America's Favorite Food: French Fries!

I remember when I first tried to make french fries, they stuck to the pan and weren't crispy! I've tried numerous times since then and was still unalbe to get the fries I wanted.  Fast forward many months later and I think I now know how to make tasty and crispy baked potato fries. The first advice is to get a good size and good quality baking sheet. I bought mine at Williams Sonoma for 20-30 dollars (i forget the price). The second is turning the fries with a spatula half way through baking so they don't stick to the sheet.

Here's my quick recipe. Add whatever ingredients you like!

4 potatoes clean and peeled (I only had small brown potatoes but the large russett potatoes work best)
1 1/2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp salt and some pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Cut potatoes into french fries-like pieces.
Add them to a bowl. Add oil and, with a large spoon mix to coat the fries. Add all the spices and mix again to distribute the spices. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange fries on an even layer of baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Half way through, use a spatula to turn fries. Fries should come out cripsy!

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Suong Kho:: Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Spareribs

While they have that saying, “Traditions are meant to be broken,” I strongly feel some traditions are meant to be kept. Growing up in America as an immigrant in a relatively big family, as a child I always wanted to become more modernized and “Americanized”. I shamelessly pushed away my roots and wanted so bad to have the life of the typical “American” girl. I wanted my own room, at least my own bed. I wanted to wear shoes in the house. I wanted a matching bed set, with matching pillow cases and sheets- not those big furry blankets that put me to shame when my friends came over (I now believe these furry blankets are the most comfortable and warm blankets ever). I wanted to speak English to my parents. I didn’t want to use chopsticks. I wanted to use forks and spoons. I didn’t want to use bowls. I wanted plates.

No, there was nothing wrong with me wanting to adapt to the American culture, but there was something terribly wrong with me not accepting my own. Fortunately for me, as I became older, I realized how important my culture was to me. As I became more and more appreciative of my parents, I became more and more accepting and intrigued with my own heritage. After years of struggling with my culture and wanting to keep it in the dark, I am beginning to see my Vietnamese culture in a new light- and it is a radiant light!

Speaking of traditions and culture, one of the most traditional and nostalgic thing for me is a Vietnamese dish called “suon kho”.  It reminds me of my childhood, my parents and my home. It is basically pork spare ribs in a caramelized sauce (I know Izz, you don’t eat pork, that’s too bad hehe). When I moved away from my parents, I knew I had to learn to make it. Once I did learn the basics of the dish, I couldn’t believe how easy it was. Suon kho is traditionally served along with “canh” or soup such as canh bau (opo squash soup) and a nice bowl of steaming hot rice. Ironically, I’m not sure if this is the traditional way of making this. I found the basis for this recipe on a food forum a LONG while back so I don’t remember who posted it and I can’t seem to find the forum again so I can’t give credit to who posted it (sorry!).

Suon Kho - Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Spare Ribs

1.5 lbs of pork spare ribs, cut down the meat between the bones to have little pieces

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 shallot minced

1 Tbs garlic minced

1 pinch red pepper flakes

2 Tbs fish sauce

¼ cup water

1 Tbs olive oil

First rinse the pork and pat dry.

In a medium skillet on medium high heat, add olive oil, let pan heat up then add meat. It should make a sizzling sound so that you can get a nice browning on the ribs. Once all the meat is browned, add the sugar and 1 Tbs of the fish sauce and stir to incorporate. Continue cooking and turning the meat after about 2-3 minutes add garlic, shallots and pepper flakes. Continue cooking and turning the meat so it doesn’t burn.

Lower the heat to medium low and add the rest of the fish sauce and mix. Continue cooking. Once sugar caramelizes and meat looks nice and brown (close to burning) add the water and stir. After a while you should get a nice sauce. Total cooking time of the pork will vary depending on how big the pieces are. It took me about 20-30 minutes to cook the meat all the way. Garnish with green onions and serve!

Canh Bau – Opo Squash Soup

I actually found the recipe for this soup on recipezaar and it was the most authentic recipe I could find. 

