One pot chicken and rice

Chicken

• 2 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
• 1 tbsp ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 tbsp "4 seasons spicy bake mix" or chicken bouillon powder
• 1.5 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp cooking rice wine
• 1.5 tbsp neutral oil (e.g. light olive oil)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 275 to 300g boneless skinless chicken thigh, cut in 1" cubes

Marinade the chicken in the above for 30 minutes on the counter, or longer in the fridge.

Rice

Wash 1.5 cups jasmine rice. Use the measuring cup used for baking, not the "cup" that is commonly used to measure rice, which is actually 3/4 of an actual cup. After the rice has been washed 3-4 times, drain the water using a strainer, not the back of your hand. This is to ensure the water is accurate.

Put the drained rice in the rice cooker and add 1.25 cups of water. Add the marinated chicken. Add 1 or 2 links of lap cheong that has been peeled (using warm water to loosen the skin), and sliced on the bias.

The original recipe says not to add the leftover marinade for fear of making the rice too mushy. But I think it depends whether you have used air chilled chicken, and how much marinade is left over. If it's only 2 or 3 tablespoons, I say add the marinade.

Start the rice cooker. When it finishes, let it rest another 15 minutes before removing the lid. If the rice is not completely finished, add a few tablespoons of water and start the cycle again.

Source: https://cookwithdana.com/one-pot-chinese-chicken-rice/

Bun (Vietnamese noodle dish)

Lemongrass pork

Begin preparations the day before because the recipe calls for a 24 hour marinade. Nations sells deboned pork shoulder in roughly 2 lb chunks, so I doubled the recipe. Trim off excess fat and any silverskin. Shoulder (aka pork butt) has grain that goes in all directions, but thanks to the marinade, it didn't make much difference whether I cut the slices against the grain or not.

Marinade for 2 lbs of pork butt (shoulder):

• 3 to 4 stems lemongrass (white part, bruised using meat hammer, 1cm slices on the bias)
• 8 cloves garlic
• 8 tbsp lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 6 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 8 tbsp brown sugar (not packed down)
• 6 tbsp light olive oil, or other neutral oil
• 1.5 tsp sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda)

Make 1cm thick slices of the pork butt, and pound them with a meat tenderizer. I harvested as many scraps as possible from what I bought, so there were lots of little not-steaks. Doesn't matter, because I'm going to cook them an a grill plate. Nothing will fall through, compared to cooking on the BBQ. Mix pork pieces in with the marinade.

The marinade will fizz because the baking soda reacts with the lime juice. Some heat will also be generated. I am curious how the baking soda or its by-products tenderizes the pork. In the end, the results were very good (L- loved it), so I will likely continue including the baking soda. As the author noted, pork shoulder usually benefits from long slow cooking, but this process created sufficiently tender and flavourful pork.

I cooked the pork on a domed Korean grill plate on an Iwatani butane burner outside, because that's what we have. I wiped the plate between batches to remove black residue, to avoid burned (bitter) flavours. It's not difficult to do, just shut off the burner and wipe down with a damp paper towel. Don't forget to scrape off any lemongrass before putting the pork on the grill plate. It helps to have covered containers for input and output to keep wasps off the meat.

https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-lemongrass-pork-steaks/

Nuoc cham (dipping sauce)

Begin preparations an hour or more before eating because it may be necessary to cool the sauce in the fridge before serving. I made the 8-servings quantity, which fits in a 500ml mason jar and was plenty for 2 or more meals for the three of us.

• 1 cup water
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 tbsp lime juice (1 to 2 limes)
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

The sugar has a hard time dissolving, so I put the water+sugar in a mason jar and microwaved it for 30 seconds to a minute (don't remember). The author recommended dissolving the sugar in 1/3 of the water, then adding the rest of the water at cool / room temp. If you prepare ahead of time, the sugar water will have time to cool before adding the rest of the ingredients (fish sauce, lime juice, garlic). Definitely try to add the lime juice to a cool mixture, to get the most flavour from the limes.

https://www.hungryhuy.com/vietnamese-dipping-fish-sauce-recipe-nuoc-cham-nuoc-mam-cham/

Noodles

Soak 375g package of vermicelli rice noodles in warm (45-50 degrees C) water for 10 minutes. Remove from the warm water, and cook in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Stop cooking when the noodles have reached the desired level of doneness (e.g. al dente). Drain and thoroughly cool down with one or two cold water baths, to stop the cooking process. Drain again, and use a salad spinner to remove any excess water. Spread the noodles across two plates to allow them to air dry. 

https://runawayrice.com/cooking-basics/make-perfect-rice-vermicelli/

Veggies and all the rest

Prepare:

• bean sprouts
• cucumber slivers
• sweet pepper slivers
• chopped lettuce
• salted roasted peanuts, chopped or lightly crushed
• some Thai basil, coriander, mint leaves

The original recipe recommended a carrot + daikon quick pickle, but if you have some fermented carrot + daikon, e.g for banh mi, you're good to go. If you don't have daikon, even slivered carrots is fine. Everyone chooses what they want anyway.

https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-pork-noodle-bowls/

Serve

Cut the cooked pork into bite-sized pieces.

Place some veggies in a big bowl. Add a layer of vermicelli. Top with pieces of pork, basil, coriander, mint, and peanuts. Spoon some nuoc cham over everything, and dig in.

Gyudon

Prepare the onion by slicing half of it thin, and half about 1cm thick. Separate the 1cm thick slices to ensure even cooking.

Cut a chunk of ginger (e.g. 1 inch cube) into slivers. Another recipe I saw said to use 1/2 tbsp ginger paste. The purpose of the ginger is to eliminate unpleasant odours from the beef, so use as much as you like, but not too much.

Combine in a medium sized pot

• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 3 tbsp cooking sake or white wine (to remove odour)
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2-3g dashi powder (optional) (to enhance umami flavour)
• 200-250g thinly sliced beef with some fat (e.g. brisket prepared for hot pot)

Bring to a boil / simmer over medium-high heat. Skim off the foam (blood and fat) to eliminate off-flavours. Cover the simmering beef with the thinly sliced onions and ginger slivers. Since I grated my ginger, I just mixed it in before adding the onions. Let the onions keep the beef submerged. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Enzymes from the onions help to tenderize the beef.

Once the 20 minutes has elapsed, add the thickly sliced onions and cook until they have reached the desired texture.

Serve with rice.

Source: Japanese Cooking Ichie