Ca Kho Gung Recipe (Catfish Recipe)

Cá bông lau, "catfish" in English, is a very common fish in Vietnamese cooking. There are numerous preparations, and I've shared some in the past. Today, I prepared a caramelized sauce made of ginger and kaffir lime leaves called cá kho gừng to go with the catfish. It gives the fish a lovely light brown color.

The addition of kaffir lime leaves and red chiles gives a special zing to this seafood dish. And as usual a bowl of freshly made white jasmine rice makes a superb pairing!

Vietnamese Ginger Chicken Recipe

 In the past, when a recipe called for nước mắm, I would always find a substitute. Fish sauce can have such a strong aroma, but since my cousin Aline told me about a new pure, first press fish sauce, I've become obsessed and have been cooking a lot of dishes with it.

I realize I already posted a ginger chicken recipe ("gà kho gừng" in  Vietnamese), but I've adjusted the chicken recipe so that the fish sauce becomes the highlight of the dish. No salt or caramel (sweetener) are needed and very little chile as well. The natural amber color from the fish sauce with julienned ginger and curry powder (mostly turmeric) make a flavorful and appealing dish. 

Gà kho gừng is a simple and easy dish. No marinating time is needed. Good quality products are the only requirement and of course, a dash of your love and soul. I guarantee it always makes the meal tastes better!

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!

Medicinal Tea Recipe (Natural Cold Remedy Drink)

Ginger rice tea drink is our natural way to treat the beginning of a cold. On top of being delicious, the drink contains all the ingredients that are tought of as healing in Asian culture. I thickened the drink using the starch from rice and flavored it with fresh ginger, honey and turmeric.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you've probably noticed that my husband Lulu and I have been traveling quite a bit. We were in Las Vegas last week and we left last Saturday for to go to Texas. Lulu felt a little under the weather, so just before leaving I concocted this delicious ginger drink so he could be completely energized for our next trip. I'm certainly no doctor, but at the very least it cheered him up!

Ginger Rice Pudding Recipe

The last time I made mango rice pudding, the little one of the family (she's only 6 years old) complained that she didn't get any. I promised her I'd make some more the following day but I kept forgetting. I finally had time to make some rice pudding today, which I flavored with fresh ginger. Ginger is a very versatile ingredient that can flavor either drinks, savory dishes or desserts.

If you want to serve this at the end of a dinner party, I would recommend using tuile bowls filled with a layer of ginger chocolate mousse and topped with the ginger rice pudding. It's a great way to serve traditional family desserts and turn them into elegant desserts.

In case you were wondering, I made sure everyone got their fair share of rice pudding this time. That means I’m going to have to find a new excuse the next time I have a craving for rice pudding!