Is there a benefit to eating Organic?

Tuan and I have tweaked our diet for almost 2 years now by eating organically and using all natural ingredients whenever possible. What really spurred this movement was watching the movie Food Inc. It just sparked something in me to become more aware of what I'm actually consuming and be more aware of what I'm introducing into my body. Now if we flash back just 5 years ago, I was totally on the other end of the spectrum, eating junk food like it was critical to my survival and stocking my fridge full of pre-made loaded with preservative type meals. I was more focused on convenience and wanted instant gratification from the vending machines. I do see the folly in my past ways, and thankfully, my health has not suffered from it.

I'm really happy with this conscious choice we made to be more aware of what we put into our bodies and to support the local farmers in our area. What are the exact reasons for this change? To be honest with you, it's a little bit selfish. It never occurred to me that eating organically and supporting the organic farms would help to promote more humane treatment of animals or to help save the environment. I just wanted to only put necessary and good things in my body. So that actually got me thinking, are there really any advantages and benefits to going the organic route?

Let's start with what I love most -- meat! The living conditions of the animals in industrialized farms can make anyone queasy.  I'd like to have happy thoughts and hope that the animals, even though they are being raised strictly for food, enjoy a life (no matter how short) that is relatively stress-free, free-grazing on the land and not being manufactured in crowded and sometimes deplorable living conditions. Happy animals make happy meat right? Placing the animals in crowded living conditions, not allowing them the freedom of movement, pumping them full of enriched grains and additives to promote quick growth are all for what? All for greed and to fill the pockets of the mass food manufacturers.I'd rather have my hard earned money go to the local farmers who are just trying to earn an honest living. Organic farms are free of pesticides and toxins. They do not clutter up the landfills with toxic waste or pollute the water source with pesticides. It is a conscious choice on their part and I'm happy to support them.

When most people consume fruits and veggies, they do it for the good nutrients and vitamins. But do you really want to ingest the toxins and pesticides as well? Do you really care if your apple has a few blemishes on it? Eliminating the use of these toxins that could potentially pollute the water source and harm the environment should be enough of a reason to pay that extra $0.50 for that apple.And don't you want to taste what an apple should taste like? Instead of eating one that's been prematurely plucked but should ripen just in time before it hits the grocery shelves thanks to the chemicals. One of the things that really surprised us was apple juice. Now I know what apple juice should taste like, but after we got a bottle of organic apple juice, we were startled at the taste -- it tasted just like apples picked from an orchard!

Organic food is costly, but in my eyes, it is cost effective. Think of the expenses you have to incur on doctors and medicine when you’re ill. Now I'm not saying that eating organically will mean no more colds or no more doctor's visits. But healthy eating practices can lead to a healthier life. Precaution is always better and it certainly helps to be conscious about your health. And it is certainly good practice to be cautious and aware of what you are eating, what's in it and where it's from. So all I'm saying is just read labels of the items you throw into your shopping cart and ask yourself is all that stuff you can't pronounce really necessary? And visit the farmer's market every once in a while and just get to know your food source. There are some great ones in our area -- Old Town Alexandria, Falls Church, Clarendon Metro Station, and Dupont Circle just to name a few, so go check one out on a nice day and feel good about what you eat.

Banh Ja’neuk - Sweet Mung Bean Dumplings for Cambodian New Year

We were in Richmond this past weekend to celebrate Cambodian New Year with my family. Technically this year, the New Year begins April 14-16, but the Richmond community celebrated a weekend early. So what does this mean, my mom cooks up a storm in her kitchen! On the car ride down, my brother and I were actually craving the same dessert, the sweet and coconut infused mung bean dumplings. It's actually a glutinous rice flour that has the similar consistency of tapioca and the filling is a sweet mung bean paste. It totally brought me back to our childhood. And my mom was more than happy to make a big pot for us to ring in the new year right!

Ingredients:
3 oz split mung beans (can be found at the Asian market)
1 can sweet coconut milk
2 oz pure palm sugar
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (can be found at the Asian market)
1/3 cup of water
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon toasted black sesame seed, grounded into a powder for garnish

Soak the mung beans in warm water for at least 3-4 hours -- it's best to soak overnight. Rinse and drain the mung beans. Wrap in a cheesecloth and gently apply pressure to remove any excess water. Place the cheesecloth in a steamer and steam for about 20-25 minutes to soften the beans. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Transfer a small amount of the mung beans at a time to a mortar & pestle and mash to a paste. Reserve 1 cup of coconut milk and pour the remainder in a medium pot over low heat. Add palm sugar, a pinch of salt and 1/3 cup of water to the pot. Stir until the palm sugar dissolves and then turn off the heat and set aside.

