Zosia's Reviews
6 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 6Sort by: Title 
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Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
By Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid
Random House Canada - 2000
The chicken is delicious on its own but fantastic with the dipping sauce.
Chicken pieces are marinated for a few hours in a simple to prepare paste (page 184) that includes the common Thai flavours of coriander root, peppercorns, garlic and fish sauce, then grilled/broiled until done. Though the marinade smells very strong, with the fish sauce lending a particular pungency to the mix, the flavours don’t overwhelm and the chicken tastes very well-seasoned and juicy.
The accompanying sauce is a sticky, hot and sweet concoction of sugar, rice vinegar, garlic and dried red pepper flakes that takes so little time to prepare and tastes so much better than store bought, it had me wondering why I haven’t been making it on a regular basis.
I served it with Yunnan greens (page 151) and steamed brown basmati rice.
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Iced Coffee with Sweetened Condensed Milk : page 304
Freshly brewed espresso with sweetened condensed milk served over ice….nothing could be simpler or more refreshing when an afternoon pick-me-up is required.
It’s also a fraction of the cost of the fancy iced coffees from coffee bars and has the added bonus of allowing each person to control the level of sweetness and creaminess with the amount of milk used. I sometimes mix up a small pitcher in advance, omitting the ice, and refrigerate, so family can help themselves.
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Vietnamese Grilled Pork Balls : page 252
The authors describe these as “easy-to-eat” and I would add that they’re easy to make as well though the method and ingredients are different from what I would normally use for meat balls.
Lean pork pieces are marinated with garlic, shallots and fish sauce then processed to a paste with added Roasted Rice Powder (a condiment of toasted, ground rice, page 308). Either of these steps can be done hours in advance. The paste is shaped into small balls and grilled or broiled on skewers.
Though the meat balls are quite dense, they are moist and very flavourful on their own and even tastier served with a Vietnamese Herb and Salad Plate (an assortment of lettuce leaves, fresh herbs, sliced raw vegetables, page 68) and a hot, sour, salty, sweet dipping sauce (Vietnamese Must-Have Table Sauce, page 28).
Though often served as an appetizer, we had it with steamed brown basmati rice as our main.
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Vietnamese Savory Crepes/Bánh Xèo : page 280
Bánh Xèo attempt #2 was a complete success!
I was a little disappointed with the Vietnamese crepes I made (and reviewed) a few weeks ago from the cookbook Plenty but I loved the concept of this thin crepe bursting with herbs and fresh vegetables and drizzled with a flavourful dressing so I decided to try again using this recipe instead.
These crepes are made of pre-soaked split yellow mung beans (moong dal), coconut milk (I used reduced fat) and rice flour (I used brown). Unlike the recipe from Plenty, which didn’t include the mung beans, there is no egg in this recipe. After a minimum 30 minute rest (the batter can actually be made the day before), the crepe batter is cooked in a hot, oiled wok with a lid on so the pancake bottom becomes brown and crispy while the top steams - no flipping required! I was using my wok to prepare a shrimp and pork filling (p188), so I used a non-stick pan instead. This worked well but my crepes ended up larger, with a yield of 8 instead of 12.
These crepes have a lovely flavour, a little salty, a little sweet (I thought they were delicious on their own) and are tender but not too delicate, but they did need to be served immediately so everyone could enjoy the crispy bottoms before they softened.
I served these with the vegetarian nuoc cham (p 29), one of the recommended sauces: a simple mix of soy sauce and rice vinegar, flavoured with lemongrass, garlic, chile, sugar and cinnamon. This was delicious on the meat filling as well as the herbs and vegetables.
I borrowed some ideas for the vegetable filling from the Plenty recipe and offered a wider assortment; that, along with the meat filling, meant that even the carnivores in the family enjoyed it.
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Vietnamese Shrimp and Pork Stir-Fry : page 188
Maximum flavour with minimum effort, this stir fry of meat and seafood with lemongrass and garlic cooks in only moments after marinating for 30 minutes in a simple mixture of fish sauce and sugar.
I made this to serve as a filling for Vietnamese Crepes (p 280) and it worked out well as the small amount of marinade cooked off quickly when the pork and shrimp were stir-fried, thereby avoiding soggy crepes. However, this wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing if this is being served over noodles or rice…you would want to follow the authors’ recommendation to add a little water to the wok.
Delicious on its own, it was fabulous with the savoury crepes.
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Yunnan Greens : page 151
I thought it strange that this recipe called for the bok choi to be blanched before stir frying as it’s such a quick cooking vegetable, but in the name of “recipe testing”, I followed the instructions. After draining, the vegetable was quickly stir fried with ginger and Thai chiles, then boiled briefly in stock with added cornstarch to thicken, ~2 minutes cooking time total.
The par-boiling removed all the bitterness and grassy flavour from the vegetable; it was sweet and tender- crisp with the subtle flavour of ginger and heat from the chilies, which were there for “warmth”, not be eaten. Even the carnivores enjoyed it!
Green beans and cabbage are recommended as substitutes but I can see using this method with other greens like Swiss chard, broccoli or kale.
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