11 articles Articles posted in noodle soup

bun rieu cua (crab and tomato noodle soup)

by on July 12, 2010, 3 comments

My sister and her husband came to visit two weeks ago, and, it being crab season in the Mid-Atlantic, we thought it’d be fun to try our hand at crabbing, which none of us had ever done before. We drove out to Chesapeake Beach, armed with our chicken necks, string, and lots of sunblock.

The only thing we were missing was a net. This turned out to be pretty crucial, but luckily we were able to buy a simple net there. It wasn’t long enough to reach from the pier down to the water, so we had to make several coordinated attempts to lure the crab to the surface while one of us lay flat on the pier, reaching down to the water with the net and trying to listen to the others’ instructions on where to turn the net and when to sweep it up.

This proved to be a complete and utter failure. After about an hour or so, we decided to extend the reach of our net by tying several sticks to the end of it, after which we fared a bit better.

The crabs loved the chicken necks, but due to our poor netting technique, we were only able to catch three crabs at the end of the day. Still, that was all we needed to make bun rieu cua, crab and tomato noodle soup.

Here are (clockwise) our crabs: Humbalang (which happens to be Dean’s favorite Cantonese word — it means “everything”), Herman, and Yut Jek Sow (Cantonese for “one-handed”).

When I was researching recipes for this, I discovered that everybody has a different way of making bun rieu. Most people, including my parents, use canned crab paste, which is quick and efficient but can also be laden with preservatives and such. There were only two recipes I found that didn’t: Wandering Chopstick’s and Andrea Nguyen’s in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I was able to find jarred crab paste, but I decided to try making my own first. We ended up serving the jarred crab paste at the table, letting guests add a spoonful for extra flavor if desired.

I adapted my parents’ recipe, combining it with the two mentioned above, along with Luke Nguyen’s in Secrets of the Red Lantern and Ravenous Couple’s.

After the day’s efforts, we wanted to submit our adventures to this month’s Delicious Vietnam, a monthly food blogging event started by A Food Lover’s Journey and Ravenous Couple, and hosted this month by Buddha Bellies.

Bun Rieu Cua
Serves 6-8
Adapted from various sources

When my parents make this, they use 1 can of crab paste in soybean oil, putting half the can into the soup and the other half into the meat mixture. For this recipe, we followed Wandering Chopstick’s recipe for crab paste, but feel free to substitute with canned. Canned tomatoes are also often used (sometimes in addition to fresh), but we followed my parents’ method of using all fresh. Finally, we weren’t able to find water spinach stems this time, but it is one of the main garnishes in noodle soups like this one.

Soup:
5 quarts water
1 lb pork bones
1 lb chicken bones
3 small crabs (we used our freshly caught Maryland blue crabs); you can also cook extra pieces of crab to add to the assembled noodle soup bowl at the end
1 chopped onion
6-8 large tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp fermented shrimp sauce
1 Tbsp fish sauce

Crab Paste (adapted from Wandering Chopsticks):
canola or vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fermented shrimp paste
2 tsp chili garlic sauce
2 Tbsp fresh crabmeat extracted from the fresh crabs

Meatballs:
1 cup of crabmeat extracted from the fresh crabs
1/2 cup dried shrimp
1/2 lb ground pork
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 of the crab paste mixture (see ingredients above)
4 eggs

2 1-lb packages rice noodles
1 package fried tofu

Herb plate / garnishes:
water spinach stems
1 banana flower
scallions
assortment of Vietnamese herbs, such as cilantro, mint, purple perilla, Vietnamese coriander, and Vietnamese balm
bean sprouts
extra fermented shrimp paste
lime

1. Parboil the pork and chicken bones in water. Rinse. Then fill a stockpot with about 5 quarts of water. Add the parboiled pork and chicken bones to the stockpot and boil. Skim off any scum and fat that forms at the top. (We actually had premade pork stock and chicken stock frozen from previous cooking, so we simply defrosted those and reheated them in the pot together.)

2. Scrub the crabs clean. This may be a little daunting if your crabs are still alive. You can either use gloves or tongs to grab the middle of the crab from behind with one hand (so it won’t be able to pinch you) and scrub it down under running water with the other hand. Or you can do what my mom does, which is kill the crab first by lifting the flap on its underside and stabbing it in the center with a chopstick. (Gruesome, I know… the things moms do to feed us a loving meal.)

