Bánh Xèo

In a perfect example of Vietnamese cuisine as a blend of French and Asian influence, this dish is very similar to a crêpe in concept, but the result is quite different. The batter contains no egg, rice flour is used instead of wheat, throw in some coconut milk, turmeric, scallions, and a lot of oil for cooking, and you get a much crispier, more flavorful thin pancake than the springy French crêpe. Bánh Xèo translates to "sizzling cake" due to the sound it makes when the thin water-based batter hits the hot oil in the pan. It's eaten kind of like a lettuce wrap- you tear off a chunk and wrap it in red leaf lettuce with sprigs of mint, and dip it in a sauce (there is no seasoning in the filling itself).

This is the kind of dish that takes some practice to properly execute; like a crêpe, it's tricky to flip or fold perfectly. I made two versions. My first go was okay and I learned a lot. My second try was better, but still not spot on. I just need experience to nail it.

Bánh Xèo with Vegetables
Vegan AND gluten free! Featuring fried tofu strips, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, carrots, celery, cellophane noodles, and mung bean sprouts. Served with a soy-based dipping sauce (yes, there's gluten in soy sauce, but there are easy alternatives- I'm looking at you, tamari).

Bánh Xèo with Shrimp and Pork
This is the more simple, traditional iteration: shrimp, pork, onions, and mung bean sprouts. I served it with a fish sauce-based dipping sauce. As much as I wanted to like the vegan one, I ended up liking this one better, in large part due to the pungent sauce.

As a final note, I'm a stickler for proper pronunciations, and bánh xèo is pronounced like "bon-SAY-oh". With an attempted accent for a Western tongue, it's closer to "bon-SOW" – "bon" rhyming with John and "sow" rhyming with how. No matter what, it's a great dish!

LA Game Day Food

With the Rams in the Super Bowl this year, I decided to cook a Los Angeles style menu. But when I started to ask myself what LA food really is, I realized it's truly a melting pot of dozens of cuisines. The trick became figuring out what makes Japanese sushi, Mexican tacos, Italian sandwiches and pizza, or any other of many international dishes uniquely SoCal. California rolls didn't make the cut because of the time involved and it just didn't fit with the rest of this game day food, but I missed them. Also left out, but considered, were Canter's take on a sandwich similar to a reuben and Philippe's famous French dip. What I made must have been a success though; my favorite compliment came from Jonathan who visited the Left Coast every one of the 13 years I lived there. He said he was "totally reminded of LA." A new item was served every quarter throughout the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history:

Bay Cities Style Poor Boy

Especially if you don't get the works, it's Bay Cities' bread that makes this sandwich unique. I can't duplicate that bread, but I was very proud of nailing my favorite part, their mild pepper dressing. I made that by mixing roasted red bell peppers, sweet cherry peppers, and pepperoncini, finding there should be a lot more red bell pepper than anything else. Otherwise, you just need the classic combo of bologna, cotto salami, and Swiss cheese. The Works includes lettuce, onion, pickles, tomatoes, mustard, and mayonnaise. Love that sandwich. Instant Santa Monica.

Cali Cheesesteak Pizza

I experiment a lot in the kitchen, but almost always following recipes, rarely inventing my own stuff, but this is one dish I lay claim to, inspired by my favorite sandwich (cheesesteak). I use a CA beer like Anchor Steam for my horseradish cheddar beer sauce (the leftover is perfect for fondue) that goes on top of my homemade dough. Then caramelized onions and mushrooms, Anaheim peppers for heat and more SoCal flavor, Monterey Jack cheese, and the common West Coast cut, tri-tip, for the steak. After cooking, it gets a topping of fresh avocados, sourced from California whenever possible. The advent of California-style pizzas like this (as opposed to traditional Italian or Italian-American classics) is attributed to chef Ed LaDou in Berkeley in the 80s before Wolfgang Puck brought the concept to Spago's, and then later, California Pizza Kitchen helped popularize it for the masses.

