Literally translated, the name means “liver cake”. Don’t worry this cake contains no liver; it’s only called that because, depending on how you make it, the appearance should somewhat resemble a piece of liver. Don’t let the looks and name scare you into missing out on some really yummy eats! This cake is served cold, and has a texture much like western flan. The flavor is rich and creamy due to the coconut milk, with a hint of star anise, coffee, chocolate, and brown sugar.

Ingredients:
-12 eggs (approximately 600g)
-1 tsp tapioca starch
-2 1/4 tsp baking powder (not double acting)
-pinch of baking soda
-1 tsp instant coffee or coffee flavor (extract)
-1 tsp baking chocolate
-1 can (400ml) coconut milk
-8 star anises
-375g Chinese brown sugar (aka bar sugar) or dark brown sugar

What to Do:
Boil together sugar, coconut milk, and star anises until sugar dissolves, cool completely before removing star anises. Lightly beat eggs with baking powder, baking soda, tapioca starch, chocolate and coffee. Add syrup mixture and mix evenly. Grease a 9 inch cake pan and preheat (pan only, no batter) at 350’F for 5 mins, before pouring in batter. Bake at 350’F for 30-35 mins. Cool and serve cold.

Notes:
The above recipe renders a cake with “short” tunnels and a texture similar to Flan. If a higher tunnel affect is desired, simply double the amount of baking powder (to 4 ½ tsp) and increase the amount of tapioca starch to 4 heaped tbs or up to 8 heaped tbs (depends on how chewy you like the texture to be).

Reference:
Cute from www.datviet.com

For the Rice Cakes:
-2 parts rice flour
-1 part corn or tapioca starch
-2 parts boiling water
-3 parts warm water

*Measurements by volume.
**Mix together rice flour, with starch and warm water to form a smooth batter. Stir in boiling water and rest for ½ hour. Grease small bowls and steam empty bowls for 1 min. pour in batter and steam for 5 mins our until cooked.

Toppings:
Onion Oil:
Use the onion as a topping and the oil to make the mung beans.

Mung Beans:
-100g mung beans (peeled and split, approximate)
-1/2 tsp salt
-3 tbs onion oil

**Rinse, soak and cook beans until tender, mash and add salt along with onion oil mix well. Beans should be spread able, add more oil if necessary.

Tôm Cháy (Ground Shrimp Powder)

To Serve:
Arrange a few rice cakes on a plate, spread a little mung beans on each, drizzle with the onion, and ground shrimp. Ladle on some fish sauce and into the mouth it goes each cake goes.

Note:
There are many styles of bánh bèo. The recipe above if for the style commonly found in Saigon and southern parts of Vietnam.

Ingredients:
-300g rice flour
-3 tsp double acting baking powder
-2 tsp yeast + 3 tbs warm water
-250g coconut milk
-150g sugar
-250g sweet potato (can also use taro)
-1 egg (approximately 50g)

**Steam and mash potato, dissolve yeast in water. Put everything in a mixing bowl and beat with a cake mixer until smooth. Prove for 1 hour or until double in volume. Give the batter a quick stir and steam over high heat for 10-15mins.

Note:
FYI, don’t be surprised if the batter turns out very thick….its supposed to be thick.

Originally a Theochew pastry; the Vietnamese “adapted” version shares the same characteristics as its Theochew parent, except for the addition of durian in the filling. The pastry should be tender, made up of many paper thin layers, which are slightly sweet, and can easily be peeled off one by one. The Vietnamese name for this pastry, “bía or pía” comes from the Theochew general word for pastry which is “pia”. Those from Saigon call it “bánh bía” while those in Sóc Trăng or Vũng Thơm would call it “bánh Pía”. Other Vietnamese names include “bánh lột da” which literally translates to “peeling skin pastry”. Those from the Bến Tre region of Vietnam call it “bánh bao chỉ” which is the name for Mochi elsewhere in Vietnam.

The Oil Mixture for Making Pastry:
-90g lard
-90g oil

**Stir together over high heat until the lard completely melts. Cool completely before using to make pastries. Can also make pastries with 100% oil, but the combination of lard and oil gives the pastry much better flavor and texture.

Water Dough:
-250g bread flour
-50g wheat starch
-40g sugar
-100g “oil mixture”
-120g water
-1/2 tsp baking powder

**Mix together bread flour, wheat starch, and baking powder. Stir together oil, water and sugar, and add to premixed flour. Knead to form a smooth dough (about 10 mins). Rest for ½ hour and divide into 12 portions weighing about 50g each.

Oil Dough:
-75g tapioca starch
-75g bread flour
-75-80g “oil mixture”

**Mix everything together and divide into 12 portions weighing approximately 20g each.

Filling:
There are many different versions of fillings, pick one of the following.

Vietnamese Style (Mung beans and Durian)
-450g mung beans (peeled and split)
-350g sugar
-100g oil
-150 koh fun (cooked glutinous rice flour)
-200g durian flesh
-100g pork fat + 50g sugar (optional)
-12, 24 or 36 salted egg yolks + 1 tbs cooking wine (optional)

**A) Boil pork fat for 5 mins, and cut into match stick size pieces. Mix with 50g sugar and let rest for at least ½ hour before using.

B) Mix egg yolks with wine and steam for 15 mins. 1 yolk in each pastry = 12 yolks total, 2 in each pastry = 24 yolks total, etc….

