midweek gems #10

Leftover turkey pho + banh mi + spatchcocking | coffee klatch + gear | charred cabbage salad

Hello!

You may think that all I do is go to conferences but the past three weeks have been an outlier. I mostly stay at home, researching, recipe developing, writing, and social media-izing. I went to Napa last week for an industry event called World of Flavors, organized by the Culinary Institute of America.

The theme was how migration and borders impact culinary traditions. The 500 attendees weren’t trendy chefs, restaurateurs, or social media influencers. They were folks who influence on mass levels — high school and community college culinary arts teachers, product developers for multinational food companies, and chefs at universities, hospitals, corporate cafeterias, and assisted living facilities. Their work doesn’t get the spotlight but they majorly shape how people eat.

A huge 🙏 to Laurie, a college culinary arts professor and PTFS subscriber, who prepared my demo ingredients. As for that giant photo of me, I signed it and it's now hanging on the wall of a cookbook library at a high school culinary arts program in Sacramento. I'm grinning so big because I was having such a damn fine time.

It was an honor to add Viet information to their knowledge base. For instance, to illustrate how Viet ingredients and techniques have changed since my family came to America in 1975, I demonstrated two recipes from Ever-Green Vietnamese — oven-fried imperial rolls (there are 2 chả giò recipes on p. 103 and 106) and steamed banh mi lettuce wraps (bánh mì hấp, p. 135). They’re healthy and doable.

The CIA’s chefs and volunteers made both recipes for conference receptions and I’m happy to report that they scaled up great! I also offered impromptu tastings of my vegan fish sauce (p. 32), which people said I should bottle and sell. I responded, “The recipe is in the book!”

If you have the book and/or took my classes, keep the rolls and banh mi in mind for great party dishes this holiday season (and beyond). Some pointers:

• The imperial rolls can be frozen raw and popped into the oven to cook. There are reheating tips in the recipe Notes on page 105.

• Days ahead: Wash lettuce and herbs. Prep nước chấm sauce (p. 32).

• The steamed banh mi toppings can be prepped days ahead too. To speed through assembling 200 portions, we steamed the bread with the green onion oil already on top. Once squishy, we lowered the heat to keep the bread warm and soft. Then we assembled each portion and let people sauce their own. You can totally apply that to your home cooking playbook.

💎 PTFS Chat: Viet coffee klatch ☕️

Evvy went to a Viet market and got her first can of Trung Nguyen coffee. There were some interesting ingredients like chocolate flavor listed so she wondered about why that was. She asked, does any Viet coffee just have coffee?

Evvy’s curiosity led to her starting an PTFS chat thread. 🥳 👏 Soon, Nghiem dove into the history of Cafe Du Monde. Dave wondered about Mr. Viet coffee (a new brand to me; anyone know about it?). We’re having a ball with our virtual coffee klatch. Join us!

💎 Gear: Coffee Equipment

Circling back to last Sunday’s post on how I brew Vietnamese coffee, this is my equipment.

My coffee gear includes:

• A stainless steel Hario v60 dripper with a silicone seal for heat retention. It’s costly but the metal won’t break like ceramic. Ceramic will hold heat better, though. That said, I’m clumsy in the morning so metal works for me.

• Unbleached filters made for the Hario v60 actually yield a better tasting cup of coffee (I did a comparison way back). I mail order the filters and in a pinch, I’ll use a Melitta filter but it’s not designed for the Hario’s pointy cone shape.

• Cuisinart’s gooseneck kettle does a gentle, precise pour for pour overs and the Aeropress, which Rory loves. There are more expensive kettles of similar design but this one works fine for us. We used to have a regular kettle with a large spout but I often poured the water too fast or over poured.

• That beat-up looking Capresso burr coffee grinder has lasted us for about 15 years. It’s worth the money.

• We have occasional power outages so we also have a manual coffee grinder. It wasn’t super pricey but it fits our needs very well. The brand we got is no longer around but this one looks very similar and good.

💎 Recipes + tips: Turkey pho + banh mi + spatchcocking

When it comes to holiday cooking, I’m always thinking ahead about how to repurpose leftovers. Some Viet-ish ideas for you, plus butchering and roasting tips in case you’re wondering how to deal with that big bird:

• Turkey Pho | Phở Gà Tây — Forget turkey tetrazzini or turkey congee/porridge. Make pho! Developing the recipe gave me a greater appreciation for roast turkey.

• Leftover Thanksgiving Banh Mi — Use my pointers to turn holiday turkey and sides into banh mi. Yes, it’s good! Do less with more is my jam.

• How-to Spatchcock (Butterfly) a Turkey or Chicken — If you do some simple butchering, your bird will roast faster and more evenly. Though you can spatchcock anytime of the year, during the holidays, the technique is particularly useful because you’ll have time to make other dishes or have a drink and enjoy the festivities. You’ll be more relaxed! General roasting times and temperatures are included. I roast a chicken if it’s just me and Rory.

💎 5-min salad: Charred chile garlic cabbage

Lunch made in 15 minutes? That’s my speed for Monday through Friday. Earlier this week, it was grilled mushroom and pimento cheese sandwiches plus a side salad. I used one skillet for both to minimize dishwashing.

For the salad, I sliced about 225g (8oz) of savoy cabbage then seared it in 2 batches in a ripping hot carbon steel skillet that had a thin film of oil. Searing took about 2 to 3 minutes (sear for 60 seconds, turn and stir, spread out to repeat searing). Once the cabbage had some nice dark edges and had wilted, I put it in a bowl. When done, I tossed the cabbage with 2 teaspoons of unseasoned rice vinegar, a glug or two of fish sauce, plus about 1 teaspoon of chili garlic sauce. Then I wiped the skillet clean and made the grilled cheese.

Why savoy? It’s got great crinkly texture and is dryish so it sucks up flavors well. You can do this with regular green cabbage but it won’t be as textural. Resist using napa, which is higher moisture and better for other purposes.

Why carbon steel? I can control the pan’s heat quickly, it’s lighter than cast iron and heats up super duper hot. And, over time, it becomes as good as coated nonstick. I love carbon steel skillets.

Coming on Sunday, my favorite sticky rice stuffing done easy because holiday side dishes can be a feast!