Cháo gà

Viet: Cháo gà

English: Rice soup with chicken

Pronunciation: Jow (Jelly minus elly plus pow minus p.), rising tone. Yapple minus pple, falling tone. Jow Ya.

My poor little Asian got sick.  (Can I call a 6'2" man little?) 

Headache, vomiting, fatigue, the usual works that keep you out of work for two days.  I went home early to morph into Nurse Sarah.  I made him comfortable in bed, got him a glass of water, and then asked what I could make him to eat.  Any suggestion of food made him cringe.  But there was one culinary risk he was willing to take.  Whenever he was sick as a child, his mom would always make him cháo.  And since sickness makes one revert to a childlike state, he now requested that I make him the same dish.

Facts known: 

Called "Jow."

Made in rice maker but with more water. 

Soup-like.

A wonderful invention called the "internet" enabled me to expand on these facts.  What Thai calls "Cháo" is called "congee" in many Asian countries, and every Asian country has their own variation.   The Vietnamese version is often made with chicken, or "gà" as I should say.  The big debate is how much water to put into the rice cooker.  Once I decided upon 5 cups, though, I still wasn't satisfied.  

Rice and water and chicken? I decided to "Viet it up" a bit.  Toss in some fresh green onions, sprinkle in some ground ginger, mix in a little soy sauce.  Just because he's sick doesn't mean I halt my obsessive desire to appeal to the Viet child inside him!

And let me tell what that little Viet child said, peeking out through big brown eyes.  He slurped and Mmmm'd and devoured.  And somewhere in the middle of that, he said, and I quote, "It's better than what I had as a kid!"

My response was of course a victory dance.

Make way for the Vietnamese chef, world.

Cháo gà, made for sick Thai

1 cup of rice

5 cups of water

4 green onion stalks

Fully cooked chicken breast fajitas

ground ginger

soy sauce

black pepper

1. Put rice and water in rice cooker.  Turn to Cook.  Monitor while cooking to make sure doesn't overflow.  If that happens, lift the lid and let the dragon calm down.

2. Heat up desired amount of chicken breasts in microwave according to directions (or this is the point where you could be more legit and cook up fresh chicken breasts.  I'm vegetarian, so I'm not very passionate about the meat.)

3. Chop green onion stalks (not the bulb part) so there about 1/4 thick.

4. Cut warmed (Warning! Could be very hot!) chicken into little squares, about 1/2 inch thick.

5. When the rice is done, mix in the green onions.  

6. Add ginger, pepper, and soy sauce to taste.  Ginger can be very powerful so be careful with that one!

7. Put chicken want in 1 serving in bowl.  Scoop cháo into bowl.  Make sure you get a good amount of water too, not just the rice.  

Future servings, I had to add in more water and heat it up in the microwave, especially as I neared the bottom of the cooker.  I put the chicken in the serving bowl here because I'm vegetarian-- I wanted some cháo too!  But you can of course mix it into the main pot.

Good news: Thai is now all better.  Coincidence?

Texan Sriracha

In my fiance's world of Viet cuisine there are 3 necessities: rice, soy sauce, and Sriracha.

Sriracha is actually a Thai sauce, named after the seaside village of Si Racha in Thailand.  It's main ingredient is Thai chilli peppers.  But the Sriracha sauce that you'd find on the shelves at Hong Kong Supermarket in the US, the Sriracha my fiance grew up loving, is a little different.  It was developed by a Chinese-Vietnamese farmer who fled after the war on a boat in the late 1970s (sound familiar?) and established Huy Fong Foods in California.  The sauce is made from fresh red jalapeño peppers. 1 2

My first exposure to Sriracha was seeing my fiance Thai squeeze a liberal amount into his phở bò.  After a few times witnessing this, I decided that I would try this "Sweet Rah-cha" sauce.  I squeezed a drop on my finger to test out the taste.  As it touched my tongue and began to burn, I wondered at the misleading name - There's nothing "sweet" about this!!


This summer, I discovered a recipe on Viet World Kitchen for Homemade Fermented Sriracha Sauce.  I wrote down the list of suggested peppers and went to see what I could find at the Farmer's Market.  This being Texas, I of course found a plethora of jalapeños.  Later, I tossed them into a blender with the other required ingredients, thinking only of how impressed Thai would be with my Sriracha-making skills.   It wasn't until my mixture reached "a texture like that of wet oatmeal," that I realized something was wrong.


It was GREEN.


Yes, green peppers create green sauce.  Surprise!  Toss in some brown sugar instead of Thai palm sugar, and you've got some Texas-ified Sriracha.  But Thai is Texan-Vietnamese, so I suppose it suits him!  The resulting sauce was even HOTTER than Huy Fong Sriracha.  And he absolutely loves it!  He said that he actually likes it better than the Viet red sauce!  

My green Sriracha in a Tostitos salsa jar.

Texan Sriracha (adapted from Homemade Fermented Sriracha Sauce)

¾ pounds green Jalapenos, snipped, halved lengthwise and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
Water, as needed

1. Combine jalapeños, garlic, salt, and sugar in blender and chop finely to a texture like that of wet oatmeal.

2. Transfer the mixture to a glass bowl or jar and cover with plastic wrap. 

3. Set aside at room temperature for 4 days, until small bubbles have formed under the surface of the mixture (I didn't see bubbles?). If a little fuzzy mold forms, lift it off with a fork and discard (and don't tell anyone!). 

4. After 4 days, put the fermented mixture and vinegar into small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. Transfer to a blender and puree for 3 minutes, until a smooth mixture forms. Add the water to facilitate the pureeing, if needed.

6. Let the flavor develop and bloom for a few hours before using.

7. Grab your Asian and let the judgement begin!

--- This post is my contribution to Delicious Vietnam #4, a monthly blogging event celebrating Vietnamese cuisine created by A Food Lovers Journey and Ravenous Couple! This month's host is Bonni_bella of Chrysanthemum. ---

Prop 8

Vietnamese: tình yêu
English: Love

Today Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional in California Courts.

Being in an inter-racial relationship makes me feel very connected to the struggles in the LGBT community for the freedom to marry.  Marriage between people of different races used to be considered horrific, just as marriage between people of the same sex is considered now.  If society told me I couldn't be with my fiancé only because I'm white and he's Vietnamese... my heart hurts just thinking about it.

My thoughts are with the gay community in America.  Let's take this to the Supreme Court!