From How to Cook Jasmine Rice to Happily Ever After

Two years ago, I had written what I thought was a rather ho hum post on "How to Cook Jasmine Rice." Who knew that it would be so useful? With more than two dozen comments, I guess rice resonated with many of you too.

Shortly afterward, I received an email from Robin, who lives, as she calls it, in the heart of Cajun country -- south Louisiana. She was dating a Vietnamese man at the time and had been searching for recipes to cook for him.

"I was in desperate need of a lesson on how to cook jasmine rice, since my three attempts were a disaster! ... Now, I know what I was doing wrong. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It came out perfect that evening."

She told me the blog was useful to help her cook some of the foods her Vietnamese boyfriend liked, and seeing the various steps, and knowing what the dish was supposed to look like, helped her cook Vietnamese food more confidently.

I replied that if any of my recipes helped her to woo her man and got her a marriage proposal, I wanted to know about it. :P

WC's Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) by Hong P.

Man, sometimes the reader's version of my recipe looks even better than my version. This edition of Readers Cook WC Recipes comes courtesy of Hong P. of Secret Garden Studios.

He made my recipe for Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef). Umm, typical guy, very few words. I guess I'll let it go since his photo makes my recipe look really enticing, eh? :)

WC's Chao Tom (Vietnamese Shrimp Paste-Wrapped Sugarcane) by Blondee47

Back in October, reader Blondee47 told me she was looking for sugarcane so she could make my recipe for Chao Tom (Vietnamese Grilled Shrimp Paste Wrapped Around Sugarcane). It took seven months, but she finally managed to find some in Canada. Unfortunately, some of the pieces looked like this. I advised her to cut off all the discolored parts and to keep only the white. If you don't know how, read my post on how to chop and prepare sugarcane. From Blondee47:

"Here are the amateur pictures of my sugar cane prawns. Except that I did not use prawns but used a combination of minced fish including dore pike and whitefish which I bought from my monger during Passover when he was mincing fish for people to make gefilte fish. However, all seasonings are yours. I did not serve with rice paper - just on a bed of soba noodles. Everyone loved it!! Son thought it was chicken - could not believe it was fish. Thanks so much this is going on the 'keeper' list."

Thanks for trying out my recipe and for the feedback Blondee47! Wanna hijack my blog? Check out Readers Cook WC Recipes for guidelines on how you too can participate. ***** 1 year ago today, an orange phosphate, a hot fudge sundae, and a macadamia nut malt at Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain in South Pasadena. And no, I didn't eat it all by myself.

WC's Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) by Mary Ruth

Who knew my Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) recipe would be so popular? Have you made it yet? Because yet another reader has. She did a great job too. The second submission for Readers Cook WC Recipes comes from MaryRuth of Where's the Bubbler?

"As you requested, here is some feedback on one of your recipes. I made Ca Ri Ga. This was delicious! I even had the leftovers for lunch today, and I think the flavor even improved. This is a pretty straightforward recipe, I followed it to the letter, except for the quantities. I used 6 thighs, 3 large-cut potatoes, 1 small-cut potato and 4 carrots. I ended up using 1.5 cans of coco milk/water. That was mostly because I wanted to make sure that all the food was submerged. Next time I will stick to 1 can and just make sure the meat is covered...the other veggies can steam to cook on top of the meat. I used 2 Tbsp Penzey's Madras curry. This particular curry is a little hot, so I didn't want to go overboard, but next time I would add another tbsp. Fish sauce...I put in 4 good "shakes", but that too could be increased. I served it with brown rice, but the baguette option looks pretty good too. I noticed in your photo and the other posters photo you serve it with a lot of the sauce....do you end up using a spoon to get it all? I just added enough to my bowl to get everything moistened pretty well, but still used a fork to eat it. My house smelled so good while it was cooking! Four forks! I will definitely make this again. My photos turned out kinda crappy, but here they are anyway, You definitely don't have to post them or even use this feedback--I just wanted to let you know that yes, people DO use your recipes! =) Thanks for a great recipe!"

Wanna hijack my blog? Check out Readers Cook WC Recipes for guidelines on how you too can participate. ***** 1 year ago today, my oldest uncle's wife's banh xeo (Vietnamese sizzling crepes).

WC's Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) by Danielle

Yay! Reader Danielle is the guinea pig for a new feature I'm calling "Readers Cook Wandering Chopsticks' Recipes." I know! Sooo original right? ;) What exactly is this? It's my attempt to be more interactive with some of my non-blogging readers, while giving me a blogging break every now and then. It's also useful for actual feedback since I really don't measure when I cook and only estimate amounts when I write up the recipe. I know, sooo unscientific. Here's the blurb from the Readers Cook WC Recipes index page:

"Not a blogger but want to be featured on my blog? It's easy. Send an email to me at wanderingchopsticks [at] gmail [dot] com with photos and a summary of your experience cooking any of my recipes. Too salty? Too sweet? Directions too confusing? I want to know. Use your real name if you wish or make up a name. Photos can be step-by-step, just of the finished product, or people chowin' down on my recipes. Just make sure to keep it clean. If you're a blogger and wish to hijack my blog, you may also send me photos and a write-up. To avoid duplication, think of it as a guest-post on my blog. While you're welcome to briefly mention the guest-post on your blog, please don't republish the same photos and the entire write-up that you send to me on your blog. I will, of course, link back to you in the guest-post, but I like to keep the content of my blog original. Otherwise, if you have a blog and made any of my recipes, please let me know and I'll link to your post on the recipe's original post. Please be aware that if you email photos or write-ups to me, I reserve the right to edit them if necessary. I will, of course, always acknowledge where they came from. You retain full copyright. I'll post these entries on a first-come, first-served basis, whenever I need a break from blogging. I'll shoot you a quick email to give you a heads-up. But really, aren't you reading my blog every day? ;) Now let's have some fun folks!"

