midweek gems #4

spicy tomato riffs + better than sriracha + bat nuts + southern Viet + 99 Ranch deal + food voyages

Hope your week has been going well. We’ve been having a little heat wave in Santa Cruz and it’s currently 95F. On Sunday when I taught cooking class, it was like 65F!

The last 2024 class was the best. I was astonished how many more people cooked along. At the end of the two hours, Thalia and her family sat down to a wonton and siu mai feast. Ben and his folks had crafted handsome siu mai, some with spinach skins that made the dumplings look like “little cabbages” he said! Feedback popped into my inbox, including a note from M. Fujimoto (below).

I had many trepidations about teaching online. Would people sign up? Could I manage Zoom? Would there be enough human interaction? So many of you showed up for me and I thank you. Your enthusiasm fuels me for teaching in 2025!

💎 Riffs: Spicy tomato tofu many ways

I get obsessed with recipes. Since last weekend’s Vietnamese spicy tomato tofu recipe dispatch, I’ve riffed on it to come up with several new iterations.

1. spicy tomato tofu (the original)

2. spicy tomato basil tofu

3. mushroomy spicy tomato tofu

4. spicy tomato basil tofu with shiitake

5. spicy tomato basil tofu with shrooms on greens

Spicy tomato tofu 3 ways

I thought it was simply a matter of adding material but it’s never that easy in recipe development. Like home building or remodeling, once you tweak something, you have to make some adjustments for everything to work well. I updated the original Spicy Tomato Tofu recipe with the riffs. Make and take the easy tofu in many directions. Do share your tweaks too!

💎 Season: You can make better sriracha

Have you noticed current batches of Rooster brand of sriracha with a strange greenish-red color like what I saw (below) at the Chinese market last week? It’s most likely due to the company having had issues sourcing the chiles. I only buy their sauce for recipe testing. I get that funny color if I’m using green jalapenos!

What I eat generally is homemade because it’s very, very easy to make and you can tweak it to your liking. Where I live, there’s beautiful ripe red chile action NOW. I’ve purchased cayenne at the farmer’s market and long chiles at Safeway to make hot sauce. Soon there will be red jalapeños too!

My go-to homemade hot sauces include Vietnamese chili sauce (tương ớt), which is friendlier than tart-hot sriracha. I also make coarse chile garlic sauce (tương ớt tỏi). There are TOT recipes at my website but I nowadays use the recipes in Vietnamese Food Any Day (unfermented) and Ever-Green Vietnamese (fermented and more complex tasting). If you have one of those books, use the recipe in it.

I have store-bought Thai sweet chili sauce too, but it’s so darn sweet that this year, I’m making my own from a trusted old recipe. Dial in your own 🔥!

💎 Southward: Help for Helene + Viet-Floridians

Lots is going on to help people recover after Hurricane Helene. For a quick overview of relief efforts and how you may pitch in, check out this Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) newsletter dispatch.

And while you’re in the SFA universe, read of Vietnamese-American author Thao Thai’s prize-winning essay, “The Other Side of Sunlight”. It’s full of nuanced imagery of Viet life in the American South.

💎 Reads: Food Voyages

Last Sunday’s NYT Magazine had a remarkable feature on food, travel, and yearning that includes one of my favorite writers, Ligaya Mischan. She reported from Peru on why we go through great lengths for chile pepper heat perfection. My gift link should give you access to all the NYT articles. Alex Lau’s story on Hong Kong is great too.

💎 Deals: Ranch 99 discount days

Attention shoppers in Northern California, Oregon and Washington! If you’re over 60, consider shopping on Tuesdays at a Ranch 99 nearby. You’ll get a 5% break if you spend over $20 and under $200. I had no clue but when I was there with Rory a few weeks ago, the cashier tried to give me a discount and I was like, “I’m not a senior. He is!” Then I read the flyer posted at the register, looked around, and noticed all the other older shoppers in the store!

With all the money saved, you can impulse buy unusual fresh seasonal produce like water caltrops (above, right). They go by many names, including bat nuts. I grabbed two handfuls to see what they’re about. You’re suppose to boil them then crack them open to expose the white flesh. Just prepping a few was lot of work so I’m keeping mine around as cool Halloween decor.

Finally, my mom, 90, called while I wrote this to you. She reported that she went to Walmart to make an appointment for the latest COVID-19 jab. They took her as a walk-in with no waiting! We frankly chat about how she’ll “eventually go” but today I told her that I don’t want that virus — of all things, to take her.

Coming down the cooking pipeline this weekend is a salady something for you to enjoy year round.