The Reasons People Don't Cook, Our One-Minute Cooking Tip, An Interview with Uyen Luu, Tapioca Dumplings, Katsu Curry & More!
Why don't people cook much anymore? We've got some answers, backed up by recent research.
We're veteran cookbook authors Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written and published more than three dozen cookbooks. Check out one of our favorites: THE KITCHEN SHORTCUT BIBLE.
After we talk through the reasons people don't cook, we've got a one-minute cooking tip about pie plates. Bruce interviews Uyen Luu about her cookbook, VIETNAMESE VEGETARIAN. And we tell you know what's making us happy in food this week.
Thanks for taking time with us. Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:
[01:45] Why don't people cook much anymore? Here's a recent survey and our thoughts on how to solve the problems.
[14:14] Our one-minute cooking tip: Ditch the metal pie plates for Pyrex ones.
[15:26] Bruce interviews Uyen Luu about her book, VIETNAMESE VEGETARIAN.
[32:40] What’s making us happy in food this week? Tapioca starch dumplings and katsu curry!
Transcript
Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast Cooking with
Speaker:Bruce
Speaker:and Mark.
Speaker:And I'm Mark Scarborough.
Speaker:And together with Bruce, we have written three dozen cookbooks, including the latest, the
Speaker:You can pre-order it on all the big sites, Barnes and Noble, that big Amazon thing that exists,
Speaker:You can pre-order it.
Speaker:It has 125 air fryer recipes, but more importantly, seven.
Speaker:Hundred and four photographs.
Speaker:Oh my god, ed,
Speaker:every step of every recipe say you will get it right every time.
Speaker:And you can watch Bruce literally cook.
Speaker:It's him doing it.
Speaker:He's standing there.
Speaker:Uh, you, it's his hands.
Speaker:It's him doing it in front of a our counter in.
Speaker:Our very kitchen making.
Speaker:We wanna know what our kitchen looks like.
Speaker:Get a book to the
Speaker:recipe he's on, on our dishes, in fact.
Speaker:So, I mean, this is really done.
Speaker:It was done with a professional photographer.
Speaker:It, he did a great job, as Eric always does.
Speaker:Did a great job on the book.
Speaker:But shout out to Eric Medkit.
Speaker:You should follow him on Instagram.
Speaker:His feed is wonderful.
Speaker:Beautiful food shots, but you should, you should follow us on Instagram too.
Speaker:Well, yeah, of course.
Speaker:But beyond that 704 photographs, look and cook Air Fryer.
Speaker:Bible available for pre-order now.
Speaker:But we're not talking about air fryers necessarily.
Speaker:In this podcast, we're gonna talk about why people don't cook.
Speaker:The number one reason why people.
Speaker:Don't cook anymore.
Speaker:It's an intriguing reason.
Speaker:We have, of course, our one minute cooking tip.
Speaker:Bruce has an interview with you and Lou, the author of Vegetarian Vietnamese, which I'm very excited about, and we're
Speaker:People don't cook for the most part because they're afraid of failing.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:People watch social media, they see these so fascinating.
Speaker:Beautiful.
Speaker:Full videos and they feel bad about themselves because they can't make it look that way.
Speaker:I watch a lot, as you can imagine.
Speaker:I have a TikTok channel cookbook, mark, and I watch a lot of cooking videos.
Speaker:Of course, my very handle cookbook Mark is gonna give me a lot of cooking content.
Speaker:So on TikTok, I see a lot of stuff, and what I see is either unbelievably gross stuff,
Speaker:Yeah, I, I don't want to impugn anyone's taste, but for me, this is the.
Speaker:This is the kind of food I grew up with and I just can't deal with a block of Vel Veta and three cans of cream, of celery
Speaker:So I see a lot of gross stuff, but the other thing I see is a lot of unbelievably aspirational stuff.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I, there's this French baker that I see all the time, and he's un well, he's very sexy, but he makes the most.
Speaker:Unbelievable pastries.
Speaker:He's always got like a, you know, 20 kilo bag of flour over his shoulder and he's pouring it from
Speaker:And it's so aspirational.
Speaker:I'm even I, and having written all these cookbooks, even I look at it and go, oh my gosh, I could never do that.
Speaker:You know, 14 hour lamination process to make this quan.
Speaker:And it, I mean, it's beautiful to watch him do it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But it's so daunting.