3. In a separate pot, boil just enough water to cover the crabs. Once the water boils, add the crabs and cook until they turn bright orange. This should only take a few minutes. Lift out the crabs and take them apart to extract the meat, fat, and tomalley. Reserve all this for later. Add the crab’s cooking liquid and the crab shells to the large stockpot with the pork and chicken bones, and continue to simmer. (If you are using premade pork and chicken stock, you can make the process easier by putting the crab shells into a colander and submerging the whole colander into the stock. This will make it easier to remove the shells without having to strain the entire pot of stock. If you are making the stock from scratch, the whole pot of liquid will need to be strained before serving.)

4. To make the crab paste, heat a bit of canola or vegetable oil. Saute the chopped shallots and garlic in the oil along with 2 tsp of shrimp paste, 2 tsp of chili garlic sauce, and 2 Tbsp of the crabmeat. Reserve half of the crab paste for the stock and half for the meatballs.

5. Heat some oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes and 1/2 tsp of salt. Saute until the tomatoes break down and their liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add the shrimp paste and 1 Tbsp fish sauce, and stir until fragrant. Add a ladleful of stock to the pan and scrape up all the bits at the bottom. Turn off heat. At this point, if your stock has been simmering for at least an hour, strain out all the pork and chicken bones and crab shells. Add half of the crab paste and all of the onion and tomato mixture to the pot of stock and continue simmering.

6. To make the meatballs, first rehydrate the dried shrimp by covering it with some of the boiling stock. Let this sit for about 15 minutes. Drain and add the liquid back into the stock. Mince the shrimp by hand or in a food processor. Add the rest of the crabmeat into the food processor with the minced shrimp. Pulse a few times to mix together, but do not pulverize the crabmeat. In a bowl, mix the minced shrimp and crabmeat with the ground pork, 1 Tbsp fish sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, the remaining half of the crab paste mixture, and 4 beaten eggs. Set aside.

7. Soak the rice noodles for about half an hour. Boil a separate pot of water for the noodles

8. While the noodles are soaking and the water is boiling, assemble the herb plate. Take the water spinach stems and cut lengthwise into long, thin strips. Soak in cold water. The strips will curl. Prepare a bowl of water with about 1 tsp of salt for the banana flower. Remove the petals of the banana flower. I use only the petals and discard the stems inside, as they are astringent, but some people like to to keep them. Stack the petals together and slice into about thin shreds. Soak in the salt water to keep from browning. Keep the banana flower in the water until ready to serve. Cut the lime into wedges. Wash the scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces and then cut the pieces into thin strips. Wash and dry the herbs and bean sprouts. Assemble the water spinach stems, herbs, bean sprouts, and lime onto a plate, leaving room to add the shredded banana flower right before serving.

9. When the pot of water boils, add the noodles. Cook for about 3 minutes, until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Put an overturned bowl into a larger bowl. Pour the drained noodles into the larger bowl. The overturned bowl will help the noodles not cling together too much. Set aside.

10. Keeping the broth at a gentle simmer, drop in spoonfuls of the crabmeat, shrimp, and ground pork mixture. Add the fried tofu.

11. Place one serving of noodles into a strainer and dunk into the simmering stock for 5–10 seconds. Loosen the noodles with chopsticks. Lift the strainer carefully, allowing the stock to drain back into the pot. Place the noodles in a serving bowl. Repeat with each serving of noodles.

12. To assemble the noodle bowls, add several pieces of fried tofu and meatballs over the noodles. Ladle broth generously into the bowl, being sure to get some tomatoes in as well.

13. Serve with the plate of garnishes (including the banana flower), allowing guests to add the vegetables, herbs, squeezes of lime, extra dollops of shrimp paste, and chili garlic oil if desired.

wonton soup

by on June 11, 2010, 10 comments

Thanks to our Cantonese roots, my dad made lots of Hong Kong-style wonton soup while we were growing up. His wontons are characterized by the addition of finely chopped, almost ground, shrimp in the filling, and sometimes, he even uses crabmeat for an extra-rich flavor. He also cooks the wontons and noodles separately, never in the broth they’re served with, so that the starch from the wontons or noodles won’t thicken and contaminate the broth.

For as long as I can remember, my dad’s soup for wonton has consisted mainly of chicken broth or a combination of chicken and pork broth. He might add some extra seasonings, but these were fairly normal pantry staples. This all changed one night as we sat in the kitchen of a family friend’s home.

As we started eating the noodles that our friend had prepared for us, my dad slowly contemplated the strangely familiar taste. He realized suddenly that the noodles reminded him of the wonton soup back in Saigon. He learned that it was made with the same type of dried flounder that’s used to flavor wonton soup back in his hometown. After some research, I’ve discovered that dried flounder is also one of the key ingredients in the wonton soup served at the famous wonton restaurant in Hong Kong, Mak’s Noodle.

