ĐẶC BIỆT

Vietnamese for "This Cooks!"

I’m curious about American chefs who share the color and tastes of their family’s culture with Americans. As a DAR card carrying multi-generational American, I’m a madras of cultures (Irish, Scotch, English, Swiss, Bohemia, etc.), and I’m kind of jealous of the authentic cultural memory and experiences they have. That’s why I was curious about chef Nini Nguyen’s cookbook, Đặc Biệt (NOTE: this link is an Amazon Associate link, so I earn money when you click on it to buy the book).

I learned that Đặc Biệt is Vietnamese for This Cooks!

It is a delight to learn about the special things that make a meal “cook” in Vietnamese cooking. Here’s just one example that just blew me away.

Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Grilled Meat.

I will point out that I have the advantage of living in Central Florida where there is a significant Asian population and the iFresh grocery store to find ingredients that may not be available just anywhere. In this case, there are two key ingredients you should try to find for this recipe.

If you can’t find it, rice vermicelli is on Amazon. Even better, if you have an Asian market, look for vermicelli in the refrigerator section. I bought one made of potato in the iFresh Asian market. So delicate and perfectly absorbs the very important taste of the Nước Mắm Chấm sauce. Melts in your mouth.

The fish sauce you buy for the Nước Mắm Chấm sauce (page 4 of the cookbook) is really important. According to Michelin, the amount of protein in a fish sauce determines the richness of the flavor. It can range from 20°N to 60°N. Red Boat Fish Sauce is 40°N and made in Vietnam. That’s what I used. Chef Nguyen also says that palm sugar makes it more special than granulated sugar. I had raw cane sugar and it worked well. I’ll try the palm sugar next time.

Now for the recipe details. First, the sauce.

Nước Mắm Chấm sauce

(makes 3/4 cup, can be stored in the fridge in a glass jar for months. Now that I’ve had it, I doubt it will last that long)

2 large garlic cloves mashed in a mortar and pestle with 1 or 2 (depends on how hot you can tolerate) Thai chilies (NOTE: I used Aleppo pepper flakes because my husband doesn’t tolerate heat well. Aleppo pepper flakes bring the flavor without the heat)

1/4 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)

1/4 cup fish sauce (I used the Red Boat 40°N)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice.

Grilled Meat

I’ve used this combination of seasoning many times and find it echoes the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper combo I use on chicken and fish for grilling. If you like that, you’ll like this one. It has a slightly different character.

1 lemongrass stalk, finely minced, and 4 garlic cloves mashed in a mortar and pestle.

2-3 Thai chilies (I use the Aleppo pepper flakes as explained above)

1/2 cup oyster sauce

This is enough marinade for 2 pounds of chicken thighs or pork

Marinade the meat in the mixture. She recommends 30 minutes to no more than a day for whole meat, like boneless chicken thighs (I used pork loin about 1/2 inch thick and pounded thin) and 15 minutes for pork shoulder, butt or pork belly sliced thin, as in for shabu-shabu.

She grills hot and fast. I think the oyster sauce caramelizes the meat more and cooks faster than, for example, the lemon juice marinade I mentioned above.

The Bowl

For the 2 lbs of meat above, she cooks 1 lb of vermicelli. They cook very quickly! - I’ve learned not to overcook them or they really stick together and are hard to serve and eat.

In addition to the meat and vermicelli divided among 4 bowls, these are the salad ingredients which should be divided among the 4 bowls (I was in a hurry so I bought a bag of Asian salad that was mainly cabbage and carrots and added more cilantro, the mint, bean sprouts, and cucumber) and of course the peanuts add a contrasting texture and salty flavor:

1/2 small head of lettuce.

1 English cucumber (seedless) cut into half moons

1 carrot peeled and julienned

1/2 bunch cilantro

1/2 bunch mint

1/2 pound bean sprouts

1/4 cup crushed roasted peanuts.

Finish by drizzling the Nước Mắm Chấm sauce all over the salad. I also served the salads with a bowl of the sauce to add more to taste.

This really cooks!