Seaweed & miso soup

Since I am pregnant, I've been revisiting the pregnancy and postpartum soups in my repertoire.

I was introduced to Miyeok Guk 미역국, a traditional Korean soup eaten on birthdays and postpartum, by my dear friends celebrating their birthdays and when I had my daughter. This is a deceptively simple, powerhouse medicinal soup! Seaweed is nutrient-dense superfood packed with calcium, vitamins A, B-12, C, K, iodine, potassium, chlorophyll, soluble fiber, helps to regulate estrogen/estradiol, and on top of that it binds to heavy metals in the intestines and helps to leach them out of your system. Yay for seaweed! (And yes, I know Fukushima has altered the radiation content in the Pacific and iodine which is abundant in seaweed binds to radiation. But I figure, it's all getting flushed out. Literally. Atlantic seaweed is harder to source and frankly, the US specialty companies that do so charge ridiculous prices. We do what we can and make compromises.)

There are dozens of varieties of edible seaweed. You should choose wakame (which I know is a transliteration of Japanese not Korean) or Miyeok (see, Korean). Though I have very rusty, phonetic reading ability in Hangul | Korean (courtesy of free language class at the Korean Cultural Center in LA way way back--did I mention I also got a BA in linguistics and had/have an affinity for languages?), I lack comprehension. So whenever I am in doubt, I look at the picture and make sure there is a bowl of soup on the label.

I start with Junghee's mom's recipe which she shared with my mom after I gave birth. I use other non-traditional nutrient-dense ingredients to amp up the nutritional profile. Miso adds probiotics (and if you really want to go the extra mile, add GMO-free organic natto for the Vitamin K2). I stopped eating soybeans some years ago because of the phyto-estrogens (big deal for women of childbearing age) and the GMO issue.  Every now and then I will make an exception for organic, fermented soybeans.  So this is another one of my exceptional recipe for fermented soybeans. Read the labels for miso & natto carefully to make sure it's organic, GMO-free, MSG-free and is naturally fermented with koji cultures (rice or barley malt). Natto has a very strong challenging flavor so you may want to omit if you don't like stinky ferments.  

You can use a bone broth base to have a more rich soup base and/or use fish sauce and dried bonito flakes (be sure it doesn't have MSG though!)  If you are using shellfish, the juice from the shellfish will also enrich the soup base. My favorite is clams because they are high in iron and with the seaweed combine to make a blood building/fortifying soup that is perfect for moon cycles, pregnancy, postpartum, and post-surgery. This has been a great boost for me when I start feeling fatigued from the crazy things pregnancy does to one's body. I try to eat it at least once a week or so. When I am too busy to get fresh clams, I used canned. I know. Totally not as good, but way easier to store and have on hand in the pantry. (note 1/15/2017 I've since discovered frozen clams at Whole Foods. Infinitely better than canned!)

This is one of my daughter's favorite soups. Once when she was a toddler, she ate a huge adult sized portion of it. And then at bedtime she puked black-green goop all over the bed which I had the parental sixth sense ability to catch in my hands. Mostly. Good times.

Ingredients

• ~1 cup dried Miyeok/Wakame seaweed 
• toasted sesame oil
• garlic (optional)
• sea salt
• 8 cups water or bone broth
• cubed beef steak, whole cleaned clams (shell on), canned clams including juice (choose an additive-free one), shellfish, and/or cubed, organic/GMO-free soft tofu
• 1-2 tbs of Red Boat fish sauce and/or bonito flakes (make sure it's additive-free)
• 2 tbs of organic, GMO-free miso to taste
• organic, GMO-free natto (optional)

Directions

1.  Soak seaweed in water for 10 min in filtered water.  Drain. Massage in sesame oil. Use kitchen shears and cut into bite sized pieces.
2.  Add sesame oil to pot and saute seaweed for 1 min.  Add garlic (if u want) until it warms up.  
3. Add beef if using and sauté for a few minutes.
4. Add bone broth or water, fish sauce and/or bonito and bring to a low boil. 
5. Add shellfish if using and low boil until just cooked--the clams open up (~5 minutes).
6. Add tofu if using until it's hot.
7. Turn off stove.  Add 1-2 tbs miso and natto if using.  Sea salt to taste. Serve.

Multi-ethnic food craze

Last year during the Q&A after a university guest talk I gave, one of the UMB students asked me about eating food from former colonizer countries. In addition to talking a little bit about power dynamics and contextualization/historicity, I tried to get at the idea that food and by extension, culture does not happen in hermetic vacuums. Food/Culture is dynamic and constantly changing based on local context (availability of ingredients), historical conditions. 

We have only to look at one of the world's oldest diasporic communities of Chinese immigrants to see how Chinese cuisine varies by country Viet Chinese food is very different from Singaporean Chinese food is very different from Cuban Chinese food is very different from American Chinese food. These differences do not make the localized cuisines any more or less authentic (which itself is a rigid Western cultural construct rooted in the Cartesian logic of dominance that is NOT universal to all cultures btw), it just makes it different. And yet they are all united under this imagined community rubric of Chinese-ness.

