midweek gems #28
frozen pho soup dumplings + rose harissa + Viet short rib bo kho beef stew
Hello!
We’re approaching the submission deadline for the Cooking Thai cookbook manuscript, which means I’m basically at my dining table scrutinizing, reading, and editing. I also get on Facetime with chef Pim Techamuanvivit to discuss details. We believe we’re making a Thai book that you’ll use for a long time. Many hours of editing remain before I send it off to our editor. So, I’ll keep this gems dispatch focused on three interesting things I’ve recently eaten and made, accompanied by quick little recipes.
💎 Frozen pho soup dumplings
Contrary to what you may think, I do eat dumplings made by others. I’ve developed a pho potsticker recipe for The Pho Cookbook that I like a lot, but until recently, I’d not had the Chinese xiao long bao (XLB) makeover of pho by Mila. They’re available at Costco and my brother and Rory egged me on to review them with our family!
For a frozen dumpling sold in a bag slightly stuck together but pry-apart-able, they’re structurally very sound. I was impressed at how they ballooned up and held a decent amount of broth in the steamer. Done in 11 minutes of steaming from the freezer to the table.
The taste? Disappointingly, not much pho flavor. My brother detected pho-ish notes but the rest of us (mom, my sister, Rory, and I) tasted nothing pho like. I tried a dumpling with some Chinese chinkiang vinegar with ginger because XLB are served that way. Meh. We tried dipping them in my Viet chile sauce (a dupe of popular Cholimex from Vietnam!). That combo was a little better. So, the Mila pho XLB are novel but need work.
Have you tried Mila pho XLB? Or, have you tried the Bibigo version? Share your thoughts!
💎 Rose Harissa Spice Blend
Chef Cheetie Kumar of Raleigh, North Carolina, knows spices. She once sent me her mom’s garam masala recipe and it knocked my socks off. Recently, she partnered with Meherwan Irani of Asheville, North Carolina, to produced a unique rose harissa spice blend. Capturing some of the heat and garlicky-ness of harissa, Cheetie’s blend is balanced and uplifted by ground rose petal. It’s interestingly savory and nutty.
To play with it, I rubbed the rose harissa spice blend into a trout and pan-fried it for an easy Viet dinner of lettuce and herb wraps. Rory washed the veggies while I made nuoc cham dipping sauce and prepped fine rice noodles called bánh hỏi, which can be readied in less than 5 minutes (info on how to source and serve the wondrous Viet noodles are here).
I could have just salt and peppered the fish but rose harissa made it special tasting with just enough chili, garlic, caraway, cumin and rose powder to enhance the fish but not overpower it. I was impressed.
✅ Pan-fried Rose Harissa Trout: Score both sides at an angle in 4 places, rub salt all over the fish, including the belly. Then sprinkle the spice blend into and onto the fish. Over medium heat, panfry the trout in a skillet with a thin film of oil until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side for a 10-ounce (300g) head-on trout. I cut its head off to fit into my pan!
When I touched base with Cheetie, she mentioned turning the blend into a multi-use paste so I did. The paste was very umami and nutty. I licked my tasting spoon.
✅ Rose harissa paste: In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm 1 Tbsp olive oil. When it’s nearly rippling, take it off the burner, stir in 2 Tbsp rose harissa spice blend, then return to the hot burner for 15 to 30 seconds to activate the aroma. Turn off the heat and stir in 2 Tbsp water to make a paste. Use it in marinades, stir into vinaigrette, or make the glaze below — which Cheetie shared in a text last night!
✅ Rose harissa glaze: Stir together 1 Tbsp packed rose harissa paste, 1 Tbsp pomegranate molasses and 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp honey. Season with about 1/2 tsp fine sea salt for a punchy savory note.
I was curious to try out the glaze on something and had panfried tofu in the fridge. So that’s what I did for a fun snack. The tofu could easily go into a sandwich or onto a grain bowl with Viet daikon and carrot pickle or green tomato and lemongrass pickle.
✅ Rose harissa glazed tofu: Pan-fry tofu according to this PTFS recipe (or reheat some you’ve panfried earlier like I did). Season the fried tofu with salt and make sure it’s gently sizzling over medium or medium-low heat. Brush rose harissa glaze on top, flip the tofu over, brush the other side. Let fry for 20 to 30 seconds to allow the glaze to penetrate a little, flip the tofu, fry for 20 to 30 seconds more, then turn off the heat to avoid burning! Brush or spoon extra glaze on the tofu. Eat the tofu warm or at room temperature.
Where to get Cheetie Kumar’s Rose Harissa? Spicewalla, which has a wonderful assortment of spices and blends from all over the world.
Could you do the same things with other spice blends? You can try but it won’t be the same as what I experienced with this rosy harissa blend.
💎 Viet short rib bo kho beef stew
My freezer is like a gold mine of treasures that I forget about, only to ‘discover’ gems that I want to cook ASAP. Among last weekend’s freezer gold were three big short ribs (each 8 to 10-ounces, 225 to 300g), purchased on sale earlier this year when I was developing the short rib pho recipe for y’all. How did I forget them? DOH!
For something fun, I tweaked a favorite recipe for bò kho — beef, star anise and lemongrass stew. Instead of boneless chuck, I used short ribs and tofu sticks (an experiment to mimic the chewy fun of beef tendon). You could just cook up four chunky beef short ribs (2 1/2 pounds total) if you haven’t yet gotten onto the wonders of tofu sticks, which is essentially dried yuba.
✅ How I made Short Rib and Tofu Stick Bò Kho Stew: I followed the recipe and pressure cooked the short ribs plus 2 dried tofu sticks broken into 3-inch (7.5cm) sections for 45 minutes on high pressure. Then I let the cooker fully depressurize naturally. The meat was tender chewy at that point. I added 3 big carrots cut as 1-inch (2.5cm) pieces then pressure cooked on high pressure for another 10 minutes, then I depressurized naturally again. The meat and vegetables were perfectly tender, as usual.
I transferred the stew to a pot and let it sit overnight so I could remove the fat. When it came time for dinner last night, I cooked off 2 handfuls of cremini mushrooms (halved lengthwise), then add the carrots and sauce. I sliced one short rib into thin pieces and add them to the pot to soak up the sauce flavor. I stirred in fresh Vietnamese coriander (rau ram) but you can swap in mint or basil.
Rory was skeptical about my antics but he agreed that the stew was more than beefy enough. The once beefy stew became a veggie packed, low-meat version of bò kho.
🤔 Where is the bò kho recipe I used? It is on page of 141 of Vietnamese Food Any Day, which is currently selling for $14 (44% off) at Amazon and Target. The stew recipe is one of my favorites in the book.
That’s all for now because that book manuscript is eyeing me. I’ll be back on Sunday with a fun recipe for paid subscribers. Do join us, if you have not!
I am so intrigued by the rose harissa spice blend. I ordered some and want to try all its iterations. I’m going to be in Raleigh-Durham the end of the month, so I checked out Cheetie Kumar’s restaurant. Yum!! I’m going to make a dinner reservation! Thanks for the timely tip.
I envy those who have a freezer that they can forget about. Mine gives me a dilemma: I have to stock up when it is empty, but I can't stock up so much because my freezer can only hold so much!
Xiao long bao with pho broth sounds like a genius idea.
Having rekindled my interest in Thai food lately, I look forward to your upcoming cookbook.