Do you crave colorful bites bursting with big Asian flavors? Join Chef Minnie at Surfas for a FREE cooking demo and learn the secrets to creating fiery Korean BBQ tacos, fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, and fragrant lemongrass chicken Banh Mi sandwiches. It’s so easy you can do it at home, in a truck, or on the street.
Street Cred:
Minnie Luong, a private chef, food writer, and cooking teacher, grew up eating in the bustling streets of Boston’s Chinatown. She has cooked in professional kitchens, high profile private homes, and for large scale catering events. She is the author of a popular food blog called, MinnieEatWorld.Com and the editor of Hungry? Boston: the Lowdown on Where the Real People Eat, a restaurant guidebook featuring local eats from secret food trucks, to historic diners and hole-in-the-wall Mom and Pop joints. Her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Where to Eat Magazine, The Somerville News, Boston’s Weekly Dig, and Swindle Magazine.
LA is the limitless land of celebrity sightings. I could indulge you on some of the very ordinary celebs I've come across, but that would be boring. I get more of a kick out of cooking for these illustrious stars and yes, I can say I've made food that has touched the lips of Brad and Angelina.
But when I ran into Fabio Viviani, of last season's Top Chef, I transformed into an aggressive picture taking seeker, and he was gracious enough to pose with my bulging eyes. Fabio even offered me a job, cooking at his Cafe Firenzi restaurant, which I think it was nice gesture, but all I really wanted was this picture.
Some vegetables, such as portabello mushrooms, can have a meaty quality to them. For me a dense, juicy, slice of a summer ripened heirloom tomato is the kobe beef of vegetables. From the corner of your eye they even resemble a rare piece of steak or tuna, but without the price tag.
So, when all I had in the kitchen was an heirloom tomato, a garlic clove, a basil plant, and a half a baguette, I did not despair, because it was exactly enough to create a light, but soul satisfying lunch.
Recipe:
1. Slice a garlic clove in half lengthwise and rub on an oven warmed baguette.
2. Drizzle with olive oil.
3. Place a slice of your tomato on top. Season with salt & pepper; drizzle more olive oil.
4. Garnish with torn basil leaves.
If this takes you more than 5 minutes to make, you're over thinking it.
Tips on Heirloom Tomatoes:
1. I recently got a a variety box at Trader Joe's for only 5 bucks!
2. Fry the green ones in a bread crumb mixture (see my post on Fried Green tomatoes)
3. Grill think slices to get a nice smoky, carmelized taste.
4. NEVER refrigerate your tomatoes, unless you like them mealy. Think MEATY not MEALY.
5. Don't be afraid to salt them; as with meat, salt is what brings out their flavor.
6. Slice them horizontally so you can "oooh" &"aaah" over their beautiful Persian rug-like patterns.
Some friends actually invited me over for dinner, and I'm really excited to try someone else's cooking for a change. Of course it has been drilled into my head since an early age never to show up empty handed, so I'm bringing this cute edible arrangement over as a hostess gift. I found these chilies at my favorite Asian farmer at the Brentwood farmer's market, and added some fragrant Thai Basil leaves to complete this incredible, edible bouquet. If you have a nice herb garden consider plucking some herbs as a nice hostess gift, or bring some of your surplus zucchini. Good cooks love fresh veggies, and it is a nice simple gesture that will set a tone of goodwill and friendship.
1. Look at several different recipes for a dish, and choose the simplest one. I use recipes to understand the architecture of a dish, then modify it to my own tastes, and the different ingredients that I have in my pantry. For example if something calls for sherry vinegar, I know I can also use red wine vinegar that I have in my cupboard instead of running out to buy sherry vinegar.
2. Learn how to sharpen your knives. Cooking is no fun when you are hacking away at something with a dull blade. Once you learn how to create a nice sharp edge, you'll be halfway there to improving your knife skills.
3. Use Youtube to learn technique. Sometimes it's easier to see how to do something than to read about it in a cook book. I found a great new way to clean lamb ribs using a piece of string.
4. Use your senses. Get acquainted with your sense of taste, smell, touch, and sight. Be sure to taste everything as you are going along. For example, when making a salad dressing, mix together the acid and seasonings and taste them. If your taste buds feel good only then add your oil. If not, you can always adjust it, before adding oil. I often forego a kitchen timer and know that when the entire kitchen smells like chocolate chip cookies, it means that their close to being done. Learn how to tell when meat is cooked by touching it. Use your eyes to create visually appealing presentations, using a prism of different colors. If it looks like you put too much of one ingredient in a dish, you probably did.
5. Avoid overworking your food. Alot of people make the mistake of flipping or stirring their food too much, thinking that they are really cooking now. You need to let the food make contact with heat in order to cook it, and if you move it around too much it will not cook evenly.
6. My friend says that the best meals I make are what we call "refrigerator dishes." That's when I limit myself to cooking with only the ingredients I already have. This is great way to hone your innate creativity and spontaneity and to use up any leftovers you have. Leftover roasted vegetables and the last piece of cheese can be added to lettuce for an exciting new salad. Just about anything can be transformed into exciting crepes, soups, spring rolls, pizzas, fried rice and dumplings. Fried eggs and sriracha are great on top of almost anything!
7. Don't be afraid to mess up. Chances are you won't mess up as much as you think you will. I'm a believer that the only way to truly learn to cook is to make mistakes and learn from them.
8. Take pictures of your dishes. Alright, my dining companions may get a little annoyed when I turn every meal into a photo shoot, but after visually cataloging all the meals I've made I get a sense of accomplishment when I see what I've created. It is also a great reference for what I did right and wrong, and helps jog my memory when I'm trying to improve upon the dish many months later.
9. Your freezer is your friend. Freeze garlic and ginger paste, or chopped herbs that can be used in a pinch for soups, stir fries, Indian food, sauces, salad dressings, marinades, and pasta sauces. I keep hard to find ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, chilies, and fresh tumeric in the freezer for times when I want to add some Asian flavor to a dish. Other items I always have in the freezer are butter, chicken stock, peas, which are great for throwing into rice, pasta dishes, and paella, miso, pita bread, red curry paste.
10. Keep fresh herbs around at all times. At the Vietnamese table you will find a beautiful plate arranged with fresh, fragrant herbs to be used like condiments at almost all times. I keep a "vase" of fresh herbs in my fridge at all times, to add aroma, color, and flavor without adding alot of calories. If you don't use them up by the end of the week you can always make your own pesto and freeze it for later.