In N Out Animal Style Sliders

In N Out makes my favorite burger by far and I wouldn't have it any way but their off-menu Animal Style. Animal Style just adds extra grilled onions and special sauce, but it adds so much flavor! (You can order animal style fries, too, when you're really feeling saucy.) In my quest to duplicate their burgers at home, I found a copycat recipe that nails it. The special sauce is similar to thousand island, but when you buy that in a bottle, it's loaded with corn syrup and other junk, so it's better made at home. Most of the rest of it speaks for itself- caramelized onions, processed American cheese, lettuce, and tomato. But the real secret trick that I think makes the beef itself taste perfect is brushing one side of the patty with yellow mustard before flipping. That seals the deal. I wouldn't have moved back to Texas if they hadn't opened In N Outs here, and the best part is that Texans are so obsessed with flavorless Whataburgers, there's never a line at In N Out, whereas you'd be in the drive-thru for 45 minutes at 1am in LA.

Baja Fish Tacos

And finally the taco, a quintessential part of Los Angeles cuisine. I don't think there's an official "LA taco" and everyone from the wealthy in Beverly Hills to the authentic in East LA have their favorite taco stand, truck, restaurant, etc. I went with Baja style because it's geographically close to LA and features fish, like any coastal cuisine should. I cheated on this and used fish sticks because I had enough going on already, but the rest is all from scratch- red cabbage slaw for crunch, pico de gallo and salsa verde for hot and sour, and a little Mexican crema to cool it all off. Served on "street taco" flour tortillas.

Spanish Beef Stew

Catalan-Style Beef Stew with Oyster Mushrooms
In keeping with our interest in Spanish cuisine, I made this stew the other night. Again, it starts with a base of sofrito (slow cooked tomatoes, onions, and spices). For this stew, I used short ribs, which I rarely cook with because it ain't the healthiest cut, just one of the tastiest. I got very well-marbled grass fed beef for this, mmmm.

After braising the beef in white wine along with the sofrito for several hours, I threw in beautiful oyster mushrooms, and then the stew is thickened with picada. Picada is another Spanish staple, especially in Catalonia and Valencia, but one that can vary widely in ingredients. The one I made here contained finely ground toasted almonds, toasted bread, garlic, and parsley. This dish also got a dash of cinnamon which really sets it apart- only 1/4 teaspoon in 6 portions, but it was enough to raise an eyebrow from those it was served to. I may skip that spice next time because it's just too unusual to most American tastebuds in a savory dish. Finally, it was brightened up with a splash of sherry vinegar, also common in Spanish cooking. I am proud of my extensive collection of vinegars, but they each have a use in various dishes, and having just inherited two bottles of good sherry vinegar, the timing for more Spanish food was perfect!

Spanish Pasta

Fideuà
We've found that Kara really enjoys Spanish food, so I've been searching for recipes and am having fun cooking dishes that are new to me and classic to Spain. This is fideuà, or Spanish-Style Toasted Pasta with Shrimp and Mussels. I've heard similar dishes called "fideo" when Mexican (as seen on Beat Bobby Flay), and there are many other variations on the word. What they all have in common is Latin flavors... and pasta.

The story goes that a Spanish cook who worked on a ship tried substituting pasta for rice when making paella because the captain liked rice so much he gobbled it up before the rest of the crew got their portions. The trick worked and the dish ended up being so tasty to everyone else, he recreated it at various ports over the years and it became a classic dish.

It is essentially paella. But instead of rice, thin spaghetti is used, carefully broken into 1" lengths in a dishtowel. The pasta is toasted in a dry pan (with bit of Spanish olive oil) to recreate the sensation of socorrat, the treasured crusty rice at the bottom of a properly made paella. It's flavored with the aromatic base called sofrito—onions, tomatoes, and olive oil, and other varying ingredients. Then I threw in some beautiful large shrimp and a handful of mussels. The flavor is rounded out by smoked paprika, which I've used for years and love, but wow, it requires a deft hand. Try it if you haven't before.

The above pre-plating photo doesn't include the lovely parsley garnish and lemon wedges which should be served alongside, but it looks great in the pan. It was delicious!

A Study in Fried Chicken Part 2: Korean

Fried Chicken with Octo Vinaigrette
This is David Chang's recipe for fried chicken from his book, Momofuku. I was particularly inspired by his episode on fried chicken from Ugly Delicious (we rewatched it as I cooked, and if you haven't seen it, queue up your Netflix!). Anyway, here we have fried chicken with no breading, but the process is still lengthy. A whole chicken is brined in salt and sugar for several hours, then steamed (a technique for cooking chicken (and other foods) that is actually quite delicious and sadly underutilized by the Western world), and then after chilling for a few hours—of course—deep fried. The skin gets crisp, the already-cooked meat is very moist and you don't miss the breading. Here, it's tossed in Chang's "octo vin" which reverses the ratio of a traditional vinaigrette (usually two parts oil to one part vinegar) while showcasing Asian flavors like ginger, soy, and sesame oil.