Since the rediscovery of dried flounder to flavor soup, my dad has taken it upon himself to turn his wonton soup up a notch. So, without further ado, here is my dad’s current recipe for authentic, Hong Kong-style wonton soup.

Wontons
Serves 4

You can substitute shrimp with crabmeat in this recipe, though in that case, I’ve found that 1/4 lb of crabmeat works better than 1/2 lb, because the crab taste can overwhelm the traditional pork flavor of the wonton.

1/2 lb shrimp
1 lb ground pork
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp cooking oil
2 tsp corn starch
1 egg
1/2 tsp dried flounder powder, see recipe below (you can also substitute fish bouillon powder or anchovy powder as well, but the taste will not be quite the same)
1 package of wonton wrappers
handful of chopped scallions and/or cilantro
a few drops of sesame oil

1. If using fresh whole shrimp, peel and devein. Finely chop the shrimp.

2. Combine the ground pork and chopped shrimp together with the other dry ingredients.  Add in the oils and egg.

3. Completely mix the ingredients together, but be careful not to over-mix (over-mixing makes the meat tougher).

4. Using a spoon, scoop out a dollop (about a generous teaspoonful) of the meat mixture onto a wonton wrapper. Fold two of the opposite corners together and pinch the top.  Be careful not to press the other corners close yet.  There should be air in the middle, so it looks almost like a loose cannoli.

5. Next, take the two side corners and gather them up to meet the top. Press on the part just above the meat, so that there is a nice flat, overlapping layer of wonton skin sealing the meat pocket. Do not twist and squeeze like you would a candy wrapper around a hard candy, however. The seal should be flat, not twisted. It should look a bit like a lionhead goldfish, with a flowing tail. Depending on your preference, there are also various other ways that you can fold your wontons. My sister likes to use my dad’s mysterious method of spontaneously scrunching up the entire bundle.

6. Place finished wontons on a lightly floured plate or tray.  Be sure to do this step or else all your hard work will go to waste as you peel your sticky wontons off the plate and tear holes in the wrappers. (I speak from experience :\) At this point, you can also freeze your wontons for future use. Place them in a single layer first on a tray, with a little space between each wonton, so that they don’t stick together. After they freeze on the tray, you can pack them together into a bag for storage.

7. Bring a 3-qt. pot of water to a boil (use more water if you’re planning to cook noodles as well). The flour from the wontons adds excess starch and unnecessarily thickens the cooking liquid, so you don’t want to contaminate your beautiful broth by cooking either wontons or noodles in it.

8. As the water starts boiling, drop in your wontons, about 8-10 at a time.  When the wontons float to the top of the water, they should be done.  This takes about 5-8 minutes.

9. When wontons are done, put them in a bowl and generously ladle soup over the wontons.  Sprinkle with scallions and cilantro.  Finish with a dash of sesame oil.

Dried Flounder Powder
You can find dried flounder at most Chinese supermarkets.  They may also be labeled with the names “Stock Fish” or “Rough Scaled Flounder.” This can be made in advance and stored for several months at a time.  For a quick pick-me-up for bland soups and dishes, add in a sprinkle of flounder powder!


1. Deep-fry pieces of dried flounder in oil.  Fry until crispy, but do not burn.

2. Let the pieces of fish dry on paper towels, allowing the paper towels to soak up excess oil.

3. Using a blender, food processor, or mortar and pestle, grind up the dried flounder until it becomes a fine powder.

4. Store in an air-tight jar for up to 3 months.

Soup
There are several different ways to make the soup for wontons, depending on the amount of time and effort that you’d like to put into the soup. I’ll start with the simplest and end with the most complex.

1. Water + wonton soup base
At your local Chinese supermarket, you should be able to find instant wonton soup base.  I like to use the Knorr brand wonton broth mix. This works great if you’re in a rush and don’t have the time to make your own broth.  The flavor is decent, and you can easily spruce it up with a dash of pepper and fish sauce.

2. Chicken broth + dried flounder powder
If you have chicken broth on hand (maybe after poaching chicken), simmer up some of that broth for the wonton soup.  Add in 1-2 tsp. of dried flounder powder (or fish bouillon or anchovy powder), and you’re all set!  Again, a dash of pepper or fish sauce may help enhance flavors.  This is my usual go-to method for making wonton soup.

