Date I made this recipe:
October 1, 2017 – For Ken Burns' Vietnam
Vietnamese Cookery
by Jill Nhu Huong Miller
Published by Charles E. Tuttle Company: Publishers
© 1968; sixth printing 1986
Purchased at annual Bloomington Crime Prevention Association
(BCPA) sale
Recipe: Sweet-Sour Shortribs – p. 41
So listen, the first part of this blog is going to be rather
depressing because I just have to talk about Ken Burns' most-recent
documentary, Vietnam
Let's start with the basics:
Once upon a time, the country of Vietnam was a French colony. The
Vietnamese wanted nothing to do with the French and so in 1954, the Geneva accord was drafted kicking out the French and dividing
Vietnam into North Vietnam which was communist, and South Vietnam that
was democratic.
The North Vietnamese wanted control of the south and so they
started a civil war shortly thereafter.
The United States
which at the time didn't have a stake in the game, decided that it did not want
to see the communists take over the south and so we started sending troops to
help the South Vietnamese. Prior to that, we were minimally involved in the
country.
In 1961, President Kennedy, a Roman Catholic who did not
favor the communists, started ramping up the U.S. involvement and thereafter,
every president not only sent more troops but helped escalate the border war
into the disaster that Ken Burns documented.
The U.S. finally left
Vietnam
for good in 1975 (under Nixon) utterly defeated as we failed and failed
miserably. Not only did we fail to
prevent the communist takeover, but for the first time in a long time, we
failed to outright win a war. This did
not sit well with WWI and WWII veterans and military personnel.
That's the dime version.
To get the long version, you should watch Burns' documentary which as
always, was thorough and compelling.
When I think about the Vietnam era, here are some
impressionable moments from the past that come to mind:
Watching the war on TV. Yup. As unbelievable as it sounds, at six
o'clock every night, my family, along with millions across the country, tuned
into CBS News to get updates on how things were going for the U.S. Answer?:
Not good. We saw footage from the
field, we saw body bags being loaded onto airplanes, and we got daily totals of
those killed in action (KIA), missing in action(MIA), and prisoners of war (POW)
all relayed to us by the calming voice of "Uncle Walter," CBS News
anchor, Walter Cronkite.
I know, it's weird.
It's actually a little morbid when you think about it, but it was all we
knew.
The "Domino"
Effect. The domino effect was how
the U.S. justified our
ongoing involvement in Vietnam
and it went like this: "If we let South Vietnam
fall to those godless communists from the north, then other neighboring
countries will fall like dominos to communist control as well."
Well, this created a problem for many peace advocates like
my very-Catholic mother. She didn't want
us in the war, but she didn't want the communists to take over, either. She was not alone in her thinking which is
probably why our involvement in Vietnam
lasted as long as it did.
The 1970 Kent State
(University in Ohio Kent State
To put this in perspective, this happened when I was not
quite 12 years old and was in 6th grade. Never mind that I still had six years to go
until I started college, I was completely freaked out and decided right then
and there that I shouldn't go to college because what if I got shot like those
students? It took me forever and a day
to calm myself down and I don't think my parents ever suspected my anxiety over
this event. To make matters better, or
worse if you will, the band Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young immortalized that event with their song
"Ohio" (1971) which is one of their best songs even though it was
about this depressing event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9vMBBe10
The "Fall"
of Saigon .
The city of Saigon
was not only the south's capitol, but it was home to the U.S. Embassy as
well. Although many Americans had
already left the area, many were left behind to work at the embassy. These
people were ordered to leave and started packing up when things became very
dire: word reached the embassy that the
North Vietnamese were advancing on Saigon at which point, the U.S. started
making preparations to leave in a burning hurry.
Complicating matters though, was the promise to evacuate
several thousand South Vietnamese families, particularly those families who
assisted with U.S.
war efforts. You have probably seen
video footage of the evacuation and I just have two words to say about
that: widespread and chaos.
Although my husband and I differ slightly on our
interpretation of the urgency of the situation, I tell you what: I will never forget watching this unfold on
TV and being frightened that all these people would not get out in time. Once
again, this was something that was broadcast on TV and also repeated in the
documentary. I was 16 years old at the
time. What a childhood.
Of the thousands of Vietnamese who were evacuated by the U.S. , many came to the United States
to live, assisted by Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities. A good number of Vietnamese refugees
relocated to Minnesota , specifically St. Paul , and once they
got settled, opened Vietnamese restaurants so that we here in the Twin Cities,
could experience the fare they once enjoyed in their homeland. It was the first win-win of the war.
Today, one of the areas along the Green Line (light rail
system) in St. Paul has been dubbed "Little
Mekong," named for the Mekong Delta in Vietnam because of the plethora of Vietnamese
businesses have set up shop in this area. One of our favorite restaurants on
the Green Line in St. Paul is Ngon
Vietnamese Bistro, a restaurant that features both Asian and
French-influenced food. Another, Bona, is on the Green Line in Minneapolis in Stadium
Village at the University of Minnesota Vietnam 's
national dish.
This brings us now to this featured cookbook, the only one I
have that focuses solely on Vietnamese food.
