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Secret Is Out On Vietnamese Cooking

Photo by JADEN HAIR

This grilled sirloin dish is one of 275 recipes featured in Secrets Of The Red Lantern.

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By JADEN HAIR

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 5, 2009

I've wanted to tell you about a cookbook that scuttles constantly between my nightstand and my kitchen table. "Secrets of the Red Lantern" (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $40) is part bittersweet memoir and part soulful cookbook full of family recipes by Pauline Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant.

I was lucky enough to catch Nguyen on the phone (she's in Australia) and chat with her about the book, her restaurant and plans.

It took her three years to write the tale of her family's dramatic and horrifying escape from war-torn Vietnam to Australia. Her voice in the book is so raw and painfully honest at times that I had to pause, look away and regain composure before reading on.

The cookbook is gorgeous. The cover design - a print of lotus blossoms - mimics a fabric pattern passed down for generations in Nguyen's family.

There are 275 recipes, starting with a description of nuoc mam, or fish sauce, as the basis of Vietnamese cooking. The recipes are generously written, revealing an abundance of family food secrets, and the photography is some of the most beautiful I've seen.

The photo here was provided by the Nguyen; I wanted you to see her food, in her style and from her eyes.

She and her partner, Mark Jensen, and her brother Luke all manage the bustling Red Lantern Restaurant in Sydney, Australia. Since she took off a couple of years to write this book, it's Nguyen's turn to juggle the day-to-day restaurant business while Jensen is off to write a new book and Luke Nguyen is pursuing a cooking show.

Pauline Nguyen's next project? Another baby, due in less than four months.

BTW ... I'm now a regular on the "Daytime" show produced at WFLA-TV and nationally syndicated. The show is on from 9 to 10 a.m. on News Channel 8. I'll be on two to three times a month.

GRILLED SIRLOIN WITH CHILI, GARLIC AND GINGER (BO NUONG TOI GUNG)

From "Secrets of the Red Lantern"

2 (1/2-pound) sirloin steaks

2 handfuls shredded green papaya

1 small handful mixed herbs (perilla, Vietnamese mint, basil)

1 tablespoon fried shallots

1 tablespoon dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and drained

3 tablespoons dipping fish sauce

For the marinade

2 teaspoons pickled chili

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4-inch piece of fresh ginger, finely minced or grated

2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

1 tablespoon superfine sugar

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Pinch of salt

Mix all the marinade ingredients together until the sugar dissolves.

Add the steaks and marinate for 2 hours in the fridge. Grill the steaks over medium to high heat, to your preference (6 minutes for rare, 10 minutes for medium), then rest the steaks for 5 minutes.

Reheat the steaks on the grill pan, then cut into thin slices.

Serve with a salad of green papaya, mixed herbs, fried shallots and dried shrimp, dressed with dipping fish sauce.

Serves 4

DIPPING FISH SAUCE (NUOC MAM CHAM)

3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

2 cloves garlic

1 bird's-eye chili (A small pepper typically harvested when it is an inch long and matured from green to red or purple in color. It is very hot.)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Combine the fish sauce, rice vinegar, 1/2 cup of water, and sugar in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir well and cook until just before boiling point is reached, then allow to cool. To serve, finely chop the garlic and chile and stir in the lime juice.

Makes 1 cup.

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