Midweek Check-In
Potlucks, bacon-y oyster mushrooms and spiced up corn recipe, Viet lotus tea, Tom’s Herb Experiments
A big virtual “Hello!” to everyone, including all the new subscribers to PTFS. We’re 11,700+ strong with hundreds of paid subscribers too. Wowza. I’m incredibly grateful for your culinary curiosity and enthusiasm.
Last Thursday, the cookbook club at The Ruby collective in San Francisco celebrated my latest book baby with a potluck of twenty-five people. Gadzooks! I’d never seen so much of Ever-Green Vietnamese’s food on one table at the same time. It was a thrilling feast produced by intrepid cooks who’ve entrusted me to lead them on a plant-laden food adventure. We ate, swapped stories, and hung out for hours. One Ruby made EGV’s Smoky Tofu-Nori Wontons (my vegetarian take on the crab Rangoon-ish rendition) and I piggishly took seconds and thirds. I’m a cookbook author who enjoys her own food a lot.
Those wontons reminded me that there’s an equally fab variation in the recipe’s endnote for fried wontons filled with five-spice mushroom walnut pâté. That tasty snack is my sustainable healthy take/cheat on a sinfully rich chicken liver pâté wonton from Christina Nguyen’s Hai Hai restaurant in Minneapolis. I was wanting to fry up wontons while avoiding the guilt of eating too many of them. Fate intervened with a last minute July 4 potluck invite, so I whipped up a batch of the pâté (see EGV, p. 92) for a batch of wonton wonders that got quickly gobbled up with glasses of refreshing Txakolina, a slightly bubbly Spanish white wine. There was plenty of pâté remaining for smearing on Ritz crackers and banh mi sandwiches. 😁
I deep-fried the July 4 batch because my pals are fried food fiends. The EGV recipe’s main technique suggests oven-frying for a healthier approach that’s crispy delicious, albeit lean; deep-frying tips are in the recipe Notes section, where you’ll often find bonus recipe content.
Vietnamese Lotus Tea
My first morning sip is a comforting cup of tea. Currently, I’m brewing Vietnamese green tea infused with fragrant lotus, called trà sen, chè sen, or chè ướp sen. It’s a labor intensive tea that my grandmother made long ago in Vietnam. If you have traveled to Hanoi, you may have smelled and tasted its vanilla-y, woodsy qualities. Not familiar with the tea? Here’s a delightful Saigoneer story on the lotus tea tradition, including how it’s made from fresh lotus anthers and stamens.
High quality Vietnamese lotus tea is hard to source. I order Lotus Ancien, made using old school methods, from Tao of Tea in Portland, Oregon. The flavor and aroma is deeper than lotus tea that has been artificially scented. I steep it for about 2 minutes to avoid an overly strong, slightly bitter brew (dilute with water if you go too far!).
Tom’s Asian Herb Growing Experiment
Ever since I posted about growing Asian herbs, Tom D, a long-time supporter and PTFS member, and I have been DM'ing about gardening. He ambitiously (and generously) gets a bunch of herb starts going to gifts to friends. Among Tom’s recent photos and tips:
When starting from cuttings, a rooting hormone like Root Boost gets things going fast and strong.
Source seeds from Kitazawa for shiso and in a pinch, Amazon for culantro seeds [Try Truelove Seeds too. AN]
A heat mat seems to facilitate faster, uniform seed sprouting.
Corn, Oyster Mushrooms + Night Market spice
The Monterey Bay and in particular, Santa Cruz (where I live), are mushroom-y parts of the country. We have lots of growers who sell their fresh fungal bounties at supermarkets, indie grocers, and farmer’s markets. I recently bought pink oyster mushrooms and realized that they have a unusual, bacon-like flavor. It was at first shocking.
Shock turned into curiosity. Was there a way to amplify that flavor in cooked form? I combined the mushroom with sweet corn kernels and a little cabbage for texture and minerality, and then seasoned everything with a peppery, savory-sweet “Asian Night Market” spice blend by Chinese-American chef Fiona Tam Kennedy. The result was good and I wrote up the details for you to cook from and tinker with. Get the mushroom, spice blend, and recipe lowdown.
Coming this Sunday, a special message to paid subscribers, who keep this fish sauce boat floating and moving forward.
Thank you for the information and inspiration, as always! I need to get back to the Vista Farmer’s Market for another culantro plant and whatever else looks interesting. I perked up at seeing “+ Night Market,” because Yenbamroong’s cookbook has me making and using my own roasted chile powder ALL THE TIME. Unfortunately my cooking is on hold due to a fractured right hand...