Happy farm box day! The boxes are looking so delicious today, we included a bunch of ingredients to try out the dumpling recipe from last week if you’re up for it. Mushrooms, onion, collard greens, potatoes and more are all perfect for the dumplings. We are back this week with some more asian cuisine inspiration, because it is just so dang good and exciting. Jia Qi, our fine friend we shared about last week, is sharing the wisdom below. From the perfect bowl of rice, to quick Vietnamese dipping sauce, and the kitchen gadgets to help you make your life easier, Jia Qi has got them all for you!
We hope you find these tips useful and fun for your endeavors in asian cuisine, and for everyday use! Thank you for the pro tips Jia Qi, we are SO grateful for your knowledge and experience. Have a great week everyone & thanks for being here!
the PERFECT bowl of rice
Perfect bowl of rice:
Assuming you don’t have a rice cooker, rice can be a tricky thing to cook! Do you cook it on the stove? Should you bake it? Can you microwave it??? Well I have some tips and hopefully they can help you whip up rice at home with ease!
Well, the answer to all the questions above is YES. You can cook rice on the stovetop, in the oven, and in the microwave. But the easiest way in my opinion is to bake it. Baking rice is great because unlike the stovetop method, you don’t have to worry about burning the bottom of your rice, and you don’t have to continuously stir it. You can just whack it in the oven, leave it, and presto! You have delicious steamed rice. Here’s my basic recipe:
1 Cup Jasmine Long Grain Rice
2 Cups Water
Preheat oven to 325F. Put rice in a mesh strainer, and rinse rice until water runs clear. Stir rice and water in either an oven safe pot or a casserole dish. Keep in mind that rice will nearly double in size when cooked, so make sure to use a big enough dish. Cover the pot/dish with a lid, and if you don’t have a lid, covering with foil will work just as well. Put dish into preheated oven for 20-25 min, until rice is fully cooked. Fluff with a fork before serving.
This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled, but make sure to keep the ratio of rice to water at 1:2. I usually make 2 cups of rice at a time, and that will last me a few days. It is also important to note that this recipe applies to jasmine long grain rice. Short grain rice uses significantly less water, so if that’s all you have, no frets! The ratio of rice to water is 1:1. Cooked rice stores well in the fridge, and day old rice is perfect for fried rice! If you want to reheat your rice to eat the next day, microwaving is the way to go. Just make sure to add a teaspoon or so of water directly to the rice before microwaving, so that the rice rehydrates.
Feel free to jazz up your rice too! Maybe try adding a couple of sprigs of cilantro, or maybe even some rosemary to your rice before cooking. I find that garlic goes great in rice. You can even try swapping out water for broth for added flavor. My favorite way to make flavored rice is equal parts rice, water, and coconut milk, a dash of salt, and I’ll add some sprigs of cilantro too, to make Southeast Asian Coconut rice! It’s perfect to pair with grilled chicken, or roasted sweet potatoes! The possibilities are endless.
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce:
This simple recipe is a reason why every pantry should have fish sauce :)
1 Cup Hot Water
½ Cup Fish Sauce (Red Boat or Squid are great brands)
½ Cup Lime Juice
½ Cup Sugar
5 Medium Cloves Garlic, roughly minced
1 Thai Chili, sliced into rounds (optional)
In a bowl, whisk the hot water and sugar together until sugar dissolves. Whisk together remaining ingredients. If you want some heat but you don’t want it to be super spicy, removing the seeds from the thai chili will help abate the heat. Feel free to adjust the proportions of any ingredient to your liking!
This sauce goes great on pretty much everything! It really is a sort of all purpose sauce. The next time you’re at any Vietnamese or even Thai restaurant, take a look at the condiments on your table - you’re nearly guaranteed to see this sauce alongside the soy sauce and chili oils. Add to steamed rice for some boosted flavor, or spoon over grilled meats for some added umami and tang. It’s great for marinating meat before cooking too. Personally, I like to whisk in about a ½ cup of oil, and a couple drops of sesame oil, and use that as salad dressing!
SHARP Chefs Knife: At the bare minimum, every kitchen should have one of these. And emphasis on SHARP! A dull knife is far more dangerous and accident prone than a sharp one. Ask a cook or chef friend to refer you to a place to get your knives sharpened, or ask pretty please and have your cook or chef friends sharpen it for you themselves. A paring knife and a bread knife are pretty standard to have as well, but make sure to have a Chefs knife before all else!
Bowl Scraper: This handy tool doubles as both a bowl/pan/tin scraper (sort of like a stiff spatula) and a ‘picker-upper’ for chopped ingredients. I personally have found that I cannot live without one. I bought a pack of 5, so that way in case I lose one or in the event that one breaks, I have plenty more as back up. This is a perfect tool to have if you love to bake! You’ll find it is helpful in so many ways.
Microplane Fine Grater: You may not think you need one of these, but let me tell you how frustrating it is to not have one when you are trying to garnish pasta with fresh shredded cheese, or are feeling too lazy to chop garlic or ginger. It’s definitely not a tool that you find yourself using everyday, but I think it is an essential tool to own.
Mandoline: Funnily and not so funnily enough, this is probably one of the most helpful and simultaneously dangerous tools in the kitchen. It can turn minutes and minutes of prep into mere seconds. It’s so handy! But I have to caution you, PLEASE be super careful and attentive when using a mandoline. I’ve seen more cooks butcher their hands and fingers up with a mandoline than any knife. And as with a knife, a dull blade on a mandoline is far more dangerous than a sharp one. Ingredients getting caught in the blade is the leading cause of imjury. So if you are going to have a mandoline, please take care to maintain it. Otherwise, it’s a pretty pointless tool.
Set of Sturdy Kitchen Towels: This is essential for me. I always use at least 2 when I’m cooking. I like to keep a damp towel to wipe down surfaces, like my cutting board or the stove, and a dry one to dry my damp hands and to dust off surfaces. A folded dry towel also doubles as a pot holder. Emphasis on DRY!! If you try grabbing a hot pan/pot handle with a wet towel, you are going to burn your hand. Always make sure it’s dry before grabbing any hot items! That being said, if you have dry towels, you will never buy another silly rubber oven glove that will melt and smell bad ever again! This is also handy when cooking with multiple pans/pots on the stove: use a dry folded towel to grab the handles fearlessly!
A Good Horizontal Vegetable Peeler: This is obviously debatable, but horizontal peelers are superior to vertical ones. Maybe it’s handy to own both, but I have one little horizontal peeler and I use that for everything. I think it’s faster, and less injury prone.
Coconut Curried Collard Greens