Speaker:So you look at that and you think, oh, I could never do that.
Speaker:And then you try to cook and it gets messed up.
Speaker:So it's interesting.
Speaker:There is, uh, the seafood company, seapak, S E A P A K, they sell frozen fish and they commissioned.
Speaker:A poll from one poll and they did a survey and it was really interesting because now of course they wanna find reasons
Speaker:But what came outta this poll is very useful for everybody in the industry to know.
Speaker:64% of people asked said they've had at least one.
Speaker:Major mishap in their kitchen.
Speaker:Uh, I I have no, I have I, and I'm a professional and I have
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:Bruce had a rehearsal with this.
Speaker:You've heard me talk about this with this Baroque group, these things with, he had an all day rehearsal.
Speaker:I said, I'll make dinner that night.
Speaker:I made a big pot of Marcella Hasan's Bolognese, which.
Speaker:I used to have the recipe a hundred percent memorized.
Speaker:I used to make this all the time.
Speaker:Um, it, and it's one of these five hour bolognese recipes.
Speaker:It's insane.
Speaker:So basically all day.
Speaker:But I made chickpea pasta to go with it.
Speaker:Chickpea spaghetti.
Speaker:And I undercooked the spaghetti.
Speaker:The spaghetti.
Speaker:I wouldn't say it's a major fail.
Speaker:I mean, we ate, we had friends over and we ate it, but the spaghetti was not.
Speaker:Completely tender.
Speaker:So I guess that's a bit of a fail.
Speaker:Well, it was a fail, but almost a third of the people surveyed said, because of these fails, they feel
Speaker:I find that sad.
Speaker:And what were the things that happened?
Speaker:Well, burning food was the top of the chart.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So you burn and we've all burned something followed by, and I love this one, burning a pot.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You can't say anything.
Speaker:Oh, that was a long time ago.
Speaker:In New York, once we put a pot on the side, when we lived in Manhattan, we put a pot on of water to boil it.
Speaker:To make ice tea or something.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:I don't remember exactly what, and we went away to the theater for.
Speaker:Hours to the theater and came home and there was this really wild metallic smell in the apartment.
Speaker:And we walked in the kitchen and there was this pot glowing.
Speaker:Oh my God, it's amazing.
Speaker:They haul 17 story building and burned to the ground and um, you know, basically, basically we ran water
Speaker:And in this survey, three in 10 people, so just under a third, who cook, say they are embarrassed by their cooking.
Speaker:And this is.
Speaker:This really, really very sad.
Speaker:I think this speaks so much to uk, US Canadian, uh, culture.
Speaker:I think it speaks to European culture, probably to other places as well, but I'm not as familiar with that culture.
Speaker:This is just a.
Speaker:An endemic problem.
Speaker:People think that they're not doing it right and they're going to be embarrassed.
Speaker:It's so interesting.
Speaker:We've moved away from Victorian morality, away from Victorian sexuality, away from all this
Speaker:That I grew up in, in the American South, and yet people are still.
Speaker:Embarrassed.
Speaker:Embarrassed by something as silly as cooking.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And of course, as I said, this was a frozen seafood company that did this, you know, that sponsored the survey.
Speaker:And they want to come out of this saying, oh look, we should be really pushing our food.
Speaker:And so if you're embarrassed by that, don't cook.
Speaker:You should buy our seafood and serve that for dinner.
Speaker:That's not an answer for every day.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:And there was good news that came outta the survey.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:70% of the people in the survey actually, uh, watch cooking tutorials.
Speaker:And I can say that we know this, but Bruce does classes for ButcherBox, which is a drop.
Speaker:Shipment meat company, organic grass fed the
Speaker:subscription meat service.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he does cooking classes for them.
Speaker:And they are always packed to the gills with people watching
Speaker:thousands Register for my online classes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And we do classes for milk.
Speaker:Street.
Speaker:In fact, we have an air fryer class coming up.
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:Um, it's a, it's a very limited enrollment, I think just down to 25 or something.
Speaker:25 people.
Speaker:And by the way, if you're interested, you can go to Milk Street, look at their workshops.
Speaker:You'll find Bruce and Mark with a level 2 0 1 more advanced air frying class.
Speaker:Use the code Air Fryer 15.