For those who haven't had Vietnamese food but have had Chinese food, the
dishes are similar and yet not.
Vietnamese eggrolls are deep fried, same as their Chinese cousins, but I
think are lighter and better. Vietnamese
egg rolls contain bean thread noodles in addition to pork and other
ingredients. The Vietnamese spring roll
is very popular and is made with a rice wrapper stuffed with fresh shrimp, Thai
basil, mint, and cilantro; this dish is not fried. I have been known to do a
lot of damage to a plate of these puppies.
The Table of Contents for this cookbook is fairly brief and
you should know that you can probably substitute other proteins for many of
these dishes. The lineup is:
- Basic Recipes
- Soups
- Pork Main Dishes
- Beef Main Dishes
- Seafood Main Dishes
- Chicken & Duck
- Salads
- Desserts
- Hors D'Oeuvres
Next we have the "Pork Main Dishes" category, and
reader, I have a confession to make.
When I photocopied the recipe I made for "Sweet-Sour Pork
Ribs" on page 41, I neglected to note that it was from the
"Pork" category and so used beef short ribs. Duh.
That said, the recipe was still delicious.
All the dishes in the "Beef and Seafood Dishes"
categories sounded good but I passed on them but when I got to the
"Chicken & Duck" category, I added "Baked Chicken" to
my list of possibilities. This dish is
chicken marinated in soy sauce and fish sauce, sugar and garlic and then
baked Yum!
In the salad category, the "Cucumber Salad" recipe
is one I've seen in Vietnamese restaurants and it sounded great. It's a mixture
of cucumbers, boiled shrimp, boiled pork and Nuoc Mam Sauce which is fish sauce
plus other ingredients.
Okay, let me just say that I am seriously starving right
now.
In the "Desserts" category we have a lot of dishes
featuring coconut and also bananas as well as rice puddings. I have to say that I don't think I've ever
ordered dessert at a Vietnamese restaurant but I could be convinced to try any
one of these.
The final category behind "Desserts" is "Hors
D'Oeuvres" and here you will find many recipes featuring shrimp. My favorite item here is "Shrimp
Toast" (p. 106) which I could eat and eat and eat to my detriment as these
are deep-fried but totally delicious!
Okay, now I'm really, really hungry. Really.
In conclusion, if you haven't had the chance to watch the
PBS documentary, I recommend you do so.
If you are of similar age to me and my husband (or older), it may be
hard to watch but it was informative and even a little bit healing. If you are younger, then definitely watch the
show because Vietnam (and
also Korea ) go in the
history books at the war the U.S.
just couldn't win.
And once you've done all that, eat!
Sweet-Sour Shortribs –
Four Servings
1 ½ lb. shortribs (Ann's
Note: pork shortribs, not beef. I didn't catch that and so I used beef. Still delicious!)
4 cups water
2 shallots (or white part of green onions), thinly sliced
1 tsp. salt
1/3 fresh pineapple or small can crushed pineapple + 1
tablespoon vinegar
2 large carrots, shredded
1 large tomato, cut into eights
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup water
2 tbsp. fish sauce
½ tsp. cornstarch
Slice shallots in thin rounds. Cut lean short ribs into
serving pieces. Place in a large skillet
and add shallots, salt, and water.
Ann's Note: My short ribs were beef short ribs on the
bone so cutting them into serving pieces didn't really work for me. I decided to cook the ribs in a larger pot
rather than a large skillet for the length of time listed below and then pull the
meat off the bone.
Bring the shallots, salt, water and short ribs to a boil on
high heat, cover and reduce heat to medium.
Simmer, covered, for 2 hours. If
water evaporates before cooking is completed, add about 1 more cup. If all water is not evaporated at the end of
2 hours, bring heat to high, uncover and boil until water is all evaporated.
Clean pineapple, take out core, then cut into small
chunks. (Ann's Note: These days, most
grocery stores have pre-cut pineapple available.) Squeeze chunks of pineapple between the
hands, getting out as much juice as possible.
This will crush the pineapple. (Ann's Note:
I used a potato ricer.) Save
the juice for drinking, salads, etc.
Shred the carrots, using a vegetable peeler or large section
of grater. (Ann's Note: Next time around, I
might grate the carrots or thinly slice it rather than use a vegetable peeler.)
Cut tomatoes into eights.
Crush the garlic and add to meat in skillet, which will
begin to sauté in its own fat. (Ann's
Note: Not really! Sure, had I cooked the ribs in a skillet as
directed, this might be true, but if you did it like I did which was to boil
them in a separate pan, then plan on adding some of that fat to the skillet or
the pan will be too dry.)
Sauté the garlic and meat (and oil) on medium high. When the smell of garlic begins to be
noticeable, put in the pineapple, carrots and tomato. Sauté about 1 minute, stir often.
Add the water and fish sauce, stir well, cover and steam
about 10 minutes, still on medium high heat.
Take some of the juice from the skillet, mix the cornstarch
with it so it won't get lumpy, and stir into the mixture in the skillet. Let cook about 1 more minute. Serve hot with rice.
No comments:
Post a Comment