Text 14712, 108 rader
Skriven 2008-10-05 22:11:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Viet 12
===============
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: About Mi Quang Noodle Soup Part 1
 Categories: Vietnamese, Soups
      Yield: 4 servings
 
      1    Info file
 
  It's a specialty of the central region of Vietnam, from Quang Nam
  province.
  
  Essentially it's a rice noodle dish but with not much broth. The
  broth doesn't cover the noodles, as you'd expect in a bowl of pho.
  Rather, it just sort of helps move the noodles around the bowl. The
  broth is fairly well cooked down, with perhaps chicken and shrimp,
  or pork (use pork neck bones), crab, fish or beef -- sort of
  whatever you've got around. In some of my Vietnamese language
  cookbooks, they say for you to saute the protein elements first for
  your broth. (I've also seen recommendations for you to marinate
  these ingredients before making the broth but that doesn't seem
  necessary.) Then flavor them with the usual Viet suspects -- fish
  sauce, salt, pepper and perhaps a bit of sugar. Add in your water
  and then some onion, tomato and pineapple and let the broth simmer
  for hours. (My guess is about 2 to 3 hours.)
  
  The tomato gives just a touch of orange color, so don't use a ton,
  but rather 1 regular tomato or 2 Romas. I imagine that the pineapple
  adds an interesting tart-sweet note; you don't need a whole peeled
  pineapple, perhaps just a 1-inch thick round. Get your wife to
  verify the seasoning and adjust the flavor with fish sauce, salt and
  sugar. Vietnamese cooks would use MSG to give a bit of extra boost.
  The broth should be very flavorful because you're not going to use
  much of it in the bowl. Keep simmering until you're satisfied and
  then strain the broth.
  
  As for the noodles, use medium to wide width (about 1/4 inch wide)
  rice noodles (banh pho). Soak in hot water to soften and then blanch
  individual portions in boiling water to cook. Get together your
  vegetable components: mung bean sprouts, herbs (culantro, cilantro,
  Asian/Thai basil), thin slices of banana blossom (soak in acidulated
  water and use just the petals) and shredded lettuce (use romaine for
  crunch).
  
  Among the rather long list of protein garnishes are some feasible
  items that you can prepare or purchase: poached shrimp, slices of
  poached chicken, slices of Vietnamese steamed pork pate (gio), pork
  cracklings and chopped roasted unsalted peanuts. You may want to use
  some slices of cooked pork. If you do, poach a pork chop in the
  broth, as you would similarly poach the shrimp. Throw the bones and
  shells back into the broth to add extra flavor. As for the poached
  chicken, if you use chicken carcasses, poach a chicken breast in the
  broth as it cooks. If you're using a whole chicken to make the
  broth, pull the meat off after about 45 minutes of simmering.
  
  You also need some toasted rice cracker (ba trang nuong/ba da)
  that's broken up into shards.
  
  Now, assemble each bowl by:
  
  1) Lining the bowl with your vegetables.
  2) Adding a mound of cooked noodles.
  3) Topping with your selection of protein garnishes.
  4) Ladling in some boiling hot broth -- not to completely cover the
  noodles, just enough to grace the noodles, perhaps covering them by
  about 1/3.
  5) Garnish with 2 or 3 shards of toasted rice cracker. The shards
  are usually smallish pieces about 3 inches wide.
  
  When you eat this dish, break the rice cracker shards up into
  smaller pieces and mix everything up. Diners may add a squirt of
  lime or some chili slices for heat.
  
  Oddly enough, all of this together tastes pretty good. That's the
  full-on approach. I suppose you could cheat and doctor up some
  thinned out canned chicken stock (1 stock: 2 water) and perhaps a
  little dried shrimp along with the other broth ingredients. You
  could try this at first and see what she thinks. The broth really
  does vary so much and the only constant is the onion, tomato and
  pineapple. If you use canned stock then reduce the total simmering
  time to 1 hour. It won't be as complex but will save you time.
  
  The thing with mi Quang is that you end up spending lots of time
  prepping the other garnishes. If you were a small shop in Vietnam
  specializing in this, well, things would be a lot easier. However,
  know that Vietnamese food is a series of riffs and that what's
  important is knowing the basics.
  
  I just remembered that one of the unique things about mi Quang is
  the color of the rice noodles. They're yellow. There's this big deal
  about how the noodles are made, etc. But, in the U.S. I'm pretty
  sure that the dried rice noodles (banh pho) are soaked in water to
  which yellow food coloring has been added. You can add a little
  ground turmeric to the soaking water for a natural yellow color. I
  believe that in making fresh noodles for mi Quang, a little turmeric
  juice is added.

  From: Andrea Q. Nguyen's Vietworldkitchen.com
 
MMMMM

Cheers

YK Jim


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