Speaker:If there are still spaces available, you'll get a discounted.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have to tell you, the last time I looked, there was one space available.
Speaker:So, alright, so you know, I.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But anyway, the last time we did an air frying class was to open to more general people at, at Milk Street,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It was gone.
Speaker:It was gone.
Speaker:It was totally filled up.
Speaker:So people are clearly liking online cooking tutorials.
Speaker:And, uh, this is, we know this from our end of the business, 61% other people in the survey
Speaker:Oh, thank goodness.
Speaker:I have to tell you, if you don't know, cookbook sales are up.
Speaker:Across the board in the industry and hard cover cookbook sales are up the most, which is really fascinating.
Speaker:So what we wanna do now is give you some tips to avoid some of those really common mistakes so that you don't feel bad about your
Speaker:So, One of the big mistakes that came out in the survey is people said they forgot a crucial ingredient.
Speaker:So how do you avoid that?
Speaker:Well, mis plus is away.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Set up all your ingredients before you start cooking.
Speaker:Chop your onions, chop your celery.
Speaker:Don't start sauteing.
Speaker:And then the next thing is add your two pounds of cubed beef.
Speaker:And then you're gonna first go to the refrigerator and take it out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so at this concert dinner that I gave, which I'm sure you've heard about on this podcast for Bruce's
Speaker:There's three recipes from our book, the Instant Pop.
Speaker:I made a vegan chili.
Speaker:I made a ba get this, a bacon and bean chili.
Speaker:It was so good.
Speaker:And then I made this firehouse chili, which is maybe with fresh tomatoes, not canned tomatoes.
Speaker:And it's not firehouse cause it's hot firehouse, like what you would make in a fire station.
Speaker:Um, and I made all of these three chilies, but I spent a morning laying all my ingredients out on sheet pans.
Speaker:You're all ready to go, so that when the instant pots were ready to go, cuz these sees cooked in like 10
Speaker:In traditional French cooking.
Speaker:And when you go to chef school, that's called Misam plus, putting everything in its place that will keep you from
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:One of the other things that people said they did
Speaker:All the time was mixing up salt and sugar.
Speaker:Bruce has one answer.
Speaker:I have a different answer.
Speaker:My answer is I have never, ever, ever kept sugar out on the counter for this very reason.
Speaker:Sugar is in a pantry or in a cupboard, not on the counter.
Speaker:I know a lot of people put things out on the counters like they're flour and the sugar and all that stuff.
Speaker:If the sugar is, if you have to go get the sugar, if the sugar is not instantly visible, you are
Speaker:Well, the other thing you could do is label it.
Speaker:You know, you can, I have no problem putting a little, tiny, little sticky note that says salt or sugar.
Speaker:If you're not sure, taste it.
Speaker:Just put a little bit in your tongue, you'll know.
Speaker:But putting salt in your coffee instead of sugar is really not a cool thing.
Speaker:And although the kits are putting.
Speaker:Salt in the espresso grounds.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And they're also putting brown sugar.
Speaker:I don't get that.
Speaker:I don't get that either.
Speaker:It comes up the machine,
Speaker:but they're putting like three or four grains of Malden salt on top of the espresso grounds before they pull it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But you don't want to mix it up and put sugar in the risotto.
Speaker:I mean, that's So taste it or label it.
Speaker:And that is a really, really good way.
Speaker:And there's one other thing.
Speaker:Um, people often use the wrong piece of equipment.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Oh, recipe for failure.
Speaker:And it is a recipe for failure.
Speaker:And really, honestly, uh, the one part of the answer here is that you have to find recipes that use the equipment that you have.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you also should consider buying, uh, I don't know, a rubber spatula and a wooden spoon.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Or a,
Speaker:because they each have different uses.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:One will scrape the bottom of a pot while you're cooking a sauce or boiling milk.
Speaker:One won't.
Speaker:One will allow things to burn.
Speaker:One will make it more even.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So it's really important.
Speaker:I know we've all made ramen in a coffee pot and a drip coffee maker.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Not really made for that, but okay.
Speaker:Don't try and like roasted chicken in there.
Speaker:It's just not gonna work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've seen a lot of TikTok videos.
Speaker:I'm back to that again, of people putting steaks in toasters and I'm always like, no, that's the, that's just first of
Speaker:I mean, I, I see a fire happening.
Speaker:I want to know what the bottom, where it collects the crumbs.
