Ca Chung Tuong Recipe (Vietnamese Steamed Fish in Spicy Black Beans)

Cá chưng tương, which literally translates to "steamed fish in black bean sauce," is a staple Vietnamese seafood dish. It's placed in the oven and steamed on a bed of vegetables. It's seasoned so that the spicy, salted black bean mixture covers any fish smell while also infusing a ton of flavor.

A lot of Vietnamese cooking techniques are inspired by French cuisine because Vietnam was a longtime colony of the French empire. This dish is no exception. The whole fish is steamed, papillote-style in aluminum foil that acts like a steam chamber. The pocket infuses the fish with the flavor of the salty black beans. In addition to the black beans, I added fresh ginger, green onions and chiles. To prevent the fish from burning in the oven, I placed the whole salmon on a bed of fresh oyster mushrooms and thick slices of onions and carrots. Thin vermicelli noodles cover the fish to absorb any moisture.

I’d like to give a very special thanks to our awesome neighbor Tom for providing us the fresh fish in this dish. Tom is an avid fisherman in his spare time and graciously offered us his latest, impressive catch: a beautiful whole 2-½ pounds salmon.

Smoked Salmon Appetizers (Easy party Appetizers)

Pan-Seared Salmon with Lemon

Fish, in general, is an excellent light meal idea. Salmon in particular, if prepared properly, can be very moist and flavorful. First, make sure to ask your fishmonger to clean the fish and its skin. The next important issue is the marinade. Finally, don't overcook the filet and a delicious dinner will be in your future.

For this recipe I used lemons as a tenderizer and flavoring. I pan-fried and created a crust around the salmon steak and finish baking it in the oven on a bed of lemon slices. I served it with pineapple salsa (mango salsa would work too).

Salmon Tortilla Pinwheel Appetizers

Salmon wasabi pinwheels are super easy to make. I prepared wasabi and dill-flavored cream cheese in advance and stored them in the refrigerator until dinner time. The assembling part is so simple a child could roll them. In fact, that’s exactly what we did. I let the kids prepare the rolls and then slice them into bite-sized pieces. We secured the cute appetizers with fancy hors d'oeuvre picks.

For those who can tolerate a little bit of heat, I topped the appetizers with wasabi flavored peanuts to repeat the same flavors from the filling. My husband Lulu brought them back from a recent trip to Texas. Lulu knows what a foodie I am so he always tries to find new products for me to experiment with. It’s not all that altruistic though, since he’s usually the beneficiary of these creations. Don’t I have the sweetest husband?

Mustard Deviled Quail Eggs with Smoked Salmon (Oeuf Mimosa Recipe)

Oeuf mimosa ("deviled egg" in English) is a first course (or appetizer) made of hard cooked eggs from which the egg yolks have been removed and mixed with mayonnaise and herbs and then filled back into the egg white.

Deviled eggs are a very common French bistro dish but instead of using large chicken eggs, I used quail eggs. There are simple rules on how to boil quail eggs. The freshness of the eggs is very important. Remove the eggs from the refrigerator 15 minutes prior to cooking to bring them back to room temperature, then cover them with cold salted water and add a hint of vinegar. Egg shells are porous and by salting the water, the eggs will already be seasoned; the vinegar helps the egg whites coagulate in case they break while boiling.

The eggs are usually dressed with anchovies rolled into a ring with a caper or olive on top. Today I wanted to glam them up though, so I served the deviled eggs with smoked salmon and dill. Our guests love the mini appetizers and so will you if you give this recipe a try!