TASTEMADE: Cá Kho- Mom’s Braised Salmon Recipe

My mom's Vietnamese Braised Salmon aka "Cá Kho" recipe is so easy and oh so tasty!You'll see this normally served in Vietnamese restaurants in a simmering claypot but you can make this straight on your stovetop with a pan or stove-proof pot.

Typically you caramelize sugar first, but if that step scares you then you'll like this shortcut of marinating the fish in sugar and fish sauce and letting the fish caramelize with the marinade slowly in your pot. Click to learn more and for recipe!

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TASTEMADE: Cá Kho- Mom’s Braised Salmon Recipe

My mom's Vietnamese Braised Salmon aka "Cá Kho" recipe is so easy and oh so tasty!You'll see this normally served in Vietnamese restaurants in a simmering claypot but you can make this straight on your stovetop with a pan or stove-proof pot.

Typically you caramelize sugar first, but if that step scares you then you'll like this shortcut of marinating the fish in sugar and fish sauce and letting the fish caramelize with the marinade slowly in your pot. Click to learn more and for recipe!

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Vietnamese Spinach Soup- aka “Canh Mong Toi Tom” Recipe 

A simple lunch for a busy day but it's also one of my favorite quick meals. This simple Vietnamese soup aka "canh" in Vietnamese is full of umami with the addition of chopped fresh shrimp and fish sauce. This simple soup and egg quiche was a frequent rotation for weekday dinners served with a hot bowl of jasmine rice.

The soup was made many ways with raw shrimp as the umami protein but was also sometimes subbed out with dried shrimp, pork (small rib bones or ground pork), or tofu. Click through for recipe!

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Spicy Tuna Onigiri

Onigiri are one of my favorite sushi snacks. When I worked in fashion these snacks were perfect for a quick and very filling lunch (just two of these was enough to get me through the rest of the day). Did you know that these are also super easy to make at home as well?

If you aren’t familiar with this popular Japanese snacks, onigiri are made simply from sushi rice balls that are shaped into triangles and wrapped with nori seaweed sheets. They can be filled with an assortment of different fillings but one of my favorites are picy tuna filled and they are so easy to make! Jump down for the recipe.

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Vietnamese Spinach & Shrimp Soup- “Canh Rau Den” Recipe

This simple Vietnamese soup is made with amaranth and shrimp and is cooked in a deliciously seasoned soup stock. I love these soups because they’re nice, light and super healthy and so easy to make! Traditionally, these soups often accompany a salty meat dish and a side of rice.

Typically used are pennywort greens but I got these asian amaranth leaves from my local CSA. These leaves are very nutrient-rich and is a good source of carotenoids, proteins, and essential amino acids like methionine and lysine, dietary fiber and minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, copper, phosphorus, zinc, and iron!

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Vietnamese Crab- Satay stir fried crab “cua xao sate” & boiled crab recipe.

Growing up, blue crabs were always a treat for us growing up as kids in Kansas so having this as a family now with both parents and my lil sis just brought us all back to our old childhood days… 😍

The first batch (pictured in top right corner) were simple boiled blue crabs served with a lime/salt/black pepper dipping sauce! The sauce is so good and was our favorite dipping sauce as kids since it was a lil sour/citrusy/and salty! Paired with a little black pepper it had just the right amount of spice. The second way was a stir fried crab with a Vietnamese satay sauce (lemongrass, ginger, garlic, shallots) then tossed with fragrant aromatic herbs like cilantro, scallions and red chili.

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Vietnamese Pickled/Fermented Eggplant- Recipe + Video Tutorial

Vietnamese pickled eggplants super easy to make and take about 3-4 days to ferment. You can find these round eggplants called “kermit” or white “cà pháo” at the asian markets. They can also be referred as south macrocarpon, gboma or African eggplant.

“Thai” eggplants during the summer months and they are the size of small golf balls. Traditionally the white or Kermit Eggplants are the ones that we used growing up but all I could find were the Thai variety which still turned out pretty darn nice!

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