Opo is a great vegetable to eat [and to say :)]. This is the first time I’ve cooked with it but it’s very easy to prepare. You can use it for soup or sauté them with some garlic and olive oil. Its subtle taste makes it very easy to manipulate into whatever flavors you like.  Best of all it is nutritious! Here are some more information on opo squash.

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Butterfly Pasta and Roasted Bell Peppers

Last night I knew it was time to use up the bell peppers I had sitting in the fridge for about a week. It's not that I didn't want to use them. I just didn't have the time. From going away the past weekend for Labor Day to settling back in after a short but very nice visit back home, there was no time to cook! But yesterday, I knew my precious bell pepper's shelf life was coming close. Fortunately, when I took them out of the fridge, they were still quite firm and bright and very tasty looking. I wanted to cut them up and eat them with ranch dressing right there!

But I needed to make dinner, and I already knew what I wanted to do with them. A while back I was watching Easyway Gourmet with Kris Capra (a very vibrant and enthusiastic lady to watch on TV) and she made a delicious looking dish with roasted bell peppers and farfalle pasta. I've always wanted to try it but I felt roasting bell peppers is too time consuming! Now I realize how wrong I was. The few extra minutes you put into roasting the peppers is WELL worth it.

I wasn't able to find the exact recipe but I put something together that I think went very well together. For this dish I used FARFALLE pasta which is better known as bow tie pasta. In Italy, farfalle is actually a word for "butterfly". And if you look at the shape of these cute little pasta, you'll see that they do indeed resemble a butterfly or a bowtie. I also had some chicken and apple sausage links my dad gave me from Labor Day weekend so I used that along with leftover shredded rotissere chicken. That's the good thing about this pasta dish, it's very versatile and you can use almost anything you like (within reason of course).

Roasted Bell Peppers and Butterfly Pasta- about 2 good size servings

2 sausage links (whichever kind you like, I used chicken and apple)
2 bell peppers
1/3 cup shredded chicken (optional, I had some left over)
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 lemon or lime (I prefer lemon but I only had lime at the time)
2 Tbs butter
1 ½ - 2 tbs capers (coarsely chopped)
1 tbs minced garlic (estimated)
1 pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tsp of Italian seasoning (optional)
2 cups farfalle (bowtie) pasta
2 tsp olive oil for the sauce
Canola oil for broiling the bell peppers
Salt and pepper (I acutally didn't add any extra salt aside from what I used for the bell peppers)

Preheat oven to broil, rub canola oil all over bell peppers and season with salt and pepper.
Broil peppers for about 10 minutes, turning peppers over half way, until charred (skin turns black). Take peppers out (careful they’re HOT) and transfer to a bowl and cover to let peppers cool.
Once bell pepper cools (should take about 20-30 minutes) remove the stem and peel off the skin of the bell peppers (the skin should come right off). Take out the seeds and cut the bell peppers into about 1 inch pieces then set aside. Discard stem, skin and seeds.

Meanwhile bring pot of water to boil. While waiting for the water to boil, mince garlic and capers and set aside. Take sausage links and cut into bite size pieces. Once water boils, salt the water generously then add the bowtie pasta. Give it a quick stir to prevent clumping. As pasta cooks, heat a large pan at medium heat. Add olive oil and cook the sausages. This should take about 7 minutes to get nice browning on the sausages. Remove sausages then add garlic, let garlic heat up then add chicken broth, butter, and juice of half of the lime. Stir and let butter melt. Once butter melts add capers, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and then lower the heat. Continue cooking the sauce for a few more minutes.

Once pasta finishes, add pasta to sauce and stir to incorporate all the sauce. Let cook for 1-2 minutes then add bell peppers and shreds of chicken. Continue mixing all the ingredients, then squeeze second half of lime and give pasta final stir. If you have fresh parsley or basil, chop some up and add to garnish and flavor! Read more On "Butterfly Pasta and Roasted Bell Peppers"!