There are some days you want foie gras or $3 oysters and then there are days when you just want some down home poor man's Viet food. I grew up eating all different types of food. Sometimes it was American, sometimes Italian, but most of the time it was Vietnamese. My mom makes some of the best Vietnamese food I've ever tasted...naturally, but there were many days when it wasn't the fancy noodle soups or crepes that i wanted, but cabbage and eggs or fried tofu. Food really doesn't have to be complicated to be amazing.
Here's a quick run down on two of my favorite dishes. Considered "poor man's food" because of the simple and cheap ingredients. Also, because it's easy to turn one dish into two. For example, the water you used to boil the cabbage, with a dash of salt and a crushed tomato, all of a sudden you have a soup!
That's the thing about "family style" Vietnamese food... we have standard components to every meal. For example, you always have a protein of some sort along with a vegetable dish. It could be beef sauteed with tomatoes and onions, fried tofu or a fried catfish. However, if you have the protein, you also need a vegetable dish: one of my all time favorites is stir fried rau muống, known as water spinach in English. And to round out the meal, you also need a soup. It helps wash everything down. :)
Vietnamese meals are a lot of balance - or at least it was in my house growing up. Sometimes if we didn't have any real proteins my mom would just make an egg omelet so we could have something salty to go with our meal. So on the rare occasion these days when i make a "family style" dinner with rice and the whole shebang, these are two of my go-to recipes.
"Bắp cải luộc chấm trứng" (loosely translated as boiled cabbage and eggs.)
Ingredients:
- Cabbage (whole or half depending on how many you're feeding)
- 1 Tomato
- Dash of Salt
- 4 cups water
- 3-4 eggs
- nước mắm (fish sauce - I prefer the squid brand)
Here's where you have some options. If you'd like to cook everything in one pot, go ahead and drop your 3-4 eggs into the water as well (remember to do it before the water gets hot). After about 7 minutes, you can take the eggs out, peel them and keep them in a separate bowl. If you don't want to cook everything in one pot then just cook your eggs separately.
Your cabbage will only take an additional 2-3 minutes to finish cooking after the water comes to a boil, but keep an eye on it. When the leaves darken in color and get tender is when they're finished. Fish out the cabbage and drain any excess water back into the pot. The remaining broth is your soup. When you pour the broth and tomato into the bowl just give the tomato a light crush and you'll have a deliciously simply yet sweet soup (known as Canh in Vietnamese) to go with your meal.
Honestly, depending on how many people you're feeding, you'll only need 2 eggs. In a small bowl, quarter and cut your boiled eggs into small pieces. Add a tbsp of the soup broth and about 2 tbsp of fish sauce and mix it all together. This is the dipping sauce for your cabbage. It sounds odd, but I swear to you, i made this for one of my childhood friends - one of the whitest girls you'll ever meet - and she absolutely LOVED it. To this day, she asks for this dish all the time. Proof that you never know if you'll like something until you've tried it.
"Đậu Hũ Chiên Tẩm Nước Mắm Hành" (translated as fried tofu dipped in fish sauce and green onions - I know, we're not very creative with our food names)
Ingredients:
- 1 package firm tofu
- 1-2 stalks of green onion
- nước mắm (fish sauce)
Directions:
Take your firm tofu out from the packaging and cut it once horizontally down the middle and then vertically to create 12 "2x3" -ish sized pieces. See the photo to the right for reference. Unfortunately I'm not good with measurements, so really I'd say just cut it into even small pieces about half the size of a business card. Or a whole business card if you like it bigger.
Now would also be a good time to dice your green onions into small pieces about 1 cm wide. You're going to mix this with about 3-4 tbsp of fish sauce. Leave the mixture in a small bowl big enough to dip your tofu when you take them out of the hot oil.
While prepping, you should be heating vegetable (or canola) oil in a small pot. A trick I learned from my mom to tell if your oil is hot enough: stick the end of a chopstick into the oil and if the tip creates little bubbles when you hit the bottom, then it's hot enough. Drop your tofu in for about 1 minute or so each until they turn a golden brown. As you take out each piece of tofu, drop it into your fish sauce/green onion mixture for about 5-10 seconds. When the tofu is hot like this it's incredibly absorbent. So don't soak it too long or it will be too salty. Just a few seconds will do. If you have fish sauce left after you've dipped all your tofu then serve it with the tofu in case anyone wants more to dip their tofu again.
Voila! Finished product, ready to be served with your boiled cabbage and soup. A hearty, balanced meal worthy of any comfort seeking Vietnamese person. I know if you made this for me, I'd feel right at home. :)
* Photos today taken by yours truly.
