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.

Pho purists will probably pooh pooh over this faux pho since I used store-bought beef broth.  Horrors.  But before you click on to another page, give this a try.  For 20% of the work, you get more than 80% of the flavor.  Frankly, it’s almost as good as the real thing. I recently taught a class on South East Asian street foods at Sur La Table, and had 2 hours to do 5 dishes.  Given a decent pot of beef stock takes 5-6 hours, we had to use the boxed version.  It takes literally less than 15 mins to pull this noodle dish together.  How is that for a quick pho?

Chef’s tip: OK — if you want truly want the real thing, buy about 6 lbs or more of beef bones – shanks, oxtails…those parts with good marrows.  Place bones in a big pot of water, bring to boil and let boil 10 mins.  Pour off the water and rinse the pot and bones of scum.  Next, measure in 10 quarts of water, and bring to boil, then simmer 5 hours, while continuously removing scum and oil that form on top  Remove bones and any other solids.  Strain the broth.  Place in the fridge overnight, remove the solid layer of oil that forms.  Now, the broth is ready for use.  Move on to Step 1 below.

Broth:

8 quarts beef broth (unsalted preferably)
2 (3-inch) pieces ginger, skin on
2 small yellow onions, skin on, root removed
1 large white radish, peeled, cut into 2 inch chunks
8 whole star anise
6 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Cheesecloth
¼ cup fish sauce, or more to taste
3 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ lbs dried 1/16-inch-wide rice sticks, soaked

1 lb beef sirloin or tenderloin

Garnish:
½ yellow onion, sliced paper-thin
½ cup scallions, chopped
½ cup cilantro, chopped
4 cups mung bean sprouts
16 sprigs Asian basil
1 serrano or jalapeno chili, cut into thin rings
2 lime, cut into thin wedges

Sri Racha hot sauce
Hoisin sauce

1. Bring the beef broth to a boil in a large stockpot.
2. Char the onion and ginger pieces over an open flame. Peel and discard the blackened skins of the ginger and onions, then rinse, cut into 2 and add to the broth. Add radish.  Boil at medium flame for 30 minutes.
3. Place all spices into a cheesecloth and make into a bundle.  Add spice bags into broth, boil another 30 minutes.
4. Add fish sauce and sugar.  Taste, and add more if needed.  The broth should be quite salty as it will be balanced by the noodles.  Remove spice bag, onion, ginger and radish.  If necessary, strain the broth.
5. Slice the onion paper thin.  Soak in cold water for 30 minutes, drained and pat dry.
6. Chop scallions and cilantro and mix together.  Set aside
7. Place bean sprouts, herbs, chilies and lime wedges on a central plate.
8. Soak the rice noodles in cold water for at least 20 minutes.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the drained rice noodles. Give the noodles a quick stir and cook until tender but firm — less than 1 minute. Drain immediately.  Use immediately.
9. Pop the beef into the freezer.  When slightly frozen, remove and slice paper thin against the grain.
10. To serve, place the cooked noodles in bowls.  Place a few slices of the raw sirloin on the noodles. Bring the broth to a rolling boil; ladle about 2 to 3 cups into each bowl. The broth will cook the raw beef instantly. Garnish with yellow onions, scallions and cilantro mix. Serve immediately with the platter of sprouts and herbs, and Sri Racha and hoisin sauce.

Serves: 8

Tags: noodles, street foods, Vietnamese.