Speaker:What does that look like down there?
Speaker:You don't want to know who cleans that out and who, and clean.
Speaker:Nobody cleans and the toasters are tight.
Speaker:So who gets in there and cleans the coils?
Speaker:And does your piece of toast that you make then taste like a steak?
Speaker:The next one?
Speaker:Well, that's the good part.
Speaker:No, until that fat's rancid in a week.
Speaker:Oh, that's really no.
Speaker:Use the proper equipment, you won't have fails.
Speaker:We want you to succeed in the kitchen.
Speaker:We want you to be proud of your cooking.
Speaker:We think it's really important to keep cooking both for your health and for your mental wellbeing and to share food with people.
Speaker:And you can't do that if you don't cook.
Speaker:And I wanna say one last thing before we jump to our next segment.
Speaker:Bruce has a rule about cooking.
Speaker:And this, I, I've always thought was a great rule, uhoh, and that is don't, don't be embarrassed.
Speaker:And here's the other thing.
Speaker:Always have a dozen eggs.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I love that rule when you have people over and what does that mean?
Speaker:That means if you really screw it up and you really make a mess out of, I don't know, manicotti or
Speaker:Dinner was a wreck and here we are.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:A bottle of red wine and scrambled eggs and toast is a delicious dinner.
Speaker:That's, uh, that all makes for a great dinner.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Or an omelet.
Speaker:Oh my goodness.
Speaker:To me, A little cheese omelet if you screw up the roast, why not?
Speaker:Yeah, why not?
Speaker:So listen, always have a dozen eggs on hand and don't be embarrassed.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Before we get to our next segment, our one minute.
Speaker:Cooking tip, let me say that we have a newsletter and it is going out and it is not content related to this podcast, but different,
Speaker:Um, it's going out and you could sign up for that by going to our website, bruce mark.com.
Speaker:On there is a signup form for the newsletter.
Speaker:Um, and I wanna say, That while I see people signing up, I can see numbers of people signing up.
Speaker:I cannot see your name or your email address, nor can I capture it, nor can I sell it, nor can the service I use capture it or sell it.
Speaker:I've got all the privacy locked on it, and you can always unsubscribe to that newsletter at.
Speaker:Any moment with unsubscribed buttons that I make sure appear at the bottom of every newsletter
Speaker:So if you'd like to get our newsletter, go to Bruce and mark.com and sign up there.
Speaker:Okay, up next, as is traditional, our one minute cooking tip,
Speaker:dump your metal pie tins.
Speaker:And get yourself a clear glass.
Speaker:Pyrex, yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Pipe plate.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:You will be able to see the crust browning through it.
Speaker:You'll know when it's done.
Speaker:No more soggy crust.
Speaker:Timings in recipes are just a guide, right?
Speaker:They're never exact because my stove's not the same as your stove.
Speaker:So, Using a glass Pyrex clear pipe plate will allow you to see
Speaker:pie plate, not cake pan, not nine by 13, 13 pan.
Speaker:This is pie.
Speaker:We're talking about pies because you want to see how brown they're getting.
Speaker:No more soggy bottoms.
Speaker:Also, if you're upping your, uh, Asian cooking, and Bruce is about to have an interview with an Asian
Speaker:A Pyrex pipeline is a much better vehicle for putting in a steamer.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:If you're making, uh, let's say some dish that requires it to be steamed in a vessel, ribs Ooh, ribblets and black bean sauce.
Speaker:Yeah, because you can see up into it and see how it's cooking from the bottom when you place it on the steamer basket in the walk.
Speaker:So, Pyrex s Yes, please.
Speaker:Up next.
Speaker:Bruce's interview with you and Lou, the author of Vegetarian Vietnamese, a brand new cookbook and
Speaker:Today we're speaking with you and Lou, a food photographer and cookbook author, born in
Speaker:And her latest book is Beautiful, delicious recipes called Vietnamese Vegetarian.
Speaker:Welcome, Uyen.
Speaker:Hi, Bruce.
Speaker:Nice to meet you.
Speaker:So while vegetables are a huge component of traditional Vietnamese cooking, you start your book
Speaker:So what made you wanna write this book?
Speaker:Well, I am a part-time vegetarian.
Speaker:I eat a lot of vegetarian meals and.
