vietnamese spare ribs

What happens when you stick someone who loves Asian food in the South? Well you already read the title right... So there's a cool little restaurant here in Atlanta that does southern style hickory smoked BBQ - with a twist. The chef, originally from Korea, weaves in Korean spices and flavors into the rubs and sauces. Everyone raves about it and it's definitely on my short list of places to try. Unfortunately I haven't been there yet, but it did get me thinking...

So I came home from the grocery store the other day with a rack of St Louis style pork ribs. St Louis refers to the cut - basically the ends of the ribs are trimmed off so that the rack is completely even (making cooking slightly easier). The marinade I put together was logical, if not easy: lemongrass, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, Chinese five spice powder, oil, and dark caramel. Just looking at the ribs sitting there in the fridge, getting all happy overnight, made me smile!

The great thing about ribs, and really any meat that is pretty high in fat, is that they're very forgiving. You basically slap them in the oven and roast them as long as you want (within reason I suppose). Patience and a little planning are typically rewarded with these types of cuts, but you have to try pretty hard to screw them up badly. I roasted these ribs about three hours at 275ish. To complete this Southeast Asian (and Southern) inspired meal, I served a few of the ribs on top of rice vermicelli with sliced cucumber, a mix of fresh herbs (culantro, thai basil, mint, regular basil), and some nuoc cham on the side. I'm pretty confident this would sell rather well on the streets of Hanoi :)

Vietnamese Ribs (serves 3-4)

1 2.5 lb rack of spare pork ribs

Marinade
1/2- lemongrass stalk, finaly minced
6-8 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1.5" knob of garlic, finely minced  (basically you want equal parts garlic, ginger and lemongrass)
3-4 tbls fish sauce
1.5 tbls Chinese five spice powder
1.5 tbls Caramel (can sub in honey, agave syrup, or brown sugar)
1/4 cup oil

Directions
Mix all the ingredients together for the marinade
Rub the marinade onto the ribs
Place the rack in large Ziploc bag and refrigerate for 12-24 hours
Cook in 275-300 oven on a sheet pan for 3 hours or until the bones come off the meat very easily.

vietnamese (inspired) noodle and shrimp

My introduction to Vietnamese food some 15 years ago was a bowl of room temperature vermicelli noodles topped with grilled pork, various herbs, peanuts and a bowl of a fish sauce concoction on the side. I didn't quite know exactly what I was eating, but I knew I liked it - a lot. While I eventually went on to discover all the other dishes that make Vietnamese cuisine one of my favorites, Bún Thịt Nướng and other noodle dishes still hold a special spot in my heart.

With the temperatures now hovering awfully close to 100 during the day in Atlanta, a cool noodle salad seemed like a perfect dish to have for dinner tonight. I didn't really feel like making the dish as authentically as possible. Instead of grilled shrimp which is more traditional, I made a delicious shrimp cake flavored with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and fish sauce (a poor man's crab cake!). I also opted to serve the whole thing on a plate instead of a bowl, since it just seemed to work better with the ingredients I had. The lettuce was tossed with nuoc cham (dipping sauce), a little canola oil, and some coconut vinegar. The noodles were topped with a mix of cilantro, basil, and mint. Of course, I didn't want to stray too far from the original, so the whole thing was served with plenty of nuoc cham on the side. yum!

Shrimp Cake (Serves 2)

1/2 lb raw shrimp, peeled and cleaned
     1/3lb roughly chopped with knife
     1/6lb pulsed in a blender
2 Tbls oil
1/2 onion, small dice
1 stalk of celery, small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbls ginger, minced
1 serrano pepper, minced
1/2 stalk of lemongrass, minced
1 tbls fish sauce
2 tbls mayo
2 tsp mustard
1/3 cup bread crumbs, fresh if possible

Slowly cook the onion, celery, garlic, ginger, pepper, and lemongrass on a skillet with 1 tbls oil on medium heat, 10 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes.
Mix all the ingredients together and shape 2-4 patties. The pulsed shrimp binds everything together, but you may need to adjust the bread crumbs depending on the type you use.
Cook 2-3 minutes per side, or until cooked through, on medium high heat using the remaining oil.

