Brodard Chateau

So there's this uppity Vietnamese-French restaurant in Garden Grove, in the hub of the Vietnamese community in Orange County. The restaurants in the area can be quite good, but tend to lack a sense of decor, or cleanliness, or class. Which is completely fine by me.

Then a wave of well-decorated restaurants and bars started to infiltrate the area: they're mostly filled with young Vietnamese-Americans, and the only places where their white friends feel comfortable or at home. Which is great! Diversity makes unicorns fart rainbows and sunshine.

In any case, this was the crowd at Brodard Chateau, a place that's been getting some attention for their devotion to decoration and awareness of fine food. The only problem is that most of the food isn't quite as wonderful as the soft lighting and pretty menus.

I've been here a few times with my family and usually sample their food. Some of it is delicious: their nem nuong, or grilled Vietnamese pork patties, are perfectly juicy and slightly sweet. I ate their nem nuong cuon (Roasted Pork Spring Rolls) the first time I was here. I have no pictures, sadly.

This time I wasn't too hungry and shared an appetizer with my sister, the Vegetarian Spring Roll. I'd never had eggplant or avocado in my spring rolls before, and this innovation gave the rolls a satisfying, almost meat-like richness that really surprised me. Seriously yum.

Thy took that photo, so credit her amazingness. I also had the Shrimp Satay appetizer. Apologies for the blur and washed out vegetables.

The shrimp was decent, but the sauce was yummy. It was spicy and thick with coconut milk--almost like curry without the curry powder. The vegetables were a refreshing touch. However, this was not Vietnamese food at all. Just yummy.

My siblings and cousins said their dishes were decent, but not delicious. I think I picked the right ones to eat! Below are Scallops in Black Bean Sauce (too salty, not enough scallop flavor) and Clam Fesci (again, not enough clam flavor).

Some Vietnamese are all about the seafood, so this was clearly not the best around. My mom knew better than to order her favorite fish here, so she stuck with sharing a rice dish with my aunt. The regular Vietnamese dishes, except for the nem nuong, could be improved. But all in all--pick the right dishes, and you can have a fairly authentic Vietnamese experience in a swanky place! And that's often hard to do.

Garlic Naan

I took what I thought looked good from several naan recipes online. My bread didn't have air bubbles in it like the restaurant kind but it was still pretty good. Maybe if I had used all white flour and had the traditional clay oven...


There are several recipes online and I combined them. This makes about 5-6 naans.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour (or white if you want..I used whole wheat bc it's more filling and healthier)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons yogurt (optional, I just needed to finish it)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried yeast

1. Mix the yeast with some warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. Mix all the egg, milk, sugar, salt, yeast, and yogurt until the sugar and salt is dissolved. Slowly add flour into the mixture. You might need a little more or less flour to create a good (not too sticky) consistency. I forgot to use 1/2 teaspoon baking powder -- you might want to add it.
3. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes.
4. Let the dough rise for an hour or two. I usually just forget about it.
5. If you have a grill you can use that. If not, it's easiest to cook the naans in a pan on the stove. Knead the dough a little to deflate it and pinch off a piece. Roll the piece into a ball. Flatten it with a rolling pin...can be whatever shape you want as long as it fits into the pan. Press on some minced garlic or whatever topping you want.
6. Cook on high heat in the pan or on the grill and flip after each side gets browned.

Dab some butter on the finished bread and you're all set. It's pretty easy if you have the patience to let the bread rise!

Microwave Cake Proves Too Good to be True

I was so excited when I saw this recipe for a single-serve cake that could be made in two minutes. I didn't know what to expect so I tried it myself. Even though the concept is really fun, I can't say that it's worth making. The texture is more pliant and elastic than normal cake, making it hard to fork out of the cup, and the flavor is not chocolatey enough. Are there any times I can imagine using this recipe? Maybe if there was absolutely nothing else for dessert, and I really needed something in 5 minutes. Maybe.

An interesting experiment, though!

4 T self-rising cake flour
4 T sugar
2 T cocoa
1 small egg
3 T milk
3 T oil or applesauce
⅛ t vanilla
2 T chocolate chips

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Stir the egg, milk, applesauce, vanilla, and chocolate chips in with the dry ingredients. Mix well and transfer to a lightly greased coffee mug. Microwave 1.5-2 minutes on high.

Jing's Delicious Mushroom Tofu Creation

Jing was on campus today and we had dinner together. She threw together a delicious mushroom tofu dish. I can't tell you how exactly she did it, but it involved garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, kinds of mushrooms (both dried and fresh), and soft tofu. The mushrooms added so much flavor to the sauce-- I've always stayed away from using mushrooms but now I really want to cook with them!We devoured the entire thing. It was wonderful.

Pielette

I've been craving this fruit pielette for several days, but we didn't have any fruit. But I went over to Nana and Papa's for the 4th, and Nana of course gave me so much fruit and food that our fridge got magically full again. Then I got some vanilla Haagen-Dazs from a local grocer, because it was on sale, and voila! Deliciousness. The recipe, should you desire to make some yourself, is below.

Crust:
1 c. shortening
2 c. flour
1 T. vinegar
1 t. salt
1/3 c. milk
(This makes enough dough for a whole pie, including top crust, so I just made a half-batch for this pielette).
Use a pastry cutter (or knives, or your fingers) to mix the shortening in with everything else. Roll it out thinly on a floured surface (you'll probably have to flip it over once so it doesn't stick too badly) and transfer to a cookie sheet.
Fruit:
5 c. fruit (I used plums, apricots, and strawberries, but anything works)
1 T. corn starch
1/3 c. sugar
(I only made half of this too)
Cut the fruit into pieces; I did 8 pieces per plum/apricot and quartered the strawberries, but you can really do whatever you want. It gets all mushy anyways! Stir it all together and pour into the center of the flat crust. Fold the outer edges of the crust over the filling (avoiding holes, if at all possible, but it's usually not--just means some of the juice will trickle out. And possibly burn, so have the oven fan on!) and bake at 400 degrees (375 on convect) for ~35 minutes, or until bubbly near the center. Remove, let sit for 20 or 25 minutes (otherwise all the fillings will plop out), and eat! Delicious with ice cream, whipped cream, or half-and-half.

I had some left over cocoa powder from making truffles...so I TasteSpotted "cocoa powder" and this gorgeous looking recipe for bread came up. Between this morning's July 4th parade and tonight's festivities I had all day to leisurely let the dough rise, etc.
It's soft, chewy, and has melted chocolate chips . I substituted 2 cups of whole wheat flour for the 3 cups of white flour in the recipe so it's vaguely healthier. Whatever. It's chocolate bread!

PS I'm having fun with this so you guys may have to put up with more bread posts...

Plain Ole Whole Wheat Bread

I get annoyed shopping for bread at the supermarket because it'll always have a TON of ingredients like azodicarbonamide, high fructose corn syrup, and soy lecithin. I just want plain ole whole wheat bread, people! So I took matters into my own hands.

and it's yummy for a first attempt!
Ingredients: whole wheat flour, water, yeast, salt, and oil.