Speaker:I, when, when I go shopping, my bag is full of vegetables and um, I've been bought up by my mom and
Speaker:And anyway, it is such a huge part of.
Speaker:The Vietnamese cuisine, they never claim to be vegetarians, but they eat 70% vegetables and only 20% protein.
Speaker:So I thought I would, um, write a book based around plants and eating more kindly.
Speaker:It was more about being conscious to the environment and, um, seeing where we can do without meat and
Speaker:Well, your book starts off with, The best food ever to come out of Southeast Asia, chewy tapioca, skin
Speaker:Do you have any advice for people who are too afraid to try and make their own dumplings at home?
Speaker:Well, I reckon that if.
Speaker:You decide that you want to make dumplings at home and you've never done it, that you have a free afternoon
Speaker:There are so many tutorials online as well that you can look at.
Speaker:If you are not sure about pleading, just you know, just be mindful that maybe the first five or so
Speaker:This.
Speaker:Just, just so easy.
Speaker:I mean, kids are bought up folding dumplings and it's, it's just not as frightening as it seems because it's,
Speaker:You also have an ingenious appetizer recipe in your book that uses dried tofu skin knots.
Speaker:Now, I've seen these in Asian markets all the time, and I don't usually know what to do with them.
Speaker:Why don't you explain what they are and how you use them in the book with this incredibly sounding recipe.
Speaker:So they're basically tofu sheets that are pressed together.
Speaker:They're tied into a knot, and then they're dried.
Speaker:So you use them as a protein replacement.
Speaker:So instead of like chicken or meat, you know, in lots of things like.
Speaker:Phrasing dishes or stews.
Speaker:People would add them in with the meat, um, for the additional texture or they would use it to replace the meat.
Speaker:And it's, um, it's, you know, it's uh, full of protein as well and it's really delicious.
Speaker:Got that lovely bite.
Speaker:So I use them like to replace chicken wings and tofu knots.
Speaker:Kind of look like chicken wings as well.
Speaker:I coat it in flour and it's deep fried and it's with its lovely sauce and it's, it's just, it is really, really delicious.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:I'm, I'm upping myself cause it's my recipe, but, um, I always win friends of that recipe.
Speaker:It is so creative.
Speaker:I have never seen tofu skin, not deep fried like that, and that just seems like the most
Speaker:I think you were brilliant with that usage of that ingredient.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Is tofu a widely used ingredient in traditional Vietnamese cooking?
Speaker:And if so, are there many varieties of tofu?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, it's used all the time in Vietnamese cooking and on a Vietnamese dinner table, you know,
Speaker:There's always at least one tofu dish like the lemongrass, tofu, or, um, tomatoes with tofu, you know, tofu, that's fried tofu.
Speaker:It's deep fried, you know, it's cooked in like loaves of ways, like braising.
Speaker:It's always paired with plenty of vegetables.
Speaker:Although it, it's vegetarian, people don't consider it.
Speaker:Oh, um, you know, this is a vegetarian dish and I'm only gonna make it if someone who is a vegetarian is coming round.
Speaker:Um, it's made, you know, every day.
Speaker:So there's like tofu puffs that you can get and those tofu knots.
Speaker:I said there's also tofu skins, just the regular tofu blocks in different, various forms of, um, texture like silk and soft.
Speaker:Medium.
Speaker:Firm, firm, extra firm.
Speaker:We tend to like the, sort of the medium firm range cuz it's, it's not so chewy and it soaks up all the flavors
Speaker:You just brought up a dish, uh, tofu with tomatoes, so, I wanna talk about that for a second cuz I was surprised
Speaker:And as you mentioned, the tofu with tomatoes and you have spinach and basil that, are these recipes in your book geared to a
Speaker:No, I didn't gear them to the western palate.
Speaker:Tomatoes are, Common and are used every day.
Speaker:But unlike, um, Western recipes, you know, tomato is never blitz.
Speaker:It's never blended, and it's never made into a sauce really.
Speaker:It's always used as a whole vegetable or fruit, like in a soup, for instance.
Speaker:It's cut.
Speaker:Largely so that you can chew it.
Speaker:Vietnamese people, people love texture and chewing things, so they never really like things to be blended down.
Speaker:Um, so in in order recipes, they'll, they'll hugely be whole.
Speaker:So for instance, the tomato and tofu recipe is really traditional.
