2006 Recipes: Picture Index

More lists. I've long wanted to have thumbnail images of each of my recipes. But since I have to manually cut and paste each link, in alphabetical order, into my recipe index, and considering there are now more than 400 recipes, it gets a little unfeasible. So, this is a picture index of all the recipes I've posted for that year, in chronological order. A picture menu for you, a visual reminder for me?

When I get caught up, other years will be added to the Recipes: Picture Indexes page.

Ask Wandering Chopsticks 5

Gosh! Has it been five months since I started my open question period? Crazy! How come time goes by so quickly?!

This photo hasn't been doctored in any way. The gloaming yesterday really was that gorgeous. A few minutes after I snapped some shots, the sky turned deep blue and then night.

Indonesian Beef Rendang

I've been eating a lot more Indonesian food in the past year than I have ever before. Largely because of Gourmet Pigs, of course. So it was inevitable that I eventually tried my hand at cooking something. I asked her to ask her mom for a beef rendang recipe, a sort of dry curry if you're unfamiliar with Indonesian food.

GP said I needed more chili peppers to my recipe, which makes it perfect for this month's Weekend Wokking CHILI PEPPER edition, as chosen by last month's hostess, Marija of Palachinka. I had most of the ingredients already at home, except for candlenuts and galangal, which I substituted with walnuts and ginger. I also added ground nutmeg and cinnamon, which were not part of her mom's recipe.

*****

WC: What do candlenuts do for recipes? I've seen them in other Indonesian recipes but haven't tried.

GP: Hm. Oil? Or texture.
Nice aroma.

WC: I saw some at the San Gabriel Superstore. Haven't bought any yet because no recipe.

GP: The candlenut also gives it that yellowy color.

WC: I'm thinking the oil and aroma sounds right.
No turmeric huh?

GP: Not according to this recipe.

WC: My aunt makes something similar with lemongrass and coconut juice, not milk.
And only 1 stalk of lemongrass? Think, I'll have to adapt and add another. Bwhaha.

GP: Hahaha. Sure.

WC: I have everything except candlenuts and galangal. I don't much like galangal though. Maybe just stick to ginger.

GP: I've heard the next best thing to candlenut is cashew.
But I don't know... That just won't be rendang...

WC: 2 tblsp candlenuts. Think I can sub with walnuts?
Aroma? Oil? Smoothness?
Haha.

GP: But... but...
Flavor.

*****

Well, I completely bastardized GP's mom's rendang recipe and maybe my flavor is off, but I still liked it.

Nai Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Venison)

The last entry/entree in this dinner in late October was nai luc lac (Vietnamese shaking venison), which really is just Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) made with deer meat.

Nem Nuong Xa (Vietnamese Lemongrass Grilled Pork Patties)

My Nem Nuong and Nem Nuong Cuon (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty and Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty Salad Rolls) has long been one of the most popular recipes on the blog. Just basic meat patties the way everyone makes it in my hometown. No food coloring to make it pink. No baking powder to make the meat bouncy. Just slightly sweet mini hamburgers really.

I've never thought of, nor wanted to, change the basic premise of the recipe until I came across the idea of adding lemongrass to the meatballs in "Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart." I used my recipe instead, of course. Then I remembered Kirk of Mmm-yoso's Tamarind Cooking School pictures from his trip to Luang Prabang, Laos.

Lemongrass pork-stuffed lemongrass skewers!

Sup Ca Chua Dau Xanh (Vietnamese Green Bean and Tomato Egg Drop Soup)

The baked goat cheese on pesto was to hold off my friends' hunger as I quickly prepared the rest of dinner. I was making nai luc lac (Vietnamese shaking venison), Bo Nuong La Lot (Vietnamese Grilled Beef with Wild Betel Leaves), and nem nuong xa (Vietnamese grilled lemongrass pork patties).

I used ground pork for the soup since I already had it on hand for the nem nuong xa, but normally would make this with ground shrimp, using the shells for the broth. Either option works just fine.

Dinner was a cold, rainy night in late October, this quick and warming soup seemed to hit the spot with everyone.

Baked Goat Cheese on Pesto and Tomato Sauce

One of the restaurants I used to frequent in Chicago was Cafe Iberico. The waits were long, sometimes horrendously so, but that was because the tapas were generously-sized and mostly priced between $3 to $5.

The restaurant had a small plate of queso de cabra (Spanish baked goat cheese with fresh tomato basil sauce). The dish only had a few slices of goat cheese though so I've adapted this version to bake the whole goat cheese log. Plenty enough for a party.

I didn't have time to have this with pesto and tomato sauce, so just pesto had to do, but you can certainly add it if you wish. I had blogged the recipe before, but it was added after my recipe for insalata caprese (Italian basil, mozzarella, and tomato salad) so I decided to give the baked goat cheese its own post.

Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2006

The last of my "Best of" series of recipes until I catch up with 2009 posts.

Since my blogging was in fits and spurts in the beginning, there weren't that many posts. And when I did blog, my photos left much to be desired. I was using a Canon SD110 and had yet to care about plating or angles. I've tried to update photos of these recipes when possible. The main thing that stands out is, with the exception of the first two, most of the recipes had very, very few hits. It was a stretch to make a top 10 list, but I did anyway.

Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2006

Best of: Top 11 to 20 Recipes of 2007

Just a few more posts left in my "Best of" series. Did you miss part one? Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2007. This, obviously, is part two.

Best of: Top 11 to 20 Recipes of 2007

The farther back I go, the worse my photography looks. So thanks everyone for making my recipes anyway. Again, surprised that one non-Vietnamese recipe snuck into the list - Kimchee Pajeon (Korean Pancake). This half seems overwhelmingly of the basic Vietnamese recipes: the easy recipes as I started blogging and the easy recipes that most people unfamiliar with associate with Vietnamese food.

Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2007

Continuing with my "Best of" series, I present the

Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2007

I must say, a lot of these older recipes didn't necessarily have the best photos, but they continue to come up in searches. I've redone a few of the photos this past year such as the Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) and Canh Chua Ca (Vietnamese Sour Fish Soup) because the original versions just didn't do it for me. I was surprised that I get so many hits for my Cha Gio (Vietnamese Egg Rolls) recipe since I figured there were already so many other versions out there. And two non-Vietnamese recipes made it into the top 10 including Chinese Hot and Sour Soup and Aji Verde (Peruvian Green Chili Sauce).

Best of: Top 11 to 20 Recipes of 2008

These dishes didn't make my "Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2008" list, but I thought they were worthy of mention? So I present to you my

Best of: Top 11 to 20 Recipes of 2008

Again, the numbers behind each recipe represent the number of hits each recipe received from May 24, 2009 to January 11, 2010.

Surprises? That a non-Vietnamese recipe made the list and that more of my personal favorites were on this half, including Nuoc Rau Ma (Vietnamese Pennywort Juice), Sup Mang Tay Cua (Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus Soup), Ca Kho To (Vietnamese Braised Catfish in a Claypot), and Tuong Ot Xa (Vietnamese Chili Lemongrass Sauce).

Best of: Top 10 Recipes of 2008

I've been tidying up things around the blog. Still have a lot of catching up to do.

When I originally created my "Best of" lists of recipes for 2006 and 2007, they were created arbitrarily. Luckily, I finally managed to figure out how to add Google Analytics earlier this year. When strolling through tonight, I checked out the "drill down." So I went through each year, then wrote down the top recipes and the number of hits each recipe received in order to compile this list.

How do I know people love lists? Because, even though it's not a recipe, my

100 Vietnamese Foods to Try list garnered 16,505 hits.

So here you go, my

Top 10 Recipes of 2008

The recipes are presented in order of which one is most popular. The numbers behind the recipe represent how many page views each recipe received from May 24, 2009 up to tonight.

This is purely meant for fun, in case you wanted to see which recipes are popular with others too. I was actually pretty surprised with some of the results. For instance, I knew my Bun Bo Hue (Vietnamese Hue-Style Beef Noodle Soup) was popular because I get hits for it every day, but I didn't expect my Bun Thit Heo Nuong Tom Cha Gio (Vietnamese Rice Vermicelli Noodles with Grilled Pork, Shrimp, and Egg Rolls) to be #2. Go figure.

Caesar Salad with Chicken and Croutons

Caesar salad was something that I never thought much about until one day long ago, back when I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I met up with a friend at a pub in the Piedmont area of Oakland. A bit of Googling turned up Cato's Ale House, which claims to be the only pub in Piedmont, so that must've been it. I haven't been back since, and the salad may well have been spectacular only in memory, but I can still recall that it was served with whole leaves with a knife for me to cut into. The dressing was made in-house, garlicky and salty and just right.

Years later, I adapted a recipe from Allrecipes that reminded me of that salad. At 588+ reviews, Karen Weir's Caesar Salad Supreme had to be good. Now, I know some people insist on anchovies (I'm one of them.), but did you know that according to Wikipedia, the original Caesar salad didn't have anchovies? The slight anchovy flavor came from the use of Worcestershire sauce. The other flavor that comes through Worcestershire sauce is tamarind so when MomGateway, host of the apple roundup of Weekend Wokking, chose TAMARIND as the secret ingredient, it was time for me to dust off my old recipe. The other must, raw or coddled egg yolks, I prefer to replace with mayonnaise for the creaminess without the salmonella scares.

I had thought Caesar salad was an American invention. Later, I found out its creator, Caesar Cardini was an Italian-Mexican, who made up the salad in Tijuana, Mexico. I bookmarked the location for a future visit, but the poor economy forced the restaurant's closure last year. :(

I guess my version will just have to do.

Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup)

Several years ago, one of my readers asked for a recipe for Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup). I made Canh Bi/Bau Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Pork-Stuffed Winter Melon Soup) instead since I couldn't eat bitter melon.

I tried it again last April (Ha! As if it's a surprise that it takes me forever to post recipes.) and found out that I still can't eat bitter melon. Too bad for me since I vowed to eat more healthy in the new year and bitter melon has tons of purported health benefits.

As an aside, does anyone else call bitter melon o qua, not the more popular (in online search terms anyway) kho qua? Seems those who call it the latter often eat it for the lunar new year since they want the kho qua, which can be translated to mean "hardship over" in Vietnamese. But since my family calls it o qua, we don't dwell on hardships, nor serve it up for new year's, my momma says. Ha!