In a large glass bowl, pour a little warm water with the glutinous rice flour -- it's best to pour a little water at a time and mix to start forming a dough. You should not use more than 1/3 cup of water for the dough. As you form the dough use your hands and palm to knead the dough until soften. Once the dough is formed, divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll each portion into a long roll with the palms of your hand. Then using a knife, for each of the rolls, make a mark about every 1/2 inch a part; this serves as a guide so your dumplings are of equal size.
 
Now comes the fun part! Separate the dough by the marking and start forming a quarter size ball. If the dough cracks you can dip your fingers in warm water and press it. Flatten out the ball in the palm of your hand and add about 1/3 teaspoon of the cooled mung bean paste. Then reform the ball around the paste. In a pot of boiling water,  drop the dumplings in batches. Don’t overcrowd the pot. The dumplings will float to the top when it's cooked. Remove them from the boiling water and add to the pot of coconut syrup. This will help prevent the dumplings from sticking together. Once all dumplings are in the syrup, add the reserved 1 cup of coconut milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix well. Turn the heat to medium low and bring to a slow simmer for 2-3 minutes. then simmer for 2-3. Wait until cool before serving. When ready to serve, scoop a few dumplings and coconut sauce into a small bowl. Sprinkle with some powdered toasted black sesame seeds for the finishing touch.

Acadiana Restaurant - a little Cajun inspiration in Chinatown

Last night, my good friend Magda and I went to Acadiana Restaurant to celebrate her new job. She had never been there before so I was super ecstatic to share with her one of my favorite places. I love Cajun cooking, probably due to my love of all things salty and savory! There were a few items on the menu that were a little unusual for Magda, so we steered clear away from those. They actually had a prix fixe menu for dinner, $35 for a 3 course meal, how could you go wrong with that? And we ordered a bottle of wine and got settled in for a delicious dinner.

I started with the trio of deviled eggs and Magda got the spring mix salad. I don't know what it is with deviled eggs, but I have an insane attraction to them, maybe it's cause I grew up in the south? But my trio did not disappoint! Starting from the left, I had the crabmeat ravigote -- superb pieces of crabmeat on top of the creamy and buttery filling; cheddar cheese bacon -- when something comes presented with a piece of bacon on top, there's no criticism to be found; and caviar deviled egg -- which I think happens to be my favorite, the salty caviar works so well with the creamy egg mixture and gives it that extra punch of flavor.

For our main courses, I got the New Orleans style BBQ shrimp and Magda got the cornmeal crusted catfish. The catfish was deep fried to perfection, and it's even inspired me to try and make some deep fried fish at home using a cornmeal coating. It was served in a tomato bouillon sauce with a generous helping of house made bacon.

I was in New Orleans earlier this year and got to devour some of the best BBQ shrimp at Brennan's Restaurant while I was down there. Magda warned me not to compare this BBQ shrimp to the one I ate at Brennan's. When the dish came out, there was no  need to compare, this dish was equally just as delicious! The BBQ sauce is a little bit of a misnomer since it's not the traditional sweet and thick BBQ sauce used for grilling. Instead, it's a lighter flavor full of intoxicating spices that's perfect to dip some crusty bread in. And one of the bonuses of this dish, the shrimp was already peeled, so I wasn't at the table licking the juicy sauce off my fingers, not that I mind doing that at all.

To continue with my theme of going down memory lane to New Orleans, I had to get the beignets for dessert. Magda got the bread pudding for dessert, minus the vanilla ice cream. I'm not a huge fan of bread pudding, but it did look really delicious, and it was apparently served with spiced pralines for that extra kick of flavor. My beignets were as pillowy and soft as I remembered and served with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. It was the perfect end to a great meal. 

Vietnamese food at Present Restaurant

Present opened up a few years ago and I've known a lot of people who have dined there and the reviews for the restaurant have been quite good. With it being only a few minutes from us, it was one of the places that I've wanted to try for a long time. We finally went there for dinner last night and I did have some pretty high expectations, mainly because I've been so spoiled at having Tuan's mom make us really delicious Vietnamese cuisine at home, so I wanted to see how it compared to home cooking. The restaurant itself was not what you expect from the outside. You walk in and the decor is a really neat combo of modern and traditional. And I loved the wood work on the wall and the orchids everywhere. One thing I found really amusing were the names of all the entrees, I've never seen such naming conventions like "Fish Swimming in Spring Water" or "Blue Paradise Summer Roll" but found it really neat.