Speaker:That's, that's had at least twice a week in my family.
Speaker:But things like the stuffed tomatoes, so I've stuffed it with mushrooms and tofu.
Speaker:But traditionally people would stuff it with, um, mints, pork and prawns and mushrooms.
Speaker:So I've just adapted, you know, uh, the very traditional recipes to be vegetarian.
Speaker:How do you cook vegetarian?
Speaker:Vietnamese food without fish sauce.
Speaker:How is that even done?
Speaker:That's a, that was a huge challenge that I bought on myself because I used fish sauce with everything.
Speaker:Um, it's a staple, so it, instead of salt Vietnamese people would use fish sauce.
Speaker:I'm so happy that I, um, wrote this book because I found so many replacements for fish sauce,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So you can buy them in jars and they've been fermented, which is like extra goodness for you.
Speaker:Um, but they taste quite.
Speaker:Puny and, um, fishy.
Speaker:So that's a really good replacement.
Speaker:It's like, has so much umami flavors.
Speaker:And, um, there's a great, I dunno if you have it in the US but we have a, a seasoning called yondu,
Speaker:It's like a soy sauce, but much nicer than a soy sauce.
Speaker:And it, it also has that funk where it's, it's fermented so it tastes.
Speaker:Slightly fishy.
Speaker:And of course you can use soy sauce and there are so many condiments on the market
Speaker:And, and going back to the tomato question, it's so interesting because the Italians, when they were, they fell upon tomatoes.
Speaker:They were really suspicious of it, I think because it's a nightshade, um, and thought that it would poison everybody.
Speaker:And it was the same with the Chinese when it was brought over.
Speaker:And one of the first dishes that tomatoes were used in, interestingly enough, is the scrambled eggs
Speaker:So that must have come, um, down from China to Vietnam.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:And I love that you have a whole chapter.
Speaker:In Vietnamese vegetarian on noodles, you cover everything from chewy and bouncy sweet potato
Speaker:Oh, that sounds so good.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:To crispy noodles with all the broccoli.
Speaker:So I love the idea of noodles fried into a crispy base for all sorts of toppings in this case.
Speaker:All the broccoli.
Speaker:Can you explain that dish to me?
Speaker:So the noodles, they're fresh noodles, which you can buy from the shop.
Speaker:Or if you, you were to make noodles, so if you were to make them, if, if you know about making pasta and
Speaker:So the same goes for me when I buy, um, fresh noodles from the.
Speaker:On the shop, I spread them out onto a tray and I let them have half a day to dry on one side and half a day to dry on the other side.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And at that stage, I can keep them in an airtight box and I can keep them for a couple
Speaker:But in this case where I'm frying deep, frying the noodles after they've been for like a day or.
Speaker:Or half a day or whatever.
Speaker:Then I b blanched them very quickly.
Speaker:Not to cook them, but just to moisten them and then dry them very well, and then throw them in a deep fat fryer.
Speaker:At that stage, I use cooking chopsticks to spread them out, so it's like a nest.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then you just ship them out after like a minute or two and they, they puff up as well, which adds to the gorgeousness.
Speaker:And in the meantime, uh, I love broccoli, so I love using the broccoli leaves, tender stem, broccoli, or just regular.
Speaker:Broccoli.
Speaker:Yeah, so this is, um, traditionally had with loads of vegetables, stir fried with beef, but here we are just using like broccoli
Speaker:So you have some bits that are really crispy and crunchy and some bits that are getting soft, and you sort of
Speaker:I want to ask you about making rice noodles at home.
Speaker:You have a delicious looking recipe called asparagus.
Speaker:Rice noodle rolls with mushrooms and pumpkin, and I've always seen rice noodle rolls steamed, but you offer
Speaker:Yes, that's because, um, they're called mango in Vietnamese, by the way.
Speaker:I went to Vietnam a few years ago and um, my aunt makes them for breakfast, so she sells them on the
Speaker:But the thing is her husband built the drum, which is like a canvas over like a steaming pot, and then there's
Speaker:And then coming back to uk, I couldn't, I mean, I found a, You know, the maker, but the, the canvas was just
Speaker:So I just made a batter.
Speaker:And I just thought, I'm just gonna fry it and see what happens.
