Chao Chay Recipe (Vietnamese Vegetarian Rice Soup)

We just stored all the holiday decorations and a new celebration is already upon us. Tết, the Asian New year is coming up in two weeks! I haven't bought cherry blossom flowers yet or decorated the house with red, but I’ll get to it soon. The other thing is that at the beginning of the year (Lunar calendar), it is auspicious to eat vegetarian food (ăn chay) on the last day of the previous year and first day of New Year. I recently made a delicious cháo bò (beef rice porridge), and I’ve created a vegetarian version to serve to the family.

Rice porridge is a typical Asian comfort food. I made this dish with tofu, carrots, daikon radishes, beech mushrooms and peas. Not only is it vegetarian, but it's also very healthy, which fits my New Year's resolution perfectly. I'm still trying to shed the extra baby weight! I'm going to be sharing a few Asian vegetarian dishes for you to try over the next few days, so come back soon!

Rice Recipes (+ Zojirushi Giveaway)

As an Asian person, rice is a staple in our house. So owning a rice cooker is essential. I've owned a Zojirushi rice cooker for several years, and it is the best one I’ve ever used. It has a permanent place on my kitchen counter, so it's a good thing the exterior design is very pretty.

With this machine, you can cook a wide range of foods, thanks to the numerous setting from plain jasmine rice to sushi rice, brown rice, rice soup or even steamed potatoes and steamed cakes. It keeps rice warm for several hours after it's cooked without drying it out. That’s really important to me, because even though we all try to eat together every day, it often doesn’t happen because of everyone’s crazy schedule.

My Zojirushi rice cooker has a simple interface so it's very easy to program the machine to make perfect rice. The provided measuring cup and marks on the side of the cooking pot to indicate the correct amount of water needed make the system virtually foolproof. Perhaps the best part about it is how easy it is to clean, especially with the non-stick cooking insert. As an added bonus, the power cord is retractable, which keeps my kitchen counter neat.

Our friends at Zojirushi have kindly offered one of their Umami rice cookers for today’s giveaway (valued at $275!). For a chance to win, just enter on the 25 Days of Giveaways page. And to get you inspired to cook rice for your next meal, I’ve compiled some of my favorite rice recipes below. Enjoy!

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "$275 Zojirushi Rice Cooker #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Chao Thit Bo Recipe (Vietnamese Beef Rice Soup)

Cháo, or rice congee, is synonymous to me with cold remedies. As a child, this Vietnamese soup was Maman's antidote; the warmth is soothing for the throat and the soft texture makes it easy to consume. The soup contains a handful of rice which acts as a thickener for the flavorful broth. Today, I made my favorite version:  it's called cháo thịt bò, "beef rice soup" in Vietnamese.

I made my usual beef broth in the same manner as I would to prepare phở bò. I added oxtail bones, ginger and onions. My trick for never messing up this recipe is to cook the rice in small portions. I cook 3 cups of broth for a few tablespoons of rice. You’ll get a much better product if you prepare it in small batches. As soon as the rice thickens the beef broth, I add paper-thin slices of flank steak at the last minute along with fresh ginger and freshly cracked pepper.

Vietnamese Chicken Rice with Ginger Fish Sauce

If you're Vietnamese, you probably heard your mom telling you when you were a child not to waste food because it's "tội chết" (dreadfully sinful). Yesterday, I made gà muối ớt (salt and chile chicken) and there was no way I would toss the precious, flavorful chicken broth. So what to do with all the leftover broth? I made chicken rice with it.

The preparation is similar to making basmati rice, with the main difference being that jasmine rice is used. Jasmine rice is a lot trickier to cook though, because the rice will get mushy very quickly if you don’t keep an eye on it. 

I served the rice with nước mắm gừng, which is ginger-flavored fish sauce. I wanted to make the flavors more intense so I used pure sugar cane juice instead of regular water. This dipping sauce is so good, I could drink it all by itself!

Cold Rice Salad with Papaya

We finally have beautiful sunshine in the Bay Area. We've been waiting for the sun for so long that today, in honor of our quite overdue patron of summer, I prepared a dish that is refreshing, healthy and flavorful.

Specifically, I made a cold rice and papaya salad. I boiled brown rice, and mixed in vegetables, steamed lentils, lime juice, ginger and fresh papaya. The key to good rice salad is to have a homogeneous mixture. All the ingredients should be cut the same size. The other factor for a good salad in general is a flavorful dressing. I met that requirement with a sweet and spicy papaya ginger dressing.

This version is vegetarian, but you could also finish the salad with grilled jumbo shrimp in shells or grilled chicken breasts. Also, I served it in tea cups. For an original presentation, you could serve it in papaya halves. Here comes the sun!