Vietnamese Shrimp in Caramel Sauce (Tom Kho Recipe)

This evening, I finished preparing dinner but realized everything was vegetarian. And if you think like me, vegetarian food is good but it's still lacking one thing. What's missing, you might ask? I looked at our dining table and I immediately knew what would make dinner complete: a dish of shrimp.

I had one pound of small shrimp begging to be cooked. So in less than 30 minutes, I whipped up some tôm kho, which is Vietnamese for shrimp in caramel sauce. The key is the amber-color sauce cooked with coconut soda (if you're lucky and have fresh coconut water, it would taste even better), onion, garlic and a hint of good quality nước mắm (fish sauce). Even though the most of my family are vegetarians, if cooked properly, the scent of this seafood dish doesn't bother them.

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 Braised Catfish in Fish Sauce (Ca Kho)

Cá kho literally translates to "braised fish". I cooked catfish steaks in a caramel fish sauce and let simmer until the delicate, flaky fish became an opaque white color for this fairly common Vietnamese dish.

I served the seafood dish with brown jasmine rice and leafy greens. I'm on day 2 of my "back-into-shape" plan, but don't worry, flavor is not being sacrificed!

Chicken Eggrolls (Cha Gio Recipe)

We're only a week away from Tết, the Asian New Year. And of course, food is what makes the festivities so much fun. Eggrolls (chả giò) are Maman's must-have dish for the celebration. My favorite version is chicken eggrolls. I usually use dark meat (chicken thighs and legs), which make the dish more moist and flavorful. I also mix in fried jicama and carrots for added crunch.

Preparing them isn't that complicated; they're labor-intensive, but if you have a large crew of little helpers as I do, rolling them is a piece of cake. All you need to do next is deep-fry them and enjoy them wrapped in lettuce along with rice noodles.

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!