Chicken Curry with Rice Vermicelli

As I mentioned before, my favorite dish of all time is anything with noodle in it. In our house, it called “noodle head” and there a couple of us that can be labeled as that! Although rice vermicelli is not really consider as your traditional noodle, but nevertheless it is such as good if done right and with the right soup base. Now this is one of those dishes that is very popular in Southeast Asian where spices is their everyday life. And after tasting so many different curries dishes, I can state that every culture and family has their own version on how it is done.

This version that I am making is my family version that been passed down by my grandma. I remember getting up early in the morning to help cook, because she would make two big giant pot so that she can give it to all her five children and their family. Not to forget her neighbor too. Therefore, she usually make enough to feed 30 plus people and that meant lots of coconut grating, lemon grass mincing and the mortar always busy pounding away.
Of course this is the long and old fashion way where everything is made from scratch. In the end, the result is authentic and tasted splendid!

Now let face fact, not everyone is a homemaker that would actually have the time to do all this from scratch, so I came up with a shorter version and taste very close to how I remembered how my grandma curry used to be. Of course, if she ever found out I did this she would have a field day with me, but what she doesn’t know doesn’t hurt right?
Then again, I have both the long and easy version, so I am pretty much guilt free…or at least I hope to be….lol


Ingredients:

6 Lemon grasses
Handful of kaffier lime
5 Dried chili pods soak in hot water to soften
1” turmeric
4 Garlic cloves
In a mortar or food processor mash the above ingredient to fine and paste like. Now you have your homemade curry paste.
1 Tbsp of powder curry
(For a shortcut, you can use 2 Tbsp of Thai yellow curry + 1 Tsp of curry powder instead of the above ingredients)
1 Large can of coconut juice or 3 to 4 Cup of fresh squeeze coconut milk
1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
1 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tsp of shrimp paste
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
½ Cup of fish sauce or to taste
1 Tsp of kosher salt or to taste
3 Tsp of chicken soup flavor powder
1 Organic chicken cut into small desire pieces
1 Large can of bamboo shoot
2 Large yellow onions
1 Handful of Asian green bean cut diagonally
3 Asian eggplants cut diagonally
2 Potato cut into 2’ cubes (optional)
Water

Garnish:

1 Handful of sweet basil
Fresh Thai chills
Bean sprout
Thinly sliced green been
Thinly sliced cucumber
Thinly sliced cabbage

Sauce:

4 to 5 Jalapenos
2 Cloves of garlic
1 Tsp of kosher salt
2 to 3 Tbsp of lime juice

This is the sauce that I made for dipping the chicken and vegetable in. It also great to put in the noodle to “give it a kick” BAM! Lol
In a mortar mash everything together and add the lime juice to taste. Set aside.

Methods:

1. In a 10 quart pot, heat to hot. Add the vegetable oil, wait a couple of seconds to bring the oil to hot. Stir in the curry paste, oyster sauce, half of the fish sauce, salt and stir until aroma and lightly golden.
2. Now stir in half of the coconut milk and bring to boil. If using the ¼ of the can, use half at a time with about a cup.
3. Add the chicken and stir until gently. Slowing adding the rest of the coconut milk, chicken flavor soup base, the rest of the salt and enough water to cover the chicken. I used coconut can to measure 3 to 4 cups of water, depending how thick you want the curry to be.
4. After it boil bring to heat to medium.
5. About 10 minutes before it done, put all the vegetable and let it cook.
6. In another pot, add enough water and bring to boil. Cook the vermicelli according to package.
7. Remove from heat and run cold water on it to stop the cooking process.
8. With your two index fingers pick the noodle up and form a circle around your palm.
9. Wring the water out of it and place on a strainer to dry.
10. Serve by placing the noodle and vegetable and herbs in a bowl while pouring the curry soup on top of it.
11. For a kick add the jalapeno and garlic sauce.

My Version of Phnom Phenh Noodle Soup

My Version of Phnom Phenh Noodle Soup

This is the noodle that I grew up with in our house. I remember this version ever since I was little and my grandmother would take me to this outside booth in Thailand and we would share our bowl of noodle once in a long while. Then when we first came to Long Beach, there was no such thing as a noodle house or Chinese restaurant. So we always end up making our own noodle at home. And that occasion would be maybe four times a year. I never learnt how to make it then, because I was too young and the process took too long. I was always willing to eat and never willing to help my grandmother cook. That why I only caught on to a couple of my favorite dishes from her.

As I grew up and have my own family, I learn to make this noodle for my family too. Even though by then Long Beach have plenty of restaurant and noodle house. And the saying still goes that eating out uses too much msg. Which I don’t use in my cooking at all, due to the fact that it is already in the soy sauce and fish sauce…if you haven’t noticed by now. So with trials and errors I have learnt to improve this recipe. Of course, you have to remember that even with the same exact recipe, the outcome will still be different due to our difference in taste. As for the name it depend whom you ask or where, for it also known Thiew Chieu noodle.

This noodle bring back old memories growing up. I just love how the house would fill wit this intoxicating aroma early every morning, making me looking forward to Sunday.



