The Slanted Door: Cooking With Charles Phan

I've always been a big fan of restaurant cookbooks. From Elephant Walk to Prune, from Zuni Cafe to Cooking with Shelburne Farms, I'm instantly attracted to these books that present cooking from the perspective of a chef and restaurant owner. One of my favorite books is Come in, We're Closed, a book filled with delicious staff recipes. There are other similar books that present an interesting perspective from inside the restaurant world. When I saw that Charles Phan was coming out with The Slanted Door, the book named for his restaurant, I knew I had to add it to my ever-growing collection of restaurant cookbooks. 

I describe Vietnamese cuisine as my "first love." I was introduced to Vietnamese food by my colleague Kim Pham in my first job position out of college. She suggested Dac Hao, a local Rochester, NY Vietnamese restaurant, for lunch. Dac Hao is a traditional Vietnamese restaurant that is low on atmosphere and high on flavor. Just my kind of haunt, I've discovered. I quickly became a dedicated customer, ordering takeout a few times a week and bringing friends for dinner. They had roasted ducks and pork hanging in the window. and I would occasionally pop in and order a duck that would be chopped in front of me. I moved from Rochester in 1999 and I still miss the wonderful food of Dac Hao. It's my first stop when in town for a visit. 

Outside of basic natural foods cooking, my first cooking experiments were with Thai and Vietnamese dishes. My initial Vietnamese food explorations were cooking through a series cookbook, Vietnamese Cooking by Paulette Do Van. From this book, I prepared the common traditional dishes of Vietnam, such as Shrimp with Sesame Seeds on Toast, Pho, Fresh Spring Rolls, Simple Salad, and Shrimp and Pork on Sugar Cane. This is where I got my foundational lessons in Vietnamese cooking. I've since enhanced my Southeast Asian cookbook collection with several other excellent Vietnamese cookbooks. 

Slanted Door offers fresh rifts on Vietnamese cooking and includes many recipes that have a Mediterranean flair and tap into the French influences of Vietnamese cooking. He begins the book with some more traditionally oriented fare and moves into creations heavily influenced by modern cuisine and influences from his base of San Francisco. 

You'll be impressed by this book at your first glance. The cover is a gorgeous minimalist and textured design with a rustic appeal. The use of color is perfect and mirrors the style of photography throughout the book. Yes, one can enjoy this book by simply perusing and taking in the beauty of the food before even looking at the recipes. I also love the layout of the book. There were a few incarnations of Slanted Door in different locations, and the book is laid out in "Acts" representing each of these restaurants. Each act includes history of the chef/author, the progression in his food creations and corresponding recipes that match the style of cooking offered on the menus. The book covers everything you would enjoy from Charles Phan's eatery, to include recipes for basics such as broths and sauces and a long section of inventive cocktails. 

I tried several dishes from the cookbook and they were all a rave. The first appetizer  I made was the Cabbage Rolls with Tomato Garlic Sauce. I would describe this dish as Vietnam meets Eastern Europe and the results are wonderful. I'm looking forward to enjoying this dish again and again. It's a wonderful winter appetizer and a great way to use your fall and winter cabbages. The other appetizer I made was the Beef Carpaccio. This recipe was a big win for it's ease in preparation and excellent taste. Chan's rendition of this classic incorporates the traditional Southeast Asian flavor of rau ram herbs and chopped peanuts. You can find rau ram in your local Asian market. The recipe doesn't call for a side of Nuoc Mam (traditional Vietnamese fish sauce preparation), but I think it would be an excellent addition. I highly recommend using grass fed beef for this dish. 

Because I enjoy raw meat and fish dishes, I decided to make the Tuna Tartare. This was another dish that was simply prepared, yet beautiful and delicious. Chilled Louisiana Shrimp with Spicy Cocktail Sauce and Thai Basil Aoili was also a big hit in our household. There are many seafood oriented dishes, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves simply and elegantly prepared seafood. 

