7/26/2016

Vietnamese Comfort Food

If you don't have direct experience with Vietnamese home cooking, a walk down our International Food aisle can be daunting. Which Asian products are best for which dishes? We are fortunate at Piedmont Grocery--our staff represents the four corners of the globe, and that makes life much more delicious!

Take a virtual walk with us through the Asian food section, and get some insider staff picks of brands and products to improve the flavor of your dishes. We have included a photo of each product as an aid for memory.

Huy Fong's Sriacha hot chili sauce has received a lot of press and hipster praise in the past few years, and is nonetheless the real deal. Don't be fooled by imitations.

Three Crabs Fish Sauce comes highly recommended by those in the know. Fish sauce is the most important seasoning in Vietnamese cooking to deliver savory depth of flavor and oomph. And, a little historical info: Viet Huong Fish Sauce Company got its start in San Francisco in the 1980s in a garage in the Outer Sunset.

Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce is a mild, sweet chili sauce that is great for dipping spring rolls, dim sum, and bbq meats. It has inspired numerous uses like on grilled chicken, and even hamburgers and Western food.

Jade Sichuan Peanut Sauce was voted Best Peanut Sauce by the SF Chronicle, and we agree. It hits all the right flavor notes-intense peanut flavor, with a nice spicy-sweet balance.

Bahn Trang Spring Roll Wrappers are also known as rice paper. They are great for making spring rolls easily, and can also be fried.

Chaokoh Coconut Milk is the best quality coconut milk you can purchase, and is highly recommended by professional chefs. It's silky, smooth and rich without any grit or grain. Chaokoh is perfect for any dish that requires coconut milk, including curries and soups.

Dragonfly Tamarind Concentrate can be used for making chutneys and to add a tangy taste to dishes. Note that the concentrate can be used in recipes calling for tamarind paste in equal measure.

Lemongrass Kitchen Curry Sauce was created by Mai Pham, the Vietnamese-born author and chef whose Sacramento restaurant Lemon Grass is renown true Vietnamese flavor. This concentrate is a versatile base for cooking.

WorldFoods Southeast Asian Sauces have a fantastic range of concentrated flavors, and are very versatile. The possibilities are endless!

Peaches!

There are some amazing peaches in our produce department-juicy, sweet, and bursting with flavor. We will even wipe the juice off our chins and elbows to sell you some.

This sweet, tangy and utterly delicious taste of summer can be enjoy in so many ways. We love them grilled, in salsas, salads, and simply eaten fresh.

Try one of these favorite recipes:

Grilled Chicken Thighs with Peaches, Mint and Almonds
Peach Cobbler
Peach and Cucumber Salsa
Peach Hand Pies
Stone Fruit Summer Salad
Tomato, Peach & Avocado Bruschetta

Vietnamese Recipes from Our What's For Dinner Wednesday Blog

A quick look through our recipe archives, reveals some great recipes we had to share with you.

Pho Dinner (In less than 20 minutes)
Bo Luc Lac: Shaking Beef
Grilled Pork Chops with Sweet Lemongrass Marinade
Easy Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream (No-Churn)
Vietnamese Banh Mi (Sandwiches) Chicken, Black Pepper Pork, and Lemongrass Tofu

Vietnamese Home Cooking

by Charles Phan

When Charles Phan opened his now-legendary restaurant, The Slanted Door, in 1995, he introduced American diners to a new world of Vietnamese food: robustly flavored, subtly nuanced, authentic yet influenced by local ingredients, and, ultimately, entirely approachable. In this spirit of tradition and innovation, Phan presents a landmark collection based on the premise that with an understanding of its central techniques and fundamental ingredients, Vietnamese home cooking can be as attainable and understandable as American, French, or Italian.

With solid instruction and encouraging guidance, perfectly crispy imperial rolls, tender steamed dumplings, delicately flavored whole fish, and meaty lemongrass beef stew are all deliciously close at hand. Abundant photography detailing techniques and equipment, and vibrant shots taken on location in Vietnam, make for equal parts elucidation and inspiration.