Since this is a study in fried chicken, I feel a responsibility to compare, and I have to say that Morimoto's Japanese fried chicken is my favorite so far, but this Korean take was also stunning. I served four people and we all loved it, and I'd be happy to make it again. More than anything, it proves that it's hard to go wrong with fried chicken!

Cherry Tomato Salad with Soft Tofu + Shiso
Another David Chang recipe—this one, declared by Jean-Georges Vongerichten as one of Chang's best dishes—is a spin on a traditional Caprese salad. Instead of mozzarella there's silken tofu, instead of basil, it's shiso leaf (one of my favorite herbs and hard to find in East Dallas), and it's all tossed in Sherry vinegar, soy, and sesame oil. Half of the tomatoes are painstakingly blanched and peeled, the other half completely raw for texture. I absolutely loved this dish and found it incredibly refreshing, but not only do you have to love tomatoes, you have to be open to tofu, be comfortable with top shelf vinegar, and enjoy the unique flavor of shiso.

Ramen Noodles + Pork Taré
The final part of this meal had to inevitably be ramen. I half-cheated by buying really good refrigerated noodles and used their pre-made taré (a versatile sauce used to flavor many Japanese dishes, from yakitori chicken to ramen—sake, mirin, and soy). But I learned a lesson about how important the broth is, not only for flavor, but most importantly for texture and serving. I've successfully made serious ramen dishes that took days to prepare, so I have an idea of what I'm doing. But I tried to serve ramen noodles with almost no broth and it was weak. It was still a nice subtle component to the meal and I'd do it again too, just a little differently.

A Study in Fried Chicken Part 1: Japanese

This is the first entry of a theme. I do not fry very often because it's not particularly healthy and it's quite messy, but it is also an undeniably delicious way to cook food. I've noticed almost every cookbook I own across many cuisines have recipes for fried chicken, and I've decided to try out a variety of them. There will be more.

Japanese-Style Fried Chicken with Scallion Sauce (Kara Age)
From Morimoto's recipe, this is light and subtle yet complex—exactly what you'd expect from Japanese fried chicken.  This is not to be confused with tempura. Here, small cuts of chicken thighs marinate in eggs seasoned with soy, sake, ginger, and garlic. That's where all the flavor comes from. It goes from there to a quick coating of nothing but cornstarch (keeps it light) and then straight to the oil. Served with a dipping sauce made of soy, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, scallions, and shiso leaf (if you haven't had shiso leaves and like herbs like mint or cilantro, they're very unique and I urge you to give them a try if you can find them; usually in Asian grocery stores). Here, I served it ichiju sansai style: protein, veg, rice, and a soup. I made miso soup with mussels, Brussels sprouts and maitake mushrooms stir-fry, plus fried shishito peppers for fun since they were fresh in season and I already had the oil going.

Bastille Day Niçoise

To celebrate la Fête nationale, the French holiday we call Bastille Day, which honors a major turning point in the Revolution on July 14th, I put a slightly heretical spin on a couple of traditional French dishes...

Hot Salade Niçoise
A traditional salade niçoise was considered lower class fare from its advent in the late 1800s, and consisted of tomatoes, anchovies, and olive oil. Today it has expanded to encompass all kinds of riffs that various chefs either admire or abhor depending on how they view traditional respect or contemporary homage, yet they all share some very familiar flavors. My version, here, has been adapted to Kara's and my own tastes. Tomatoes, haricots verts, yellow bell peppers, crumbled new potatoes, torn basil leaves, and capers in place of the more traditional niçoise olives—all roasted—beneath seared tuna topped with a runny egg and drizzled with a lemon vinaigrette. Served hot. Delicious, especially as the last bites are just the remnants of the dressing and egg yolk, thickened with potato bits, and spiced up with a few remaining capers. If you take note of the blue, white, and red table setting, you can almost hear La Marseillaise. ;-)

Blueberry Soufflé
This is not a proper soufflé and it doesn't look like it either. But it tasted good and happened to be fairly healthy as well. Whipped egg whites, sugar, and plenty of blueberry compote (fruit cooked down in sugary syrup), topped with toasted almonds. It's served on one of our hand-painted plates with the company stamp from Rise, a local restaurant that specializes in soufflés and French cuisine.