3. Chicken bones + pork bones + dried flounder + dried shrimp
If you’re feeling like impressing your in-laws or dinner guests, try this version of soup.  Dry-roast the dried flounder at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, parboil the chicken and pork bones.  After bones have been washed, combine 1 lb. of chicken bones,  1 lb. of pork bones, and 1 piece of dried flounder about the size of the palm of your hand with 3 quarts of water. You can add a few slices of ginger if you wish. Simmer for at least 2-3 hrs. During the last 30 minutes of simmering, add a small handful of dried shrimp.  Add salt to taste.  Before you serve the soup, strain the soup to get rid of the bones, fish, shrimp, and ginger.  Serve hot!

Noodles
You can certainly have a bowl of wonton soup as a starter or as a meal of its own, but it’s tasty served with noodles as well. Fresh thin yellow egg noodles are best, but if not available, dried thin yellow egg noodles will work too. Similar to cooking the wontons, boil a separate pot of water to cook the noodles, so as not to thicken your wonton broth with any excess starch. (If you boil an extra-large pot of water, 5-6 quarts, you can probably cook both the wontons and the noodles — one after the other, not together –  using the same pot before the water turns too thick and goopy, in which case you should start a new pot of water.) Cook the fresh noodles for about 3-5 minutes, until al dente. Unlike pasta, where you never rinse the noodles, so that the extra starch helps the sauce cling better, in this case rinsing the noodles actually helps. My dad always runs egg noodles under ice-cold water to give them an even firmer bite and to wash off excess starch. When serving, place the noodles in the bowl first, add 6-8 wontons on top, ladle soup over until it covers both noodles and wontons, and garnish with chopped scallions, cilantro, and a few drops of sesame oil. You can also add some boiled greens, such as bok choy, to the bowl if you like. The greens can be boiled in the broth itself to give the soup a bit more flavor.

Dipping Sauce
Though this is entirely unnecessary because the wontons are quite flavorful eaten plain with soup, I grew up eating my wontons with a dipping sauce.  Here’s a basic recipe for the sauce.

2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese red vinegar
1 Tbsp oyster sauce

Mix everything together well. Enjoy!

easy salt-baked chicken

by on April 12, 2010, 2 comments

Unlike my dad, who would make dinner from scratch every single day when we were growing up (we were lucky girls), I only cook a few times a week. When I’m ambitious, I’ll make most of my meals on the weekend and eat some variation of them throughout the work week. About every other week, I’ll make my mom’s yeem gok gai, salt-baked chicken, which feeds us for a good number of days. (It’s one of my favorite foods, and if I made it any more often than that, we’d be subsisting on chicken alone!)

Traditionally, salt-baked chicken is a Hakka dish made by encasing a whole chicken in salt and baking this in the oven. My mom’s simplified version involves dry-toasting salt in a pan before adding it to already-cooked chicken. The toasted salt, combined with fried shallots, gives you lots of smoky flavor with very little work.

I like to make this from poached chicken, and we’ll usually eat a few meals of this with rice and veggies and a few with noodle soup made from the broth. In fact, one of my favorite lunches is made almost completely with the leftovers: bean thread noodles cooked in the leftover broth, topped with leftover chicken, greens, and fried shallots and oil.

Easy Salt-Baked Chicken
Serves 4-6

I’ve noticed that regular table salt works best in this recipe, as it gets a nice color and more smoky taste, whereas natural salt (which I’ve used here) doesn’t turn color as much, and kosher salt even less so. I like to make a lot of the salt and pepper mixture and keep it in a spice jar, thereby cutting down on one of the steps the next time I make this dish. Same with the fried shallots and oil, which keeps well in the refrigerator.

1 poached chicken
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 medium shallot, sliced
1 Tbsps vegetable or canola oil
1 Tbsp sesame oil, or more to taste

1. Shred one poached chicken into large pieces and keep in a large bowl. (Like a true Asian, I like to keep a bit of meat on the bones to gnaw on, but if you like, you can reserve the bones for stock.)

2. Put the salt in a small pan on medium heat and let it slowly toast until it turns a very light golden color. Keep close watch and give the pan a couple shakes so that the salt doesn’t burn. If it turns color too quickly, turn the heat down to medium-low.

3. Once the salt is done, add the pepper, give the pan a few shakes, and turn off the heat. Make sure you stand back and ventilate well as the pepper is very strong when heated.

4. In another small pan, heat the oil on medium-high, then add the sliced shallot. When the shallot begins to turn golden, turn off the stove and take the pan off the heat. Let the shallots continue to brown in the pan, but watch to see that they don’t burn.

5. Add the sesame oil, fried shallots and shallot oil, and half of the salt and pepper mixture. Toss all together and adjust seasoning to taste.