Ingredients:

Soup:

5 liter water or bigger
5 Pieces of pork neck
3 Pieces of pork shoulder bone
3 Pieces of chicken bone
4 Tbsp of chicken broth (powder form)
1 Cube of pork flavor soup base
2 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tsp of white pepper
1 Tsp of black pepper
3 Star anises
1 Large onion
1 Inch ginger
1 Dried Squid
3 Tbsp of dried shrimp
3 Cloves garlic
2 Whole preserved turnip cut into two pieces
2 Tbsp of preserved vegetable (comes in jar shred)
¼ Cup of fish sauce or add to taste
½ Tbsp of sea salt

1 – 2 Pack dried of fresh noodle

Meat garish:

8 oz of rib eyes beef sliced thinly
8 oz or one flap of beef tripe cooked and sliced into stripes
1 Pack beef ball
1 Pack fish ball
1 Cup of shrimp devein and peel
½ Cup of cook pig kidney (optional)


Topping:

1 Whole garlic (minced and added into hot oil until golden brown)
½ Bunch of cilantro chopped
3 Scallion chopped
2 Cup of bean sprout
Preserved vegetable topping as desire…
White pepper

Methods:

1. Place the bones in a big enough pot for your family. I used a 2 gallons plus. Fill water to top add the salt and place on the stove on high.
2. Bring it to a rapid boil and removed all scum and fat on the top.
3. Add all the soup ingredients.
4. Lower to medium and let it cook for another 1 hour and 45 minutes at least.
5. Make sure to add the salt, fish sauce and sugar to taste.
6. After meat are tender, turn off the stove and let it cool.
7. When it finished cooling place it in the refrigerator over night.
8. The next morning put reheat on the stove on high.
9. As the soup is reheating add the beef and fish ball, and put enough water in another clean pot and bring to boil.
10. Cook the noodle no more than 1 minute.
11. When it cooked use a noodle strainer and pick up the noodle and let the water drip and dry the noodle.
12. As soon as you place the noodle on the bowl add the oil and garlic right away so it doesn’t stick together.
13. While the water still boiling cook the beef and shrimp and add it on top of your noodle. Add the beef tripe and kidney too.
14. Add all the desire topping on like the preserved vegetable, cilantro, scallion bean sprout.
15. Now slowly and carefully pour the soup on top of it. Sprinkle a couple dash of white pepper and your ready to eat!

Beef Pho

Just want to point a couple of things out before we get started. I grew up in an area where any kind of noodle is an abundant. Therefore, I never have the need to make my own noodle since it a lot cheaper and faster to eat out. I often take my boys to the noodle house every Sunday. So Sunday is our favorite day for everything, but since moving to Texas…there not much here, let alone a noodle house. So we often crave what we can’t have, but I’ve tried to accommodated all of our craving. Especially Asian food, but noodle is top of our most wanted list! Thus we all became a noodle head!

And to maintain our Sunday ritual, I make Pho very Sunday. Of course with my busy schedule I don’t have all day to cook the soup, so I made it the night before on Saturday.
On Saturday night, I get off from work really late like 11 pm. By the time I get home it about 11:30 at night as I started my soup stock. I like to cook overnight my soup overnight due to my busy schedule and also because leaving the soup overnight the heat help finishing cooking the meat and it way more flavorful. The added bonus the fat would deposit when leave in the refrigerator overnight and easier to remove. Love this soup!!



Ingredients:

For the soup:

6 pieces of oxtail or feet bone for more tendons
4 to 6 pieces of neck bone
1 cinnamon stick
3 star anis
1 onion
2 inches of ginger
1 to 2 cube of beef bouillon
1 pk noodle dried or fresh
3 to 4 Tbsp of fish salt
1 tsp of kosher salts


For the topping:

1 6 oz of filet mignon or rib eyes thinly sliced
Handful of bean sprout
Handful of cilantro
Handful of basil
Handful of scallion sliced
Handful sliced jalapeno

Methods:

1. With a 5 quart of pot or bigger put the oxtail, neck bone adds a little salt to about ¾ full and brings to a boil. While the water boiling make sure to grill the onions and ginger to a charcoal so that the aroma will give.
2. Remove from stove top and rinse the bone well off the scum and impurities. Refill the water to almost full and placed back on the stove top on high.
3. Add the salt, cinnamon, ginger, onion, beef bouillon, star anis, salts and fish sauce.
4. Bring to boil and then lower the heat to medium. Boil for at least 2 to 3 hours, depending how tender you want your oxtail and neck bone to be.
5. After the meat is tender and to taste turn the heat off and let it cool then put it in the refrigerator overnight.
6. The next morning before serving, remove all the fat that deposit on the off.
7. Reheat until boil.
8. If using dried noodle, make sure to soak it in water for at least half an hour.
9. Bring water to boil in pot and add the noodle in. Dried noodle cook about 2 minutes for fresh noodle as soon as you put it in, pull it out so that it won’t over cook.
10. Add the garnish and beef and pour the hot soup over the noodle.

Get your chopstick and spoon and dig in!