Speaker:And it really, really works well, you know, if, if you are in fear of noodles and these rolls look really
Speaker:Well, doing it in a skillet sounds super easy and I think it's hard enough for people to wrap their head around working with
Speaker:So, Putting it into a skillet makes it so much easier.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I have to talk about soup because you can't discuss Vietnamese food without talking about fu.
Speaker:So what's the difference between FU and regular noodle soup?
Speaker:So it's kind of like, what's the difference between marinara sauce and carbonara sauce?
Speaker:It's like that.
Speaker:It's same but different.
Speaker:So fur is a, a unique recipe where it uses ese and cinnamon, um, coriander seeds and um, maybe fennel seeds and black cardin and
Speaker:You can either do a vegetarian one, a chicken one or a beef one, and a main ingredient as well that goes in every single.
Speaker:One of those, um, is a burnt or charred onion and chard ginger.
Speaker:So this is what makes fur and it's also consumed with flat rice noodles.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Whereas if we look at the mushroom, um, soup or um, a soup with vermicelli noodles, they're just like
Speaker:So that's the difference.
Speaker:Well, let's talk about that mushroom noodle soup, because the photo of that is so, Gorgeous and
Speaker:You use dried mushrooms, you use dried ramen noodles.
Speaker:But are there any tips for buying dried mushrooms?
Speaker:Like what should we look for and what should we avoid?
Speaker:It depends on how rich you like.
Speaker:Your mushroom soup to taste.
Speaker:If you buy like dried wild mushrooms, they tend to be, um, slightly, the flavor is milder and if you get shiitake mushrooms,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I also noticed that the tiny little shi mushrooms taste stronger than the bigger shi mushrooms.
Speaker:So, If you really love your mushrooms, you can get to know them.
Speaker:But then, you know, I wouldn't use pacini, um, mushrooms as much in this suit, but if I, I had it hanging
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's just gonna be too rich.
Speaker:And, um, and also the secret is to use some of that delicious, um, mushroom juice that you get from rehydrating them,
Speaker:Uyen Luu.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Your book Vietnamese Vegetarian is full of amazingly gorgeous and delicious recipes.
Speaker:Most of them don't look terribly hard.
Speaker:Thank you for your book, Vietnamese Vegetarian and for spending some time talking about your cooking with us today.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:I wish that we didn't live so rurally.
Speaker:I wish that I could get vegetarian Vietnamese.
Speaker:I guess you have to make it for me.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:But to be honest, even where we live, it's very difficult to find ingredients because the thing about Vietnam,
Speaker:Herbs and greens and grassy things and leafy things and all these very ubiquitous stuff when you live in Vietnam.
Speaker:But even if you're in a big city, you could find them where we live, I can't find certain things.
Speaker:There's a, there's a failed mill town just about 15 minutes from our house, and it, you know, used to hit big New England
Speaker:Uh, and a Vietnamese family has come in and they bought the.
Speaker:Bowling Elliots.
Speaker:They did what kind of bowling alleys?
Speaker:Duck pin bowling, duck pin, I don't even know what that is.
Speaker:Duck pin bowling alley.
Speaker:This is how rural we are.
Speaker:Duck pin balling.
Speaker:I didn't, what the heck.
Speaker:So they bought the bowling alley and they've opened a bubble tea shop and they've tried to open a FU restaurant.
Speaker:They did the fu
Speaker:and I believe they also have a nail salon.
Speaker:Oh gosh.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:So, but you know, they've tried this and I always wonder, how in the world do they think in this very depressed
Speaker:But again, they keep expanding.
Speaker:The Bubble Tea Place just opened a few, few weeks ago.
Speaker:People like bubble tea, I guess they go across the street, they see the line across the street, a
Speaker:That must be, I mean, listen, this is a town that is so depressed that even Wendy's closed.
Speaker:So it's not, we're not talking though.
Speaker:We do have two Dunking Donuts, but Wendy's closed, so it's not a big thing and yet, Again.
Speaker:Bubble tea.
Speaker:Bubble tea.
Speaker:They're making it.
Speaker:Before we get to our last segment of the podcast, let me see, it would be great if you could rate this podcast.
Speaker:If you could drop down on an Apple or Google menu or any platform you're on, you'll find a way to give it stars five.
Speaker:Five would be great.
Speaker:And if you could, six is even better.
Speaker:They don't.
Speaker:Really offer six.
