Asparagus and Zucchini Tofu Recipe

This tofu stir fry dish is a staple in our home and I make it at least one a month. It's quick to prepare, flavorful and packed with fresh green vegetables. 

The preparation is always more or less the same. In this version, pan-seared tofu pieces (or leftover cooked chicken breasts) are tossed with previously cooked zucchini and baby asparagus in maple syrup, chipotle garlic sauce and soy sauce. At the end, I added onions wedges and turned the heat off; the residual heat in the dish finished cooking the onions while keeping them juicy, sweet and crunchy.

Soba Noodle Salad Recipe

If you follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram, you've probably seen how huge the plants in our garden are. Thanks to the recent sunny, warm weather we’ve experienced, they have really taken off.

To celebrate our first crop of Persian cucumbers, I prepared a chilled noodle salad. I used soba noodles, a variety of fresh vegetables, flavorful peanut sauce, fresh mint (again from our prolific garden) and dill. Soba noodles are Japanese-style buckwheat. If you can’t find them, you could use whole wheat angel hair pasta for a similar texture.

I prepared everything in advance in the morning and assembled the salad later at the last minute. That's what I call healthy, fast food!

If you live in the Bay Area, don't forget to pencil in this Saturday (May 25^th) for my cooking demo and cookbook signing for Haute Potato at Los Altos Library. Hope to see everyone there.

Chao Ca Recipe (Fish Congee)

Cháo cá (Vietnamese for fish congee) is Aria's favorite dish these days. At one and a half years old now, she's able to eat pretty much anything and everything. But don't be fooled by its appearance; rice congee isn't only meant for babies. Cháo is a very popular meal in Asia; I personally love it too. 

In this version of congee I cook rice in fish stock until it becomes a thickened soup. I like to make small portions at a time by adding thinly sliced white flaky fish, ginger, onions and cilantro at the last minute. The key to flavorful fish congee is to use the freshest products available.

Mixed-Bean Soup Recipe

This is probably the last soup I'm making this season as we're slowly experiencing warmer temperatures. I prepared the soup with 10 varieties of beans. Four-pound mixed bean packages are readily available at my local Korean market. In this particular one, only seven dried beans were mixed in it, namely soybeans, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, peas, black eyed peas and lima beans. I also added white cannellini beans, green beans and edamame beans to complete the nourishing soup.

In addition to the soup, I included corn kernels for extra sweetness and deep-fried tofu cubes for texture. Everyone in my home enjoyed it because the starchy vegetables are quite filling and almost make you forget about meat!

Chinese Cabbage and Lotus Salad Recipe

When writing my second cookbook, Banh Mi, which by the way is already available for preview and pre-order, I tried to share authentic and traditional recipes for Vietnamese sandwiches, condiments and sides. If you've ever tasted a bánh mì, you probably are familiar with the standard condiment of pickled carrots and daikon. It takes the place of cornichon-based pickles (tiny French gherkin pickles) found in Western sandwiches.

You can of course vary the ingredients to your liking, and in this recipe I prepared a modified version of the bánh mì condiment with shredded Chinese cabbage, pickled lotus and freshly-picked satsuma mandarins that baby Aria helped me gather from our garden --follow me on Twitter and Facebook to see more pictures-- (sadly it was our very last batch). With a few peanuts and a nice dressing, it makes a great salad. Though it isn't strictly speaking a traditional pickle, you could also use it in your own bánh mì sandwich. The flavors are mellow enough to let the meat or tofu of your choice shine.