Nuoc Cham
1/3 cup lime juice
2/3 cup water
5 tbls fish sauce (I use 3 Crabs brand)
4 tbls sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 serrano pepper, minced

Mix all ingredients, dissolve the sugar, and adjust all ingredients to taste. I added just a touch of vinegar to mine to brighten the flavors. Serve cold.

Other Ingredients
Chopped lettuce, sliced cucumber, and strips of carrots
Chopped mint, cilantro, and basil
Chilled cooked vermicelli rice noodles (1/3lb = 2servings)
Salad dressing: nuoc cham, canola oil, white wine vinegar

caramel

satisfied with the lemongrass pork but craving more south-east asian flavors, i turned to a couple recipes that i've always enjoyed in the past. first up, chicken simmered in a caramel sauce. this is traditionally cooked in a clay pot, but works reasonably well in regular cookware. you start by making caramel sauce, a staple ingredient in vietnamese cooking. nothing crazy here, just sugar, water, and a watchful eye. you start with a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water, stirred for the first two minutes over medium low heat, and then left to cook for 20-30 minutes (depending on what you consider medium low). you're looking for your caramel to go from opaque to gold, orange, red and eventually a coffee/molasses color. at this point the caramel will be smoking a bit and you want to stop the cooking by lowering the pot into a sink full of water.

Once you've cooled your pot in water, add another 1/2 cup of water and reheat to disolve the caramel over a medium flame. the caramel will darken a bit more until you have a rather dark, slightly bitter (but not burnt!) flavor. poor into a container once cooled and use as necessary! 

so... with caramel in hand, chicken simmered in caramel sauce is very easy. take about a pound of cut up boneless chicken thighs, and mix with a two inch knob of ginger, sliced thinly and bruised up with the back of the knife, one clove of garlic, two tablespoon of fish sauce and a tablespoon of water. Cook the whole thing in a covered pot for 10 minutes over a medium flame, take the lid off and cook for anther 5 minutes. let it rest a bit and serve! see easy :) 

I also put together a little green mango salad. the green mango - available at your local asian market - can be cut up with a simple cheese grater or with a knife and veggie peeler. the dressing includes fish sauce (1.5 tbls), juice of lime (1), chili (1 serano), garlic (1 clove), agave syrup (1.5tbls) and small dried shrimp (1 tbls). add in some cherry tomatoes, couple green beans, and top off with some peanuts (the last two omitted today unfortunately) and you've got a pretty traditional thai green mango salad. yum!

vietnamese chicken stew

I've been watching "Luke's Vietnam" on the cooking channel, and besides desperately making me wanna go back for another visit, it also makes me crave Vietnamese food. one of the most traditional comfort foods in vietnam is bo kho - or beef stew. from what i understand, each household has a slightly different take on the recipe, but generally the stew includes tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, star anise, lemongrass, fish sauce, Chinese five spice, brown sugar, ginger and cilantro.  the protein is typically a tough hunk of beef that needs to be stewed a few hours to make it tender and delicious.

unfortunately i didn't have any beef or potatoes (or vietnamese baguettes that bo kho usually comes with), but instead found myself with a whole chicken. so i figured i'd change up the recipe a bit and give chicken a whirl. i adjusted the recipe by reducing cooking time (since chicken doesnt need as long to cook), reducing the water i added to the stew (since it wouldnt have as much time to reduce), and increasing the spices a bit (to make up for the lack of beefy flavor). the end result was full of flavor and certainly something i'd make again. it even reminded me just a little bit of eating in vietnam. if you want  to give this dish a go, just look online for bo kho - there are tons of recipes out there!