Speaker:And if you could write a review, that would be fabulous because again, that is the only way that this podcast can
Speaker:Um, up next, our typical last segment, what's making us happy in food this week?
Speaker:The tapioca dumplings from Uyen's book, vegetarian Vietnamese, and Bruce has made these several times now.
Speaker:Oh, so I've made a lot of hark in my life.
Speaker:You know the clear wrappers filled with shrimp, but these are different.
Speaker:These Vietnamese tapioca skins are made with just two ingredients, tapioca starch, and boiling water.
Speaker:And you have to need it from the boiling water.
Speaker:So it's really hard in the hand.
Speaker:So I put gloves on, I put surgical gloves on, helps take away some of that heat and you need it, and you fill it with an herb and nut.
Speaker:And I used a soy protein, which you don't have to use.
Speaker:You can use just all vegetables and you.
Speaker:Spoil them instead of steaming them and they're chewy and they're clear and they're, they're very chewy.
Speaker:It's imagine they're take those, they're very sticky.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Imagine those bubble teas coming outta the bottom of the thing, being smooshed into a wrapper.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:I love that story.
Speaker:They're a, a wild thing now.
Speaker:And let me say that this is labor intensive work.
Speaker:So this lazy boy wouldn't ever do such a thing, but Bruce has made, why aren't you lucky?
Speaker:Have a husband who'll make it for you.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:And in fact, I'm lucky that when I just came home from visiting my mom in St.
Speaker:Louis and my brother and being out there and taking mom to a million doctor's appointments, I don't know, shoes, and
Speaker:So we did them.
Speaker:And I came home and I was a bit exhausted, even though my flights were all perfect to get me back home, uh,
Speaker:So I had to drive back home.
Speaker:And when I got home, Bruce had made me something that I asked for.
Speaker:He made me Japanese Catsu Curry.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which is a.
Speaker:Pork.
Speaker:In this case it was pork Bruce Air fried that pork cutlet and
Speaker:I pounded them down and coated it in Panco?
Speaker:Yeah, usually they're deep fried and, and I'm glad he airf fried cuz it was healthier for me.
Speaker:And he made a couple of vinegar, salad, some cabbage and some dcon, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He surfed it over rice, the cutlet with a fried egg on top.
Speaker:And then you make this curry ca, this curry sauce.
Speaker:And what'd you put in it?
Speaker:Onions.
Speaker:Onions and water chestnuts and water chest, the.
Speaker:Thick, spicy curry that laed over the whole plate.
Speaker:It's, it's kind of prototypical Japanese comfort food.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Prototypical Japanese kid food.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like after school food kind of thing.
Speaker:Like mac and like, like craft mac and cheese.
Speaker:The nice.
Speaker:Oh, great.
Speaker:You 7,000 calorie after school snack.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:But it was still so.
Speaker:Comforting a big bowl of this in New England.
Speaker:It's just getting into the time where we can open our doors.
Speaker:It's still chilly at night, but we can just now start to open our doors and let the fresh air in.
Speaker:We had the doors open.
Speaker:It was a little cold inside the house, and let me tell you, I stay with my mom in a guest apartment at the retirement
Speaker:It's always five.
Speaker:Thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Speaker:Which one mile from the sun cuz the old people are always cold.
Speaker:So I stay in a, the guest suite there and I'm burning up the whole time I'm there, but, but, um, it was nice
Speaker:That's our podcast for this week.
Speaker:Thanks for being a part of it.
Speaker:We really appreciate it.
Speaker:There are so many podcasts out there.
Speaker:We really appreciate your spending time with us.
Speaker:Thank you for being on this Food and cooking journey with us.
Speaker:We hope we've given you a good time and given you some tips about food and cooking that you can take away and make for yourself.
Speaker:Make useful for yourself.
Speaker:We hope to see you back next week hand.
Speaker:For more tips, more photos, more food, more conversation.
Speaker:Join our group Cooking with Bruce Mark on Facebook where I will post these podcast episodes.
Speaker:I post videos,
Speaker:and let me say that those videos also go up on TikTok under a channel called Cooking with Bruce and
Speaker:Mark.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:As well as our YouTube channel, cooking with Bruce and Marsy.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:It's all a big thing.
Speaker:You can't forget, and you'll be back again for another episode of Cooking with Bruce and Mark.