At any rate, I came across this fantastic little piece about L.A. Food Culture which really captures the fluidity in food-making in a multi-ethnic society. I think a little historicity about how this has been going for centuries, even millennia is in order (see reference to diasporic Chinese food) but otherwise a great little write up about contemporary multiethnic food.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/in_los_angeles_multiethnic_food_culture_offers_a_taste_of_the_new_america.html

Chả Lụa | Silky pork sausage

Chả Lụa is a classic & ubiquitous Viet sausage roll that is traditionally pounded into a silky paste, wrapped in banana leaves, and boiled. It's found in bánh mì | VN sandwiches, bánh cuốn | rice rolls, among many other dishes. Like deli meat it can be eaten as a snack; one of my favorite ways to eat it is a mini-sandwich with bánh dầy | mochi.

Typical store-made Chả Lụa has MSG/hydrolyzed wheat protein and potato-/wheat-/cornstarch (likely GMO) and they also wrap the roll with a final layer of plastic wrap  or aluminum foil before boiling or use nylon twine--all of which release toxins/carcinogens when heated. So Chả Lụa has been off my menu for several years now unless I've got my additive-busting supplements with me.

This was a team effort. My thoughtful husband made the first batch when I was enduring first trimester ravening hunger pangs. I made the next round.

Like many of these traditional dishes that seem so challenging, I found that making Chả Lụa itself was not hard, but it required time investment in the wrapping & cooking. Because I like my modern tools, I used a food processor to render the meat and fat into a paste (similar to what one would do for meatballs). It only takes 10-15 minutes to get through 3 lbs. Easy peasy. We tried the grinder and it was double the work to then process the grind, so skip that step altogether. 

The first round, my husband tried the recipe from Bach Ngo's The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam; he wrapped with one layer of banana leaf and boiled the 3-4 rolls for 40 minutes. We ended up with a lot of waterlogged rolls. It was a good effort, but even without the waterlogging, why add water to recipe and then starch to firm in the first place? Also it was not salty or flavorful enough but that could be the waterlogging issue. The next time, I eyeballed Charles Phan's recipe and considered it too plain (only 2 tbs of fish sauce?!), pork belly too fatty and more headcheese-like with pork belly skin-on, which is a different and also delicious variety of Chả Lụa  called chả bì. So I fused some of the simplicity of Phan (added salt, no water, no starch, no additional refrigeration) with Ngo's recipe (more fish sauce, baby!), and per my usual modus operandi, we used higher quality ingredients. I believe the quality of the ingredients truly makes or breaks a recipe. 

The trickiest part is wrapping it to make it waterproof. We can source fresh banana leaves in the Bay Area at Latino/Caribbean markets or people's gardens, but typically I buy the frozen imported kind at the Viet or Latino markets. The banana leaves need to be rinsed and wiped down to remove any chalky residue. My mom recommends blanching the defrosted banana leaves in boiling water to make them more pliable, less likely to tear. [2/1/2015 note: Mom also says use banana leaves from Thailand, not the Philippines and to cut off the rib for pliability.]

We are still working on wrapping technique; I used double or triple banana leaf layers and wrapped it like a burrito (i.e. rolled and tucked in the ends which are held in place by twine). I only used a single criss cross which was't snug enough; I would recommend the roast tying method. I also went with Phan's steam cooking to reduce the waterlogging though I employed my pressure cooker to shortcut the time.

I picked up nice country ribs (butt) from Whole Foods; this is a flavorful fatty cut from sustainably raised pork and in the bulk pack (3 lbs+) it's a reasonably priced $4.99/lb comparable to what one would get buying direct from the farmer. If you must use conventionally-raised pork, my mom recommends soaking it with lemon juice and water overnight to "sweeten" the meat before marinading. The acidulation helps to break down the tough meat fibers from of chemically laden, stressed out pigs.

If the banana leaves are too much for you, I suppose one could substitute parchment paper though I have never tried it. Also, you can shape these into 1.5 inch balls (invest in a cookie scoop!) and make Thịt viên | meatballs. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Boil in water until cooked through before adding to soups, noodle dishes etc. Freeze the extras.

Ingredients

(Makes 3 rolls)

1.5 tsp unrefined sea salt (Celtic/grey or Himalayan/pink)

1.5 tsp fresh ground organic black pepper

1 tbs organic coconut palm sugar

1 tbs baking soda

6 tbs Red Boat fish sauce

3 lbs sustainably raised pork country ribs (butt), cut into 1.5 inch squares

1-2 tbs of fish sauce
1-2 packages of frozen banana leaves, cleaned, blanched, and wiped dry
kitchen twine (each strand should be 4-5 lengths of the roll)

In a  bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients together. Toss the cubed meat with the  marinade. In the ideal world, marinade for 4 hours. 

Working with small batches, use a food processor or a very high powered blender to make a fine meat paste (approx 3 minutes of processing) and reserve in a large bowl. Add any leftover marinade juices and mix in. Work quickly to keep the paste cold. When it warms, the fat melts making it more difficult to roll.

Lay out the banana leaves on a tray or cutting board. You will need 2-3 layers of leaves. Use 1/3 of the meat paste and shape into a cylindrical roll. Use a silicone pastry brush and brush with fish sauce. Roll snugly in the banana leaves, adding more leaves to patch any tears. Fold down the ends and tie with twine using the roast method.

Steam in a pressure cooker for 40-60 minutes. Steam in a regular pot for 1.5 hours or boil for 40 minutes. (If you make smaller rolls, it'll need less cooking time.) The interior should be cooked through--that greige meatball color. Some pink is okay if you are using sustainably raised meat.

Slice as needed. Store uneaten roll whole in banana leaves in an airtight container in the fridge. Extra rolls can be frozen, banana leaves & all. Steam in the banana leaves to reheat.

Ăn Ngon Lành|Eat Delectably!