I can't believe I just quoted myself. I'm such a dork! Sounds simple enough right? In other blogging news, if you haven't noticed, I've now created a "directory" with links to major categories and a quick recap of what you'll find. The directory link is at the top of the sidebar so you can easily access it from every page. The top of the sidebar also includes links to the recipe index with more than 200 original recipes by yours truly; restaurant index with more than 135 reviews; and random musings which are now separated by thoughts on blogging, family, food, and travels. The main directory link, however, also includes Fun Food, Guides and How To's, and Quilting. Also, if you haven't noticed, my Flickr icon includes random photos from the blog. So if a particular picture strikes your fancy, you can click on it, and it should include a link back to my original post so you can get more info on the recipe or restaurant. Consider it a random snapshot of my archives. If there's no link, then I probably uploaded the photo but haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet. OK, enough of my jibber-jabber, ya'll wanna see what Danielle has to say about my Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) recipe, right? From Danielle:

As promised, I am reporting back to you on the Ca Ri Ga recipe you so graciously posted...just for our cooking group. We followed your recipe as is but made some minor adaptations. We substituted half of the white potatoes with the khoai lan trang (whitish flesh sweet potatoes found at Asian markets). We used chicken thighs, and drummettes. The chicken and potatoes turned out so tender and flavorful. I think we were heavy handed in adding too much water as well as with the coconut milk; thus, we had to add many tablespoons of curry as well as fish sauce to compensate! End result? Very yummy but I am sure, not so healthy curry!!

Anyhow, my cooking group loved the curry served with the banh mi baguettes. We had left over as you can probably guess, we ended up with a huge pot! I brought some home to my sis and her boyfriend; they both raved about it! Her bf stated that this was probably one of the best curry that he has ever tasted!! He was quite impressed when I told him that your recipe did not require that we marinade the chicken as most other curry recipes we know asked for the chicken to be marinaded.

My sister and I added a small dollop of the Chili Garlic / Tuong Ot Toi Viet-Nam (not the paste one) to our bowl of curry just before eating...and we both agreed that it was perfect!! Yum. Now she wants me to cook this recipe with her again next week!! I am attaching the Ca Ri Ga photo as well as a couple of desserts we made that day: Banh Khoai Mi & Che Chuoi. Let me know if you like to have the recipes although I bet you already have your own for these two desserts :)

The recipe makes a double batch of Banh Khoai Mi. Banh Khoai Mi 2 packages of frozen khoai mi (grated cassava)--found in the frozen section at most Asian markets 1 package of frozen shredded young coconut (found next to the frozen cassava) 1 can of condensed milk 2 Tablespoon of white flour Preheat oven to 400. Combine all the above ingredients, and pour onto 2 square baking pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Don't overbake as the Banh Khoai Mi may become too dry. To serve, cut into square bars.

Yay Danielle and your cooking group! And yay her sis and boyfriend for having great taste. OK, OK, I'll stop patting myself on the back. But they did a great job huh? By the way, I actually haven't posted a recipe for che chuoi (Vietnamese banana tapioca dessert pudding), but I do have one for Che Bap (Vietnamese Dessert Soup with Corn and Tapioca Pearls in Coconut Milk). ***** 1 year ago today, Wontons Stuffed with Ground Pork and Turkey, Bamboo Shoots, and Cabbage.

Index of Readers Cook Wandering Chopsticks' Recipes

Not a blogger but want to be featured on my blog? It's easy. Send an email to me at wanderingchopsticks [at] gmail [dot] com with photos and a summary of your experience cooking any of my recipes. Too salty? Too sweet? Directions too confusing? I want to know. Use your real name if you wish or make up a name. Photos can be step-by-step, just of the finished product, or people chowin' down on my recipes. Just make sure to keep it clean. If you're a blogger and wish to hijack my blog, you may also send me photos and a write-up. To avoid duplication, think of it as a guest-post on my blog. While you're welcome to briefly mention the guest-post on your blog, please don't republish the same photos and the entire write-up that you send to me on your blog. I will, of course, link back to you in the guest-post, but I like to keep the content of my blog original. Otherwise, if you have a blog and made any of my recipes, please let me know and I'll link to your post on the recipe's original post. Please be aware that if you email photos or write-ups to me, I reserve the right to edit them if necessary. I will, of course, always acknowledge where they came from. I'll post these entries on a first-come, first-served basis, whenever I need a break from blogging. I'll shoot you a quick email to give you a heads-up. But really, aren't you reading my blog every day? ;) Now let's have some fun folks! Posts will be sorted in alphabetical order by recipe name, along with the readers' name and/or link to blog. Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef) by Hong P. Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) by Danielle Ca Ri Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Curry) by MaryRuth Chao Tom (Vietnamese Shrimp Paste-Wrapped Sugarcane) by Blondee47