Vietnamese Food Any Day by Andrea Nguyen | Cookbook Spotlight

Review copy provided by the publisher

Walk down the Asian foods aisle in your local supermarket and it looks a lot different than it did 30 years ago. There are still throwbacks like canned sweet and sour sauce or crispy fried La Choy noodles, but these days, you’ll see rice vinegar, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, noodles of all sorts, panko crumbs and rice paper wrappers. The Venn diagram between supermarket and Asian market is overlapping in such a way that you can cook delicious Asian dishes without making a trip to a speciality market. And that’s the premise that Andrea Nguyen’s latest book, Vietnamese Food Any Day, is built on.

If you’re curious about Vietnamese cuisine, but have been intimidated by the ingredients, Vietnamese Food Any Day proves its within your reach. The book is inspired by Nguyen’s own experience and the hacks her mom made to recipes after they immigrated to the US. In 80 recipes, she takes you through favorites like Any Day Viet Pickles, Rice Paper Rolls and Banh Mi. Then, she expands it to Shaking Beef, Honey-glazed Pork Riblets, Sizzling Rice Crepes and Spicy Sweet Pomegranate Tofu. The book wraps up with a sweets and coffee chapter including No-Churn Vietnamese Ice Cream, Silken Tofu and Mandarin Oranges in Ginger Syrup, and Matcha “Pandan” Waffles.”

In Seattle, we have several Asian food markets, from Uwajimaya to H-Mart to VietWah. I made a point to check out the Asian food aisles in the two big supermarkets nearest me, QFC and Fred Meyer. They’re surprisingly well stocked, even carrying the Kadoya sesame oil I grew up with and “Three Crabs” Fish Sauce. With the rise of gluten-free diets, finding rice noodles and rice flour is easier than ever. It might just not be on the Asian aisle.

I’ve been cooking from the book for a couple of weeks and the recipes really are designed to be ANY DAY dishes. Most are 30-60 minutes to prepare, with soups taking longer. My favorites so far are the Crispy, Caramelized Pork Crumbles served over rice with stir-fried greens, the Shaking Beef (there’s a tofu variation that’s also fantastic), and the Char Siu chicken. Scroll through the gallery up top for photos. The book also provides a recipe for Caramel Sauce, an ingredient in a handful of the recipes, including the Shrimp in Coconut Caramel Sauce recipe below. It’s 100 percent worth making.

Nguyen has been a teacher and advocate for Viet food for years and has several books under her belt, including Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Asian Dumplings, The Banh Mi Handbook, and of course, The Pho Cookbook (review). Enthusiasts have followed her work for years, but I think it’s Vietnamese Food Any Day that’s going to help break open Viet cuisine for the casual home cook and make it part of their rotation. Vietnamese Food Any Day is worth a place not just on your bookshelf, but in your kitchen on the regular. I am loving it.

Nguyen will sign Vietnamese Food Any Day this Saturday at Omnivore Books in San Francisco and at BookShop Santa Cruz on February 26. Additional events in March are listed below. Keep an eye on her blog at VietWorldKitchen.com for more dates.

Tucson Book Festival (Tucson, AZ; March 2, 4-5pm)
Book Larder, Seattle (Seattle, WA; Mon. 3/18, 6:30-8pm)
Now Serving, LA (Los Angeles, CA; Sun. 3/24, 6pm)

Get Vietnamese Food Any Day on Amazon |Apple Books| Bookshop.org |IndieBound

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Print Recipe

Shrimp in Coconut Caramel Sauce

By Andrea Nguyen – Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 35 mins

My niece Paulina requested this savory-sweet comfort food from southern Vietnam, a region where cooks use coconut milk and coconut water for a sunny array of dishes. I happily obliged because it’s delicious and involves a nifty technique—coconut water is reduced with other ingredients until it caramelizes a bit to create a lovely syrupy sauce. Enjoy tôm rim nước dừa with rice and a simple vegetable, like the charred brussels sprouts on page 170. Choose a large skillet or sauteuse pan with a light interior to easily monitor the color changes during cooking.

Ingredients

1¼ pounds extra-large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1⅓ cups coconut water
1½ tablespoons sugar, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon Caramel Sauce , or 1½ teaspoons molasses
1½ tablespoons fish sauce, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
1 large shallot, halved and sliced
3 large garlic cloves, sliced
Recently ground black pepper
1 green onion, green part only, thinly sliced
CARAMEL SAUCE (Makes About ½ cup; Takes 15 minutes)
2 tablespoons water, plus ¼ cup
⅛ teaspoon unseasoned rice, apple, or distilled white vinegar (optional)
½ cup cane sugar

Instructions

Pat the shrimp with paper towels to remove excess moisture, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the coconut water, sugar, caramel sauce, and fish sauce and stir to mix; taste and make sure it’s pleasantly salty-sweet. It will cook down later and intensify but use this opportunity to check the flavor. If needed, add up to 1½ teaspoons sugar or fish sauce, or both. Set aside.

In a skillet or sauteuse pan over medium heat, melt the coconut oil. When the oil is barely shimmering, add the shallot and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes, until the garlic is pale blond. Remove from the heat and, once the cooking action subsides, add the coconut water mixture.

Return the skillet to high heat and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, for 10 to 14 minutes, until reduced to between ⅓ and ½ cup, a bit thickened, and slightly darkened. Add the shrimp and continue cooking at a swift simmer, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes, until the shrimp curls up and cooks through and the sauce is slightly syrupy. (Expect the shrimp’s natural juices to release, thin out, and flavor the sauce.) If the shrimp cooks too fast, remove it from the pan, let the sauce cook down, and then return the shrimp. Remove from the heat, season with lots of pepper, and stir in the green onion. Let sit for 5 minutes for the flavors to settle and deepen.

Transfer the shrimp to a shallow bowl or plate and serve.

Caramel Sauce Instructions

Fill the sink (or a large bowl or pot) with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the saucepan.

In the saucepan, combine the 2 tablespoons water, vinegar (if using), and sugar. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula or metal spoon; when the sugar has nearly or fully dissolved, stop stirring. Let the sugar syrup bubble vigorously for 5 to 6 minutes, until it takes on the shade of light tea. Turn the heat to medium-low to stabilize the cooking. Turn on the exhaust to vent the inevitable smoke. (Don’t worry if sugar crystallizes on the pan wall. But if things get crusty in the bubbling sugar syrup, add another drop of vinegar to correct it.) For even cooking, you may occasionally lift and swirl the saucepan.

Cook the syrup for about 2 minutes longer, until it is the color of dark tea. The next 1 to 2 minutes are critical because the sugar will darken by the second. Monitor the cooking and, to control the caramelization, frequently pick up the saucepan and slowly swirl the syrup. When a dark reddish cast sets in—think the color of Pinot Noir—let the sugar cook a few seconds longer to a color between Cabernet and black coffee. Remove from the heat and place the pan in the water to stop the cooking. Expect the pan bottom to sizzle upon contact.

Leaving the pan in the sink, add the remaining ¼ cup water. The sugar will seize up, which is okay. When the dramatic bubbling reaction stops, return the pan to medium-high heat, and cook briefly, stirring to loosen and dissolve the sugar.

Remove the pan from the heat and return to the water in the sink for about 1 minute, stirring, to stop the cooking process and cool the caramel sauce to room temperature.

Use the sauce immediately, or transfer to a small heatproof glass jar, let cool completely, and then cap and store in a cool, dark place indefinitely.