This book is a must read if you are a fan of the Slanted Door or Vietnamese food.
Here's a synopsis of the book:
The long-awaited cookbook from The Slanted Door, James Beard award-winning chef Charles Phan’s beloved San Francisco Vietnamese restaurant.
Award-winning chef and restaurateur Charles Phan opened The Slanted Door in San Francisco in 1995, inspired by the food of his native Vietnam. Since then, The Slanted Door has grown into a world-class dining destination, and its accessible, modern take on classic Vietnamese dishes is beloved by diners, chefs, and critics alike. The Slanted Door is a love letter to the restaurant, its people, and its food. Featuring stories in addition to its most iconic recipes, The Slanted Door both celebrates a culinary institution and allows home cooks to recreate its excellence.
Upon receipt of the book, I knew I would like it. I love the feel and the look of the book. It look so well put together and the pictures in it are beautiful.
The forward and introduction are great history of Charles Phan and how his family came to the States from Vietnam with nothing, he worked and studied hard to get himself into Cal and as a self taught chef, decided to take the risk and open up a Vietnamese restaurant that's not your typical Vietnamese restaurant.
The book is broken out into the three locations of the restaurant, from his first location in the Mission district to his current location in the historic Ferry Building. Throughout the book, Charles throws in various stories.
Now the important part, the recipes in the book are very doable. Of course, living in California helps to be able to sources some of the "hard to find" ingredients because of the plethora of Asian markets in California.
And these recipes are not hard. For example, the Spring Rolls, all easy to source and easy to make. Stir-Fried green beans, six ingredients, hainan chicken, so easy.
I was expecting more difficult but I was wrong, many of the recipes have easy to find ingredients and though it looks like a lot of steps, they are simple.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Vietnamese food, whether eating or cooking it.
Here is a recipe to wet your appetite.
Cabbage Rolls with Tomato Garlic Sauce
At the Slanted Door we use cabbage mostly in raw salads, but it’s also excellent steamed. Here, we blanch cabbage leaves for a steamed roll that’s almost like a wrapped meatball. I love the contrasting textures of the pork filling, which is studded with corn and jicama, and the tomato sauce adds a nice tang.
Dipping Sauce
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup minced garlic
1 cup diced peeled tomatoes
¹⁄³ cup minced shallots
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons minced Thai chiles
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup chopped green onions,
green parts only
Filling
½ cup canola oil
½ cup finely diced yellow onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound ground pork
½ cup finely diced jicama
½ cup finely diced carrots
½ cup finely diced stemmed
fresh shiitake mushrooms
½ cup corn kernels
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large heads green cabbage
1 bunch green onions
Makes about 22 rolls;
serves 10 to 12
1. To make the dipping sauce, in a skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and continue stirring for another minute. Add the shallots, ketchup, oyster sauce, fish sauce, Thai chiles, and sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Transfer the mixture to a blender and carefully blend at medium speed until the tomatoes are broken down. The sauce can be made ahead. Reheat in a skillet and stir in the cilantro and green onions just before serving.
2. To make the filling, heat a wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates on contact. Add the oil and heat until shimmering. Add the onion and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the pork, jicama, carrots, mushrooms, and corn and continue stirring for a minute. Add the fish sauce, sugar, pepper, and salt. Cook, stirring, until well combined and the pork is cooked through, about
2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Separate the cabbage leaves by snapping them off, one by one, from the core. Place a few leaves at a time in the boiling water and blanch until they are soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using a spider, remove the leaves from the water, cut off the thicker parts of the stem, and set aside to drain. Blanch the green onions in the boiling water until soft, about 15 to 20 seconds. Cut the bottoms off so only the green parts remain, and set aside to drain.
4. To assemble the rolls, lay a piece of cabbage on your work surface. Place about ¼ cup of the filling toward the bottom of the leaf, fold the sides in, and roll from the bottom toward the top to create a fully enclosed cigar-shaped roll. Tie the roll with a green onion stalk. Repeat with the remaining cabbage and filling, adjusting the amount of filling to the size of the leaf.
5. Set up a steamer and steam the rolls until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve warm alongside the dipping sauce.
Excerpted from The Slanted Door by Charles Phan. Copyright © 2014 by Charles Phan. Excerpted by permission of Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
