During the first dotcom days, when I was working in a super cool start-up South of Market, I ventured out to Tu Lan on 6th and Market with my fabulously-dressed colleague, Pam, to check out their spring rolls.  The experience was savory, and I don’t mean the food.   We just had to try the spring rolls!  After all, Zagats gave them a 22 or was it 24 then on their food rating.  I don’t think that place even knows Zagat has them rated!  Their food was too greasy for my liking.  The local residents thought we were too out of place for their liking.

So, here is a clean tasting recipe for you to make in the peace and safety of your home.

Chef’s tip: As with any deep frying, controlling the temperature is key to making your deep fried morsel crispy and not greasy.  To get the olden hue on the rice wrapper, dipping in a sugary water gives it a coat of sugar to caramelized in when deep fried.

6 oz shrimp
6 oz ground pork
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 small eggs or 1 large

1 small carrot, grated coarsely
2 cups fresh shiitake, thinly sliced
2 cups wood ear mushroom (from about 3/4 cup dried, reconstituted in water), thinly sliced
2 large shallots, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced, soaked in water, and spun dry
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup mint, chopped
1 stalk green onions, thinly sliced
2 oz cellophane mung bean noodles, reconstituted in water, cut into 2 inch length

1 lb package 8 inch round Vietnamese rice paper wrappers
3 Tablespoons sugar
8 cups canola oil

1 bunch green leaf or butter lettuce, ribs removed

Nuoc Mam Cham dipping sauce ingredients:
1 red Thai chile, finely minced or 1 teaspoon sambal olek
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons sugar
1 lime, juiced to make ¼ cup
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
½ cup water

1. Preparing the sauce: Mix all dipping sauce ingredients together (chile, garlic, sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, vinegar and water).  Set aside.
2. In a food processor, pulse shrimp till coarsely chop, add pork and give it a pulse or two.  Add fish sauce and black pepper, and egg and pulse to combine.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables ingredients and bean noodle and toss to combine.
4. Line a baking sheet with a damp tea towel and have another damp towel ready to cover the rolls. Line a cutting board with a third damp towel.
5. Fill a large sauté pan with 2 inches of water. Add sugar, bring water to a boil, then turn heat to very low. Working with one sheet of rice paper at a time, dip half the disc into the hot water, holding one corner with your fingers or a pair of chopsticks. Let it sit for about 5 seconds. Quickly dip the other half and remove and spread out flat on lined cutting board.
6. Place about 2 Tablespoons of the filling on the bottom third of the rice paper.  Shape the filling into a cylinder, about 3-inches long.
7. Fold the left and right side over the filling. Holding the sides in place, fold the bottom flap up and roll the roll up into a tight cylinder.  Lay the rolls flap side down on the moistened towel and cover with another moist towel. Patch any broken areas with small pieces of soaked, rice paper.  Repeat folding the remaining rolls.
8. Frying the spring rolls:  Heat canola oil till 375F.  Drop several spring rolls into the oil and fry till golden brown, about 5 minutes each.  Immediately drain on a wire rack over a baking sheet.  Bring the oil back up to temperature and continue until all the spring rolls have been fried.
9.  Wrap each spring roll with lettuce and serve with Nuoc Mam Cham dipping sauce.

Serves: 8

Tags: springrolls, street foods, Vietnamese.

I haven’t spent as much time eating/standing/awake in Bangkok as I would like to — during my many trips there when I worked in corporate in Asia, I was either stuck in a conference room, or if there were any free hours, getting heavenly massages at the many wonderful spas there!  My company put us up at the Westin Banyan Tree which has an amazing spa and a wonderful buffet dinner spread (yeah, buffets are pretty popular higher end dining in Asia) and I loved walking into the buffet lounge lobby smelling the lemongrass incense and hearing the soft pounding sound of Som Tum being prepared.  The green papaya station is always my first stop at the buffet.  Ah, Sawadee!

Chef’s tip:  Green papayas are essentially unriped papayas.  You can get them at Asian food stores.  They often times wrap it in newspaper to prevent it from ripening.  Other finer points: “Som Tum Thai” has peanuts and dried shrimp mixed in, “Som Tum Bu” has small pickled crabs pounded in, or “Som Tum Lao Sai Pla Ra” has fermented mud fish mixed in it.

