Asian Fusion?

This week's a bit of an anomaly. I'm on spring break so therefore have been a cooking machine because: a) I have extra time and energy and b) Rob deserves it x 100.

You may have seen the Vietnamese inspired dishes I made this week. That's all because my brother took my mom and I to The Union for dinner before the Canucks game on Monday night. (It was a good night!) Not surprising given their location, they have Vietnamese, Korean, and Indian-influenced dishes on their menu. Their Banh Mi Vietnamese subs looked so good! My mom had a Bun vermicelli bowl with lemongrass chicken. It was delicious! I haven't eaten enough Vietnamese or Korean food and clearly this had an East Van spin to it, but it was awesome and got me feeling curious and adventurous to try it out a little.

To finish off my Asian-fusion cooking week, I made a kind-of Pad Thai tonight. It was good, but I'm actually just going to share the two mini-recipes that were used in all three meals and are 100% responsible for why they were more exciting and delicious than my past boring attempts at different Asian sauces, marinades, and stir-fries. I want to share them because I know I'm going to use them over and over!


Nuac Cham: the Vietnamese dipping sauce that dressed the vermicelli bowl. Not only was this the best part of the vermicelli bowl for me, it was also my new favourite sauce to have on hand to add depth to just about everything I made this week:

• added to the lemongrass marinade for chicken/prawns/tofu (more below)
• splashed into the burger patty mixture
• added to the lemongrass sriracha mayo for the burgers (made with vegenaise)
• used as dressing for coleslaw for the burgers and salad
• added to sauce for Pad Thai

Here's the actual recipe... (If you are unsure about fish sauce, you need to get over it because that's where the depth of flavour comes from and it's delicious.)

Nuac Cham

1/2 c water
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c fish sauce
1/4 c rice vinegar
1-2 t sriracha
1 garlic clove, minced


Put all ingregients in a jar, seal tightly, and shake vigorously for a minute or so until the sugar dissolves. Make a bigger batch to keep some extra in the fridge!


Next up, the lemongrass marinade that I used on chicken for the vermicelli bowls and on tofu for the Pad Thai, and well, technically in the lemongrass sriracha mayo too. It was sooo good on the tofu!

Lemongrass Marinade

1 1/2 lbs chicken, tofu or large prawns
1/2 c finely chopped lemongrass (2-3 stalks)
1/2 c onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground Chinese five spice 
1/4 c oil (we use grapeseed oil - more neutral than olive oil)
*I also added a splash of the Nuac Cham

Mince lemongrass (white part), onion, garlic, and ginger, or put in a food processor. Mix in everything else and marinate protein for 30 min to 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees until fully cooked.


Cilantro, mint, and Thai basil also get honourable mention this week for adding a trifecta of fresh flavors to all our food.

A few pics just from tonight. Because they're supposed to make reading about food better? We're new at this...

Jessie

*If you know anything about Vietnamese, Korean, or Thai food, you know more than I do, so feel free to add what you know or correct anything offensive/inaccurate I mentioned

*Links I modified recipes from this week: Everybody Likes Sandwiches and Feasting at Home