I also made a few of the vegetarian recipes. My favorites were the Stir Fried Green Beans and the Wok-Charred Eggplant with Satay Sauce. Just thinking about this flavorful eggplant dish makes me hungry! Of the meat mains, I only tried the Ginger Beef Vermicelli, which was slurped up in a flash. 

I'm looking forward to trying many more recipes from The Slanted Door. I'm particularly interested in making some of the delicious soup dishes and the Sardine Claypot, if I can get my hands on some good, fresh sardines. 

Kudos to Charles Phan on an excellent book. You'll also enjoy his other book, Vietnamese Home Cooking. I'm hoping he'll be publishing more soon! 

Challah!

Not wanting my cooking projects to stagnate, I've been steadily expanding beyond my typical cooking repertoire. This has led to exploration of new cuisines, trying new cooking methods, and creating traditional and fusion recipes. Flour based recipes such as breads, pastas and dumplings have been especially alluring. I did get my hands on a pizza stone and hope to soon experiment with making pizza on the grill. Only a few weeks past, I enjoyed a helpful semolina pasta making lesson from my friend Stephen. He also loves home cooking and taught me some useful tips for using a traditional Italian pasta machine. The results were delicious!  I also have designs on taking a 1:1 lesson on making Indian paratha and naan breads.

Our dear friend Jane generously invited my friend Toni and I to join her today for a challah baking lesson. She has a great deal of experience teaching close friends and other members of her synagogue how to bake challah. For special occasions, she may host 8-10 women at her home and they will all bake up to 30 loaves of challah together.

Baking of challah is a strong tradition for Jewish women, steeped in a longtime custom of baking challah bread on early Friday evenings before Shabbat. There are three Hebrew prayers said on Shabbat and one of them is the Ha-Motzi, a blessing of the bread before the meal.  The braiding of the bread represents the sacred and profane coming together. The sacred is the restful part of our lives, while the profane represents our work week and the tough things we experience throughout the week.

Jane shared with us that she has been making challah for countless years and considers challah baking her form of meditation. Challah baking is her way of shrugging off the stress from the week. She learned to make challah from her mother, who was a home economics teacher and excellent baker and home cook.

Jane was a patient teacher and made sure we knew that "There are stupid questions, but no stupid challah questions." She shared that there is no such thing as an ugly challah-they are all unique and beautiful. She appreciates variety in her challah making, experimenting with different flours, dried fruits and seed toppings. She occasionally makes junk food challah, which includes M&M's. I greatly appreciated the variations in making challah as a cook keen on making cooking and baking exploratory and fun.

We learned how to make 3 braided, 4 braided and 6 braided bread. Jane shared a great number of helpful tips along the way, such as adding oil to your bowl to keep your rising bread from sticking, how much to knead your bread (gratefully, as much as you want) and suggestions for oils, flours and yeast brands for challah.

Toni preparing to make braids

Now was time to bake Jane's challah. While waiting for the challah to bake, we enjoyed a lovely lunch prepared by Jane's wife Joan. We had a terrific salad using fresh vegetables from Joan's garden and from their CSA share from Next Barn over in Hadley, MA. A little balsamic, olive oil, salt, seeds and cheese were added. This was a perfect light summertime lunch. Thank you, Joan!

We were then sent off with our little challah care packages. At home, we tested our braiding skills. I could only hope for the best. I have to say that nothing went too awry, and the bread was tasty and appreciated by the family. I am looking forward to continuing to improve on making challah. I appreciate that the recipe for this bread involves a short ingredient list using items you typically always have in the kitchen. So, you can also whip this up at anytime when you have just a little extra time for bread baking.

Now on to the next new bread project!

In Her Kitchen

I've recently become an avid cookbook collector. Quite a lot of cookbooks and food books (both old and new) have made their way onto my bookshelves over the last year. The most cherished of all of these cookbooks is In Her Kitchen: Stories And Recipes From Grandmas Around The World. I loved this book as soon as I set my eyes on the cover. The cover is gorgeous, but it was the title that most grabbed my attention. I had a deep and strong connection with my Grandmother and greatly cherished our relationship. I have fond memories of spending time with her grocery shopping. After all these years since she has passed, I still have her grocery list memorized. And, I've had many wonderful relationships with incredible women many years my elder. Thus, I have a fondness and appreciation for "all things Grandma."