Dressing

4 Tablespoons fish sauce
4 Tablespoons palm sugar/ brown sugar
4 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 Tablespoon tamarind concentrate

Salad

1 green papaya, peeled – yields 4 cups shredded
2 roma tomatoes – yields 1 cup of sliced roma tomatoes or 1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 handful Chinese string/long beans (or baby haricot vert) – yields 1 cup
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2-4 small Thai red chilies, deseeded, finely sliced – number depending on heat level
2 Tablespoons dried shrimp – presoaked in water
1 shallot, peeled, sliced
½ cup peanuts, roasted

1 cup cilantro leaves

To prepare the dressing
1. Mix together dressing ingredients.  Taste.  Adjust if needed. Set aside.

To prepare the vegetables:
2. Using a food processor (medium grate) or grater, shred the green papaya flesh
3. Deseed the tomato and cut into long slivers (or if using cherry tomatoes, half them)
4. Cut the beans into 1 ½ inch lengths.  Blanch in hot water for 3 minutes or until bright green and quickly plunge into cold water.  Drain.

Assembling – make per serving.  Divide ingredients into 6 parts.
5. In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic, chili and dried shrimp into a paste
6. Add the sliced shallots and pound slightly to bruise the shallots
7. Add the long beans and pound to bruise the beans.
8. Add the peanuts and lightly pound again to crush the nuts
9. Add the shredded papayas and lightly pound until it is limp and soft
10. Add sliced tomatoes and press gently to blend
11. Add dressing and toss to combine.  Garnish with cilantro.
12. Serve immediately.  Repeat per serving.

Serves: 8

Tags: salad, street foods, Thai.

Radish cake is eaten during Chinese New Year as a symbol for togetherness.   My friend, Ophelia, made the dish this year again….I wish she lived closer coz I would love to get together and have a slice delicious law bak goh!  She shares the secret from her mom — the oil keeps the batter together.  In addition, she recipe-tested my recipe and this is what she says:  “I added one cup less water than your [original] recipe – I judged it by the consistency … when it looked too watery, I added a little more rice flour.  It was 11pm by the time I was done steaming.  I decided to put the whole pan outside the door, and by the Monday it was nice and firm, ready to be fried for New Year breakfast! “  Looks like the 2010 Washington DC snowmageddon did come in useful afterall!

Anyways, I promised her if she shared the picture, the recipe will be on the blog forever so she needn’t search high and low for her copy each new year!  Here we go! Do note to add more water/ rice flour as needed.

2 lbs Chinese white radish, grated
1 cup water + about 1  1/2 cups water

4 Chinese sausages, finely diced
1/4 cup dried shrimps*, soaked in warm water with 1 tablespoon sherry, drain and chopped roughly
2 + 2 tablespoons oil
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, or use fresh, finely diced
2 cups rice flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon scallion, finely chopped

1. Peel and grate radish. Place shredded radish in a small pot or saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring mixture to a boil, than reduce the heat to a low and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Let cool.  Drain radish.  Save cooking liquid.
2. Pour cooking liquid into a measuring cup. Add remaining water to make 2 1/2 cups of liquid.
3. Start a steamer over a wok of boiling water.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Stir-fry sausage, 1 minute.  Add the shrimp; fry 30 seconds and mushrooms, 1 minute.  Remove from heat. Set aside.
5. To the cooking liquid mixture, whisk in rice flour, sugar, salt, pepper, 5 spice powder and reserved radish and mix until consistency of thick oatmeal.  You may need to add more water or rice flour.  Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
6. Add in sausage & mushroom mixture, scallion and cilantro.  Mix well.
7. Line a 6 inch by 9 inch (or a 9 inch diameter) cake pan with parchment paper and grease with oil liberally. Pour mixture into it. Place on rack in steamer. Steam over briskly boiling water 1 hour.  The cake is somewhat gooey at this stage.
8. When cold, refrigerate overnight to firm up the cake.
9. To serve, slice 1/4 inch thick, 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Fry slices in 1 tablespoon canola oil until golden brown. Serve hot.

Serves: 6-8

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, dim sum.