midweek gems #3

kitchen scale + TJ pumpkin spice samosas review + chuck it for 3 Chinese beef noodle soup recipes + October events

We spent last weekend at my mom’s, and since coming home, the days have just flown by. I’m gearing up for the final class of the 2024 series. If you’ve not checked out the class, here’s a short video about it:

The PTFS community has totally come out to support and make the classes super successful. To thank y’all, register for the last class of 2024 at 15% off here. (The discount is already applied.)

Paid subscribers should apply their 20% discount promo code. A portion of ticket sales for this class will go toward typhoon Yagi relief efforts in Vietnam.

💎 Community: How often do you weigh?

I hate bathroom scales but adore kitchen scales! How about you? Last Sunday’s post prompted a spirited conversation about recipe ingredient lines and what folks find to be most useful. In the main, people prefer weights for baking recipes. Some folks are fine with volume measurements. Others like both weight and volume measurements.

Where do you stand? Please let me know to help me write recipes for PTFS.

💎 Season: Pumpkin Spice Samosas

In a recent episode of Everything Cookbooks (a podcast I co-host), we discussed pumpkin spice. I made fun of it (it’s just a masala spice blend!) but Trader Joe’s takes it seriously. They have a heck of a lot of pumpkin spice seasonal products!

Emily, our PTFS community insider at TJ, looks forward to the pumpkin spice samosas. So does her family, so she prudently marks one box for herself, when she brings the boxes home (Emily sent the photo, at left).

I tried out the samosas (375F in my Cuisinart air-fryer for 6 to 8 minutes). They are a fun snack, albeit not flaky as the package promises. The vegetable filling had heat but needed complexity. Samosas are typically served with a chutney or two.

So, I bought another box and also grabbed a jar of TJ’s Sri Lankan mango chutney, which was sweet so I perked it up with Viet chile sauce. If you’d like a bright, uplifting sauce, make cilantro mint chutney.

💎 Deals: EGV cookbook sale

I just noticed that Ever-Green Vietnamese is being sold for $20.99 (that’s a steep 40% discount off of MSRP). I don’t know how long that price lasts at Amazon, Target, and Walmart. If you’d like to score on the deal, go for it!

As always, I appreciate whenever you support a local independent bookshop. It does not financially matter to me where you purchase books.

And, if you already have EGV, do take a moment to leave a positive review at Amazon. People don’t leave reviews as much as they used. Your personal insights mean a lot to other readers and cooks.

💎 Inflation beater: Chinese beef noodle soup recipes

Do you pay attention to the weekly supermarket ads? I get them in the mailbox, in my inbox and via the Whole Foods app. This week, I spotted chuck roasts on sale at 3 supermarket chains. What can you do with that cut? It requires long, passive cooking, like for iconic Viet bo kho beef stew with star anise, lemongrass, and tomato; my recipes are in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen and Vietnamese Food Any Day.

I use chuck for beef pho too, but there are so many other Asian applications, such as spicy Chinese beef noodle soup, which doesn’t require sourcing bones.

Here are Chinese beef noodle recipes that I have made and slurped up over the years:

• Instant Pot Sichuan Beef Noodle Soup — Easy, fast deliciousness.

• Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup — Many people from Sichuan ended up in Taiwan where good tweaks were made.

• Sichuan Beef and Tofu Skin Noodle Soup — You knew I’d bring a little tofu into the picture somehow, didn’t you?

💎 Events: D.C. + Bay Area

Folks in Washington, D.C., Vietnam Week, a celebration of Vietnamese culture and communities starts soon. The schedule is packed with film screening, author talks, and more. I was invited to participate but couldn’t fit it in. But if you live nearby, check it out. Vietnam Week events are free.

And… D.C. is coming to the Bay Area! On October 14, at 6:30pm, come to Omnivore Books to meet me and Joe Yonan, the food editor of the Washington Post. We’ll be getting the skinny on his latest cookbook, an impressive tome.

Last year, Joe and I did an Ever-Green Vietnamese event at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and he privately shared a bit about his new book. I’m very curious about how he selected the recipes, and how can it be a book for non-vegans too! More about the book and October 14 Omnivore Book event here.

Coming down the cooking pipeline this weekend, a dynamite spicy tomato tofu recipe that’s in rotation at our home.