Beef, Pork & Lamb | Jaden's Steamy Kitchen

Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup - Pho Bo

What the Pho?!

I've been working hard perfecting the techniques and recipe for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, or Pho, just for you. And really, I'm not kissing ass or anything, but it's because of you guys that I'm posting this recipe! Of all the cookbooks that I own, the best recipe that I've found for Pho is from:

Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, which is one of the most comprehensive books on the cuisine of Vietnam. The book also won nominations for a James Beard Foundation award and two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Definitely a must-have book for Asian food lovers.

So, let's get right to it - I've got lots of photos to share.

Oh and the dish is pronounced "fuh" and not "foo" or "foe" or "puh"

Yeah, Pho is cheap to purchase at a good Pho restaurant...but to be able to make a home made version? Pretty Pho-king amazing, if you ask me.

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February 9th, 2008 in Uncategorized |

An Ode to Spam + SteamyKitchen Care Package Contest

Before we tie a big, fat bow on this year’s box of ups, down and go-arounds, I‘d like to give props to Spam, the wondrous food that started my relationship with Creative Loafing (the newspaper that I write a weekly food column for) earlier this year when I dared editor Max to lose his spam virginity to me. And yes, I was gentle. I fed him luscious morsels of Spam nestled in mounds of snowy, fluffy, white rice.

It’s not an easy task, convincing people to willingly eat meat that comes in its own coffin, especially after hearing the "STHLURP" as it slithers out and the "STHLUNK" as it lands on the counter top in a quivering, solid, gelatinous mass.

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December 28th, 2007 in Uncategorized |

Beef Congee (Rice Porridge) + PBS Show

Every morning in China, we would wake up to a smorgasbord of a breakfast buffet. The hotels and cruise ships had anticipated every kind of craving - from "orange sauce" to "dessicated potatoes" , Chinglish for orange juice and hash browns. But when in China, eat like the Chinese. Plus, "stewed encased meat surprise" (sausage) and "fresh cream squirt" (I have NO IDEA what that really was) just didn't sound too appetizing...(continued)....

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November 16th, 2007 in Uncategorized |

Chinese Steamed Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce

I've been on a recipe-writing and testing streak! But I'm NEVER going to ever finish a cookbook if I keep publishing all the recipes on the blog! I mean, who the heck would want to buy my cookbook if all my recipes are available on SteamyKitchen.com...for free?

DUH! Well, damn it.... I'd better make a career out of cooking on TV cuz I think a cookbook will certainly take Fuh.Ev.Uh.

When I eat dim sum, there are certain dishes that I always order - Cha Siu Bow (bbq'd steamed buns), Fung Jow (steamed chicken feet), Ha Gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) and Pai Gwut (steamed spareribs with black bean sauce.) If you are lucky enough to live near a large Asian supermarket that has a meat section, the pork rib tips are easy to find. You can also ask, beg, bribe your butcher to cut normal ribs cross-wise to get small 1-1/2" riblets. If you live in the southeast part of the U.S. and have a chain supermarket called "Publix" - look for a package called "rib tips."

Traditionally, whole black beans are used in this dish. However, they are hard to find outside of Chinese markets. I've substituted with jarred black bean sauce - which you can normally find in any supermarket ethnic section. This recipe only took about 5 minutes to prepare and 20-30 minutes to steam....continued....

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November 12th, 2007 in Uncategorized |

How to Turn Cheap "Choice" Steaks into Gucci "Prime" Steaks

(Grilled Porterhouse with Garlic-Herb Butter, Shoestring Fries and Spinach with Garlic Chips. Thank you Kelly for cooking my spinach while I tended to my rugrat children who thought it would be funny to watch Mom trip over the marbles that they dumped down the stairs. Ha. Ha. That was funny boys.)

If you are a meat-lover, I hope that the title of this post + luscious photo is enticing enough for you to read though the entire article. Because I promise you that it's worth it. Even if you don't eat meat, this is a must-read...as you can impress the hell outta your carnivorean friends. (and sometimes, when you're a vegetarian in a herd of carnivores...it would just be nice to have that extra, "dude....you didn't know that about steak???!" in your pocket.)

My entire family (including the 2 yr old kid) just adores steak...you could probably classify us as professional steak-eaters. In fact, it is my husband's life-long quest to hone his grilling technique so that our steaks at home turn out charred crusty on the outside and perfectly medium-rare on the inside. With grill marks for show, of course. Seriously, we are too cheap to eat out at nice steak restaurants. For the past 4 months, we have been experimenting with how to get full, juicy, beefy flavor of a ribeye with butter-knife tenderness of a filet mignon without paying up-the-butt for Prime cuts.

And after 4 months of eating steak 2x a week, I think we've figured it out.

So, my friends, I am offering you a very juicy secret, one that will turn an ordinary "Choice" cut of steak into a gucci "Prime" cut. Do you know the joy of buying Choice and eating Prime? It's like buying a Hyundai and getting a free mail-in rebate for a BMW upgrade!!!

The secret after the jump.....

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August 28th, 2007 in Uncategorized |