Recipes for Tet
The Vietnamese New Year celebration, called Tet, follows the Chinese calendar, which means that it falls on February 17th this year. Like many cultures, the Vietnamese celebrate the start of a new year with dancing, music, fireworks, and food. Vietnamese food culture has influences from many places. The country sits at the intersection of trade routes between China, India, and Southeast Asia, and they were colonized by France (with a brief interruption) from 1858 to 1954. These influences introduced ingredients like soy sauce, tamarind, and curry spices along with techniques ranging from stir-frying to roasting and baking to their native cuisine. The dishes here make up a typical, traditional Vietnamese meal, which is made up of a light, clear soup, a meat dish, and (one or more) vegetables, served with plain rice, incorporating elements of the multi-cultural cuisine.
By Abby Schweber
Pork and Pumpkin Soup
In a classic Vietnamese meal, the diner takes a sip or two of a light, seasonal soup to start the meal and every time they take a bite from a different dish. The soup serves as both a beverage to wash the food down and a palate cleanser. In fall and winter, when kabocha squashes are in season, this winter squash soup is the most popular soup on Vietnamese dinner tables. It is usually made with shrimp or pork or both, with many variations on how those ingredients are prepared. I like to use ground pork because it’s so easy to cook properly, while the other choices are prone to over- or under- cooking, but any ground meat will do. One thing to notice is the contrasting textures, typical of Vietnamese cooking, in the soft, creaminess of the squash, the chewiness of the meat, and the crispness of the spring onion and cilantro.
Ingredients
2 lbs. any orange-fleshed winter squash* (butternut, acorn, autumn frost, etc.)
1 lb. ground meat* (pork, chicken, beef, whatever)
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 quarts chicken stock
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 bunches spring onions
½ cup cilantro
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, check What’s Fresh to see what’s in season
Method
Brown the meat in oil in a large pot on medium-high heat until mostly cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks until it’s in lumps no bigger than a small grape. Set aside.
Remove the seeds and stem from your squash, and cut into ½” dice.
Pour a small amount of chicken stock into the same pot on medium-high heat and scrape off any brown bits that are stuck to the bottom. Add the rest of the stock along with the squash and sugar. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until the squash is tender, about 10 minutes.
Cut spring onions into ¼” lengths. Finely chop the cilantro.
When the squash is cooked through, stir the pork, spring onions, salt, pepper, and cilantro into the soup and remove from the heat.
Coconut chicken
Vietnamese cuisine includes a wide variety of meat preparations, including steaming, roasting, grilling, braising, stir-frying, and casseroling. This is where their fusion of food cultures really shines, with complex flavors and seasonings. It showcases the unique fusion of Vietnamese cuisine, combining Southeast Asian ingredients of coconut and fish sauce, with French methods of caramelizing sugar and braising. Traditionally, this dish is just made with chicken, but the amazing produce at the market inspired me to do a more modern version that includes some of the gorgeous oyster mushrooms we are lucky enough to be able to get all year round.
Ingredients
2-3 lbs. bone-in chicken thighs*
2 Tbs. sugar
½ tsp. pepper
4 Tbs. vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic
2” ginger
1 can coconut milk
3 Tbs. fish sauce or soy sauce
6 ounces oyster mushrooms*
½ cup cilantro leaves or 2-3 spring onions
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, check What’s Fresh to see what’s in season
Method
Mince garlic and ginger. Trim off any woody ends from the mushrooms and tear the mushrooms into strips. (Oyster mushrooms tear easily)
In a large pan on medium heat, brown chicken in 2 tablespoons of oil, 2-3 minutes per side. Don’t crowd the pan, it’s better to do 2 batches, adding more oil if needed. Set aside.
Add the mushrooms to the same pan, adding 2 more tablespoons of oil. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and stir constantly until it is melted and starts to color, 2-3 more minutes.
Stir the garlic and ginger into the melted sugar and continue to stir for just 30 seconds.
Stir in the fish sauce or soy sauce, pepper, and the coconut milk. As soon as that is well combined, add back the chicken pieces, skin side up, reduce the heat to low, and cover for 15 minutes. Then uncover for another 5 minutes to let the sauce reduce. Check that the chicken is cooked through, if not, return to heat and continue cooking.
Finely chop cilantro or spring onions to garnish the dish.
Garlic spinach
In contrast to the complexity of their meat dishes, most Vietnamese vegetables are prepared very simply, either stir fried with a few seasonings, like this recipe, or boiled and served with a dipping sauce for flavor. The most common vegetable in all of Vietnam is something called “water spinach,” which is the greens of the morning glory plant. Its slight bitterness, hollow stem, and tender leaves make it pretty similar in texture, flavor, and cooking to mature spinach, which is the typical substitute when making Vietnamese food in the US.
Dishes of sauteed, seasoned greens are found in most East and Southeast Asian cuisines, nearly all using garlic. Flavorings range from familiar ingredients like soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar, to funkier elements like shrimp paste or fermented tofu. Some variants include meat or seafood, while others add mushrooms, onions, or chili peppers. The Vietnamese version keeps it simple, with just fish or oyster sauce to provide salt and umami richness, a touch of sugar to balance the bitterness, and of course the ever-present garlic.
4-5 cloves garlic*
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
12 oz. spinach*
2 Tbs. oyster sauce or fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
*These ingredients can be found at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, check What’s Fresh to see what’s in season
Method
If the spinach has thick stems, rinse to remove any dirt, then trim off the dried out ends and separate the stems from the leaves. Cut the stems into 2-3” pieces.
Thinly slice garlic. Roughly chop the spinach leaves into pieces no bigger than 2-3” in any direction.
In a small bowl, mix sugar and oyster sauce or fish sauce.
In a large frying pan on medium low heat, sauté the garlic in oil, stirring constantly for 30 seconds.
If you have spinach stems, add them and toss for about a minute.
Add spinach leaves, sauce, and sugar. Stir for a couple of minutes until the leaves are all wilted.