So we ordered 2 appetizers and 2 fish entrees. When the waiter was running through their daily specials, he had mentioned this fried rock fish and we both salivated over that. As for the appetizers, we got banh beo (steamed rice cake with dried shrimp) and cha gio (a crispy spring roll with a pork and shrimp mixture). Our waiter talked us out of getting the normal cha gio and told us to get their special cha gio wrapped in rice thread paper instead.

The presentation of the spring roll was really cool and it was recommended that we roll up the spring roll in a lettuce leaf and add a mint leaf. I love cha gio and the crispiness of it and the delicious pork and shrimp mixture on the inside. I think the one we ordered with the rice thread paper had a little too much going on; the rice paper was a little too intricate and I felt that it was taking a lot away from the flavor of the meat mixture on the inside. Wrapping it in the lettuce with the mint leaf and dipping in the sauce did give it some flavor, but I kinda regretted letting the waiter talk us out of ordering the normal cha gio.

Next up was the banh beo. Again, I was very impressed with the presentation. I think I made the mistake of trying to compare this to the version Tuan's mom makes. It was good, but not what I was used to and it was a little difficult to eat since the rice cake was clinging to the little bowl it was served in. But all the similar flavors were still there.

For my entree, I ordered the Fish in Shallow Water - caramelized fish in a clay pot. When it came out, the waiter warned me to not over do it with the sauce since it was salty. I love salt, so I didn't heed his warning and scoop a lot of sauce and slathered my rice with it. And man, it was salty. The fish itself was cooked very well, but the caramelized flavor was a little over powered by the saltiness of the sauce.

Tuan got one of the specials as his entree, fried rock fish fillet with a ginger sauce. That entree was enough for 2 people, it was a huge fillet! And fried to perfection. The chef had filleted it from tail to head and all we were left with was a huge piece of delicious fish! The sauce that accompanied the dish was really good too, it was a light soy sauce with ginger, onions and shallots. I think this entree was my favorite, how can you go wrong with a classic - fried fish and rice!

Overall consensus, the food was good, but I think my tastes are a little biased. The rock fish was really really good and I enjoyed every bite of it. I think though that we should have tried a few different items. But all in all, I did enjoy my dinner and the prices were super reasonable. I had heard the desserts there were really good, but we actually had a pretty big dinner, so didn't really plan well and save room for dessert. Oh well, there's always next time!

An Amazing Chicken Curry recipe!!!

This is the second time I've made this curry dish on my own and I feel like I've finally mastered it! The combination of the habanera pepper simmering away in the broth gives this curry a really nice punch of heat but it's packed full of flavor as well. We normally eat our curry with either crusty french bread for dipping, rice or a bowl of rice noodles, but we tried it with naan last night and it was delicious!

Just a caution, this dish is really spicy, so if you want to dial back the heat, I'd recommend only using half the measurements of the curry pastes below. But if you want to be adventurous, your taste buds will definitely be tantalized.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, skin removed, de-boned and cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1 bottle of yellow curry paste
1 can of red curry paste
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 stalk of lemongrass, cut into 3 pieces
1 bay leaf
1 habanera pepper, left whole
1 lb of small potatoes, peeled and left whole
1 can coconut milk
1 qt half and half
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
6 cups water

Wash the chicken pieces under cold water and thoroughly pat dry. In a small bowl, mix together the oil from the top of the yellow curry paste, the whole can of red curry paste, shallots, garlic, salt and sugar. Pour the marinade over the chicken and mix well to make sure all the pieces are coated, let the chicken marinade for 30-45 minutes.

In a large saute pan, add some olive oil over high heat. Fry the chicken pieces until they are brown on each side, save the marinade in the bowl. Remove the chicken and place in a large stock pot. In the same saute pan used to fry the chicken, scoop in the remaining marinade mix from the bowl, add in all the yellow curry paste, the lemon grass pieces and 2 cups of water. Bring to a good boil. Then pour all of the sauce into the stock pot with the chicken pieces.

Add in the remaining 4 cups of water, potatoes, bay leave and habenero pepper to the pot. Cook covered over low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally and scooping out any fat and oil that surfaces.