Infused with the author's stories and experiences, from his early days as a refugee to his current culinary success, Vietnamese Home Cooking is a personal and accessible guide to real Vietnamese cuisine from one of its leading voices.

Revive Kombucha

Revive Kombucha is a favorite at Piedmont Grocery, because there's so much to love.

Revive tastes sophisticated and bubbly, and they come in some great flavors: The O.G. (original brew), Free Ride (hibiscus), Campfire (toasted genmaicha), Ascend (a restoring tonic), Solar (with yerba mate, ginger and lemon-yum) and Tropic Wonder (earl grey, orange, vanilla and a touch of cayenne).

They are locally brewed in Sonoma County, organic, sustainable for the earth and positive for the community. Revive runs the only bottle exchange program in the United States, and they have about a 75% reuse rate.

Revive is amazingly delicious, and you can feel good about drinking it!

Watermelon and Cucumber Cooler

Cool off with this flavorful, summer cocktail.

Watermelon and cucumber are a wonderful flavor pairing that are both in high season. This is the perfect patio cocktail, and a great use of leftover watermelon.

Get the recipe...

The Butcher's Block: Rack of Lamb

Many people consider lamb to be a special occasion meat, which can make sense. A roast leg of lamb can feed a crowd, and a rack of lamb can be a once-in-a-while treat because of the price tag. However, lamb is a versatile, flavorful, and tender meat that is perfect for every day eating.

For a long time farmers have been breeding their sheep specifically to produce higher quality meat, so most of the lamb we buy today is tender and easy to cook using high dry heat. There are a few exceptions: the shoulder area cuts and the shanks are better cooked using a moist heat method, or braised to make them tender.

Lamb comes from animals that are between five and twelve months of age. Since lamb is much smaller than beef, it's cuts are easier to understand. The five primal cuts are: Shoulder, Forelegs and Breast, ribs, loin, and hind leg.

Leg of lamb can be extremely versatile. A boneless leg of lamb is great on the grill or stuffed, rolled and roasted. In a pinch, it can even be cut into cubes for stew.

By far, the most tender cuts come from the ribs and loin, and the most well-known of those are loin chops and rack of lamb.

Roasting a rack of lamb is super-easy. If you choose to give it a shot, make sure to ask your butcher to remove the chine bone, so that you will actually be able to cut the rack into individual chops when serving.

All racks of lamb come frenched which means that the fat between the bones has been removed. A frenched rack of lamb weighs approximately one to one and a half pounds, and should feed two people.

Get the recipe for Herb-Crusted Roast Rack of Lamb...

Vietnamese Bahn Mi (Sandwiches)

From Amy and our What's For Dinner Wednesday recipe blog

Bahn Mi for Me

We have three ladies who work for us here in our office without whom this place would fall apart. They represent The Money: from billing and AR, to payroll and HR; they handle it all.

Two are sisters from a large half-Chinese, half-Vietnamese family. I mention this because they have a lot of family get-togethers, and family get-togethers almost always involve food. In this case it's a lot of food. Good food. A lot of really good Vietnamese food...and I totally benefit from the left-overs that they bring in, when it is all said and done.

It's not always left-overs. On any given day you can find some tasty treat. Sometimes it's fresh pork buns, still warm from the ovens of the bakery in Chinatown. Other times there are these cute, little egg tarts that are great with coffee. My favorite meal surprise is the Bahn Mi sandwiches. (My mouth is watering as I write this.)

I love Bahn Mi, and when they magically appear, my day is that much brighter. My favorite is the grilled chicken, but you can never go wrong with the classic. The combination of meat and pickled veggies with the cilantro and chilies on fresh French bread is rhapsodic, and worthy of enthusiastic discussion. In fact, we have been having a conversation about Bahn Mi in the office today-basically echoing the sentiments here. If I were a betting girl, I would lay good odds that I know what we will be having for lunch tomorrow...

Vietnamese Banh Mi (Sandwiches)
Serves 4

This basic recipe is for Grilled Chicken Ban Mi. See below for variations for Black Pepper Pork and vegetarian Lemongrass Tofu.

Get the recipe for Bahn Mi...

In This Issue

Peaches!

Vietnamese Recipese

Cookbook Recommendation