Taste of Vietnam: Cheers for Chè

Taste of Vietnam: Cheers for Chè

Chè Chuối - Brandon Nguyen 

I remember the times when my grandmother would prepare special desserts for the entire family. Every night, it was something different; I don't know how she did it. Probably the most memorable dessert to me was her signature chè chuối, described in Ăn: To Eat, by chef Helene An and her daughter Jacqueline An, as "banana pudding" (An Helene & Jacqueline 252). I chose to make chè chuối on behalf of my grandmother, the wonderful dishes she would make for me, and my fondest memories of her that will forever live in my heart. 


The recipe calls for five bananas halved lengthwise. As I previously mentioned, cutting is extremely challenging for me. I am terrified of knives and hate being around them. I was relieved because bananas are super easy to cut. Despite the simplicity, cutting the bananas was good practice. From thereon, I realized that making this was like a walk in the park. 

The bananas sit in two tablespoons of sugar for 15 minutes after they have been halved.

Challenging for me was making sure that the tapioca pearls do not stick to the bottom of the pot. The trick is to watch your pot and stir gently for several minutes, making sure that the tapioca pearls do not "pop when stirring or they'll flavor the chè too early" (An Helene & Jacqueline 252). The pearls are ready when they appear to be translucent. I was ignorant and did not watch over my pot; therefore, I burned some tapioca that became stuck on the bottom of my pot. No one wants to do extra cleaning!

Moreover, boiling water in a pot was something that was new for me (it is humiliating, I know). In the chapter, "Basic Techniques" in Ăn: To Eat, Helene and Jacqueline An suggest leaving "enough room in your pot for the liquid molecules to expand as they heat up" (An Helene & Jacqueline 36). In other words, make sure there is enough space for your water to bubble; it was pretty straightforward and, in addition, I successfully boiled water.

Tapioca pearls are added once the water is brought to a boil.

Overall, this recipe was simple. I would play around with the level of sweetness, for my chè was not sweet enough. On top of that, it had a soup-like consistency and could have been a little thicker. If I were to make this again, I would just eyeball the ingredients instead of measuring them and make small adjustments from the book's recipe. Sure, the chè I made is nothing compared to my grandmother's, but I think I deserve a pat on the back. What do you think? Is it better to eyeball the ingredients and have a taste test or measure the ingredients out exactly? How can I improve? 

Resources: 

An, Helene, and Jacqueline An. Ăn: to Eat: Recipes and Stories from a Vietnamese Family Kitchen. Running Press, 2016.

White Chocolate Macadamias

Vicki Nguyen
Period 4

White Chocolate Macadamias

I forgot to take a picture before I used the ingredients

but here are the left over ingredients I had left.

For my final blog post I decided to pick something different than what I normal make. In the book I found a recipes for white chocolate macadamias cookies. The macadamias will bring a crunch and textural to the already soft cookies, "The cookies was kind of chewy, which we liked, but I thought they needed more spice and more crunch" (Kit Forcey 3).

Ingredients

• 1 cup of soften butter
• 3/4 light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons of almond extract
• 2 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoons of salt
• 1 cup of macadamias nut
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips     (Forcey 3)

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla and almond extracts.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolates.
6. You will want to bake the cookies for 10 minutes.

Overall, I really like these cookies! Kit Forcey the creator of these cookies is right about the extra crunch you get when taking a bit of the cookie. The macadamias nuts does add extra to the cookies. Also adding the white chocolate chip did help the favoring of the cookies.

Do you guys prefer soft or chewy or crunchy cookies?

Sterling, N/A. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., The Barnes & Noble Cookie Bake-Off: Top 75 Recipes from Around the Country New York 2015,

Fudgy Brownies

For my third attempt at baking, I decided to stray away from cookies and go with brownies.

Directions

• 1/2 cup margarine or butter
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

"Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat margarine and chocolate chips in 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted. Beat in remaining ingredients except nut until smooth; stir in nuts. Spread in greased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. Bake until center is set, about 30 minutes; cool completely" (Crocker 49)

The brownies came out very well. I actually enjoyed making them. The first attempt for the brownies was a lot better than the cookies.

I think I will continue to experiment with the cookies more because I'm used to it more.

What's your favorite chocolate dessert?