating place, with loads of exhibits and music of one of American’s foremost and influential labels. For a great look at its history and the legendary artists who recorded there- Otis, Booker T and the MGs, Isaac Hayes and more, I recommend Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story. Vital. America wouldn’t be the same without it.

Before Stax, future members of Booker T. and the MGs- Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Booker T, hooked up with high school classmate Charles “Packy” Axton and cut a bunch of sides to regional success. Packy was the son of Estelle Axton, who would go on to found Stax with Jim Stewart. These early southern soul sides have been collected on Late Late Party, and it’s great. Raw, gritty blues and soul, and you can tell future Hall of Famer Steve Cropper’s stinging tone early on.

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Posted in Beef, Entrees, Sauces, Marinades, and Rubs

Tagged BBQ, beef, BGE, big green egg, coconut aminos, easy, fish sauce, flank, garlic, ginger, gluten free, grass-fed, grilled, lime, London Broil, low-carb, marinade, marinate, paleo, primal, recipe, round, sirloin, skirt, steak, strip

Red Curry Poached Cod

Posted on August 18, 2011 by She cooks...He cleans | 21 Comments

Sometimes dinner is born from what’s on special at the market – and often those dishes turn out to be the most interesting because they are unplanned and must be created from ingredients you have on hand. We try to have some type of seafood at least once a week, and this week Whole Foods had wild-caught, Alaskan cod on sale. Cod is a nice, mild, flaky fish that adapts well to different flavors. I had some coconut milk and limes that I needed to use, so I decided to try to poach the fish in a Thai-style broth. It was very yummy, but turned out a little spicier than I intended. However, James thought it was just the right amount of heat. When we try this again, I think some toasted cashews would be a great addition, and I’d also like to try basil instead of cilantro.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1 medium sweet onion, cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced crosswise
1 small red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks
1 14 ounce can coconut milk (unsweetened), shaken well
1 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste (I make mine from The Spice House Thai Red Curry Powder, mixed with fish sauce to a paste)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla), if not used to prepare curry paste
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1-2 teaspoons coconut palm sugar, to taste (optional)
~ 2 or 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup roasted cashews (optional)
1 to 1/2 pounds wild-caught cod fillets
kosher salt

Heat butter in a heavy saute pan over medium heat. Saute the onions and red bell peppers until they are very soft, 5-10 minutes.

Add Thai red curry paste to the onions and peppers and stir well over the heat to mix. Pour in the coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce (if not used to make curry paste), and palm sugar (if using). Simmer over low heat, uncovered, for around 10 minutes so the flavors can blend and the broth can reduce slightly.

In the meantime, rinse the cod with cold water, pat dry, and lightly season with salt. Fold the thinner parts of the fillets underneath, so the fish is relatively of the same thickness. Place the cod fillets in the saute pan, and nestle them into the broth as much as possible. Simmer on low, covered, for 8-10 minutes, until the fish flakes easily. During the last minute or two of cooking, add chopped cilantro and toasted cashews (if using). Serve hot, with a spoon to capture all of the broth. Enjoy!

Very spicy…and wonderful, as are the musical selections! First up, Luiz Bonfa Plays & Sings Bossa Nova. I love bossa nova, and his guy is one of best. He wrote “Black Orpheus”, and is a legend up there with Jobim and Joao Gilberto.