Add in the whole can of coconut milk and half and half. Mix well and continue simmering for 15 minutes. When you taste the broth, there should be a good balance of sweet and salty from the coconut milk and curry pastes. Add salt to taste. Add in the onions and continue simmering for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft.

And since this ends up being a huge pot of curry, the broth freezes really well, so you can have dinner for another night during the week!

Chicken and Rice Soup

Tuan is feeling a little under the weather this weekend and I wanted to make something to help him feel better. He had asked for some store bought chicken noodle soup. Well, I wanted to do one better than that and make some home made soup! So I found this really simple and easy chicken and rice soup that looked delicious enough that even I wanted a bowl. And I was super excited about the different herb combinations listed in the ingredients, it sounded like a really hearty and rustic soup that could be served with a gigantic chunk of crusty bread.

Ingredients:
1 large whole organic free range chicken (as with my previous post, I prefer organic chicken to make the broth)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, add more to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 stalks of celery, trimmed and diced
2 medium leeks, light green and white part only diced
2 medium carrots, diced
10 sprigs fresh leave parsley
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leave
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup white rice, cooked per the instructions on the package

Cut the chicken into 8 pieces, rinse well under cold water and thoroughly pat dry. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven or large pot over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the chicken and saute until well browned, about 6 to 8 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan and pour out any fat left in the pan. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the celery, leeks, and carrots, saute for 10 minutes until soft.

Tie the parsley sprigs, thyme and bay leaf with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the pot. Add in the cooked chicken and the chicken broth. Bring the soup to a boil and then adjust the heat to low to maintain a gentle simmer, cook covered for 25 minutes. Remove the chicken and herb bundle. Skim any excess fat from the surface of the soup and continue to simmer on low heat. When the chicken is cool enough to handle remove the meat from the bones and cut into 1-inch chunks. Add the meat back to the soup and add the cooked rice. Cook until the meat and rice are heated through. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Pho at my house!

 

One of my favorite dishes of all time has to be chicken pho and I'm super excited that I can make it at home now. I've made this dish so many times now that I think I know the recipe like the back of my hand. And one of the great things about making chicken pho at home is that I can totally tailor the flavors to exactly how I like it! I love my broth to be a good mix of sweet and salty, so you can adjust the sugar and salt below to your own taste. I had my brother and a friend over for lunch today, and we went through the entire pot of pho, each person devouring about 2 bowls each! This may seem like an intimidating dish at first, but it's relatively easy compared to the normal beef pho recipe. 

One thing I do want to call out is that I recommend using organic chicken for this recipe. The broth will turn out a lot less oily and fatty and there will be barely any chicken residue to scoop out of the broth.

Ingredients:

1 large whole chicken

1 large yellow onion, left whole with skin on
1 large shallot, left whole with skin on
3 inch piece of ginger, coarsely peeled
8 cubes of chicken bouillon
palm full of rock sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole star anise
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 package of rice noodles
1 large yellow onion sliced into thin slices
4 green onions, finely chopped

Rinse the chicken under cold water and thoroughly pat dry. Place the onion, shallot and ginger under the broiler for approximately 5 minutes to char. In a large stock pot, place the chicken and add enough cold water to cover the entire chicken and cook on medium high heat. Add the charred onion, shallot and ginger. Bring to a boil and remove any white foam/residue that surfaces. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for about 45 minutes, checking the broth frequently and removing any foam from the surface.

Remove the chicken and continue simmering the broth on low heat. Once the chicken is cool to handle, remove the meat and shred the meat; return the bones to the broth. Add the chicken  bouillon, rock sugar and salt to the broth and continue to watch over the broth and remove any foam/residue that surfaces. Occasionally taste the broth for a good balance between salty and sweet.  Continue simmering the broth for another 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken bones, onion, shallot and ginger and discard. Strain the broth into a new large stock pot. The final broth should be clear of all residue and should now be a savory combination of salty and sweet. In a small pan, lightly toast the cinnamon stick and star anise. Add to the broth and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and star anise from the broth right before serving.

Cook the rice noodles per the instructions on the package. To prepare the final dish, add some cooked rice noodles to a bowl, add in some shredded chicken, sliced onions and chopped green onions. Ladle a generous amount of broth to the bowl. Some additional optional toppings are bean sprouts, thai basil, fresh squeezed lime, hoisin sauce and siracha sauce.

And if you don't have a group of people to help go through the broth with you, the broth freezes really well so you can have multiple servings of chicken pho later in the week!