Before delving into the beauty of this book, I would like to say a little something about the author. Gabriele Galimberti is an inspiring Italian documentary photographer who has worked on many fascinating book projects. Some of his projects capture difficult to tackle topics and others are more lighthearted. His current project is Coffee Surfing. He will meet coffee lovers around the world to document stories of renewal and change. Pop on over to his website to learn more-I'm sure you'll find his work intriguing.

In Her Kitchen shares interesting personal stories of Grandmothers across the globe, alongside their recipes. Gorgeous photos are also shared for each featured Grandmother with their food and photos of a the recipe dish. You can enjoy cooking from this book, or simply reading the stories and taking in the beauty of the photography.

Needless to say, it was difficult to decide what to prepare from this book of mouth-watering dishes. I managed to narrow down my list to four dishes: Chinese Pork (Belly) Twice Cooked with Vegetables, Thai Stuffed Omelet, Argentinian Meat-Stuffed Pastries and Indian Chicken                                                                                                 Vindaloo.

My first adventure with In Her Kitchen was an Asian meal to include the Chinese and Thai dishes. Both dishes were incredible. I highly enjoyed making Pan Guang Mei's Twice-Cooked Pork with Vegetables (Hui Guo Rou). Pan Guang Mei is from Sichuan, China. She grew up in the countryside in a tiny house and now lives in the city of Chongqing and has one grandchild. This was my first time making pork belly, so I was prepared for a bit of an adventure. I was pleased to learn that making pork belly is very easy. As a bonus, it makes for a delectable and attractive dish. The dish as a whole was delicious. Making this dish also was an inspiration for cooking more with pork belly. This small cooking epiphany inspires me to cook more from this book. In Her Kitchen creates an opportunity for a jaunt around the world, sampling from many world cuisines.

Boonlom Thongpor of Bangkok Thailand has one grandchild. Her family has a small street restaurant and she considers herself an excellent cook. We loved her Thai Stuffed Omelet (Kai Yat Sai). This omelet is stuffed full of the savory flavors of pork, soy sauce, onions and fish sauce. I love the addition of chopped plum tomatoes to this flavor combination. I got a huge thumbs up from the family and I'll surely be making this again soon.

On to the next adventure. I have always loved empanadas and decided it was high time that I got some empanada making skills. Plus, Susana Vezetti's recipe looked pretty unique, so I felt the need to give this particular recipe a try. Susana is of Italian ancestry and from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She enjoys spending time with her children and also has a small business importing religious books from Italy. Whenever she sees her grandchildren, she brings her "Special Empanadas." They are indeed special. These empanadas are stuffed with cumin scented beef, onions, minced hard-boiled egg, raisins, red bell pepper and 1 green olive. The empanada pie dough was very good, creating the perfect crunchy atmosphere for the savory middle.

I ended my adventure in India. But, I will be back for more! Grace Estibero grew up in Goa, near the sea, but now lives in Mumbai. She is of Portuguese descent, like many who live in Goa. She shares her recipe for Chicken Vindaloo which is a dish that is an import from Portugal. This dish was really fun to prepare. I borrowed a large knife suitable for chopping up chicken from a colleague. I was not but at the chicken chopping for a first time. But, for the future, I'll probably just leave it to the butcher. How would you expect a dish to taste with a paste prepared from onions, chilies, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, cumin, cloves, turmeric, tamarind, sugar and peppercorns? Fantastic, of course! I had to go back for seconds on this flavorful dish.

I'm looking forward to continuing to cook my way through In Her Kitchen. I highly recommend this book and hope you enjoyed the blogpost.

I received this book from Blogging For Books for review.