C) Rinse and soak mung beans for at least 4 hours. Cook until tender and mash. Add sugar and durian. Stir fry over medium heat for about ½ hour. Add pork fat (A). Mix together koh fun and oil add to bean mixture. Stir fry for another 5 mins or until mixture thickens. Cool and divide into 12 portions, add and egg yolk (B) in the center.

Lotus Paste and 1000 Year Egg
-450g lotus seeds
-1 tsp lye water
-350g sugar
g candied wintermelon (tong dong kwa)
-100g oil + 50 koh fun
-12, 24, 36 1000 year egg yolks (optional)

**Soak lotus seeds with lye water and enough water to completely cover the seeds overnight. Next morning, drain, and rinse seeds and boil until tender and mash, add sugar. Cut candied wintermelon into small pieces. Stir fry lotus seeds over medium heat for about 20 mins, add candied wintermelon, koh fun and oil. Stir fry for another 5 mins. Cool and divide into 12 portions, add an egg yolk in the center of each portion.

Taro or Mung Bean:
-1kg taro or 1kg COOKED mung beans (500g if dried)
-400g sugar
-100g candied winter melon
-100g oil + 50g koh fun
-100g pork fat + 50g sugar (optional)
-12, 24 or 36 salted egg yolks + 1 tbs cooking wine (optional)

**A) Boil pork fat for 5 mins, and cut into match stick size pieces. Mix with 50g sugar and let rest for at least ½ hour before using.

B) Mix egg yolks with wine and steam for 15 mins.

C) Mix together Koh fun and oil.

D) Cut candied melon into small pieces. Steam and mash taro, add sugar and stir fry for 20 mins. Add candied melon, fat (A), and koh fun mixture (C). Stir fry for another 5 mins. Divide filling into 12 portions, add egg yolk in the center.

Finally...Making the Pastries:
1) Wrap 1 portion of the oil dough in the water dough.
2) Roll flat, and fold into thirds, roll again and fold into thirds once more.
3) Roll into a flat circle, with the edges thinner than the center. The dough should be just big enough or slightly smaller than the approximate width required to wrap the filling.
4) Wrap use the dough to wrap the filling, with one hand “pushing” the filling down into the dough, while the other hand “pulls” and eases the dough up to cover the filling (like making mooncakes).
5) Put the pastry face down on a flat surface (edges facing up). Use a pastry cutter or something flat and solid to slightly fatten the pastry.
6) Flip the pastry right side up and gently stamp with design stamp.
7) Arrange the pastries face down on a pastry sheet. Bake at 400’F for a few mins. Until dough lightens in color and the pastry (layers) starts to puff.
8) Flip the pastries so that they’re right side up, use a sewing needle to poke a few “steam vents”. Continue to bake at 400’F or another 15-20 mins until the pastry is puffy and the bottom is slightly golden.
9) Brush with egg wash and bake until shiny and slightly golden (another 5 mins)

Note:
-The pastry will taste better and have a better texture if aged at least overnight.
-the texture (firmness) of the water dough and the oil dough has to be the same.
-Do not press to hard, and make sure design stamp is not “soaking wet” when stamping on the design else the layers will stick together.
-baking at a low temperature will give you a hard pastry with little layers.
-the water dough needs to be kneaded thoroughly else, the pastry will be puffy like puff pastry but the layers will not be “peelable”.

Basic Pie Crust (for 4, 9 inch pies):
-550g all purpose flour
-350g butter
-1 ½ tsp salt
-2 tbs sugar
-150g ice water (approximate)

**Mix together salt, sugar, and flour. Cut butter into flour and add water a tablespoon at a time until moist and crumbly. Divide into 4 portions, roll and line pie pans.

Filling:
Apple and Pear Pie (for 2, 9 inch pies)

-250g sugar (approximate, depending on sweetness of fruits)
-500g: Barlet Pears
-500g: mixture of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Jonagold apples
-4 tbs flour
-2 tbs ground cinnamon

**Peal, seed and slice fruit into thin pieces. Mix everything together and fill pies. Bake at 450’F for 15 mins, reduce heat to 350’F and bake for another 40 mins or until juices from the center of the pie bubbles.
***Note: If making apple pies, use 1kg apples. If making pear pies use 1kg pears and omit cinnamon.

Pumpkin Pie: (for 2, 9 inch pies)

-800g pumpkin puree (from 800g pumpkin, steamed and mashed)
-350g sugar
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tbs ginger juice
-1 tbs ground cinnamon
-1 tsp each: ground cloves, nutmeg
-4 eggs
-500g evaporated milk
-2 tsp vanilla

*Mix everything together and ladle into crusts. Bake at 400’F for 15 mins, reduce temperature to 350’F and bake for another 35 mins or until set. Decorate cooled pies with fresh whipped cream.

Located in an alley, about a block away from Chùa Việt Nam (a Vietnamese Buddhist temple I volunteer at) is Northwest Tofu. This is where the temple goes for its weekly tofu needs, reason not being because they’re close, but because the tofu here is the best in the market. Many different brands of tofu are sold in Seattle markets, and a handful (about 10) of those brands are made in Seattle. Needless to say, if you’re in Seattle getting your hands on a piece of tofu is easy as pie. But what makes Northwest Tofu’s tofu better than the rest? It’s their taste, texture and quality. Their taste is unbeatable; rich and creamy. The texture is smooth and silky. Quality wise, the tofu is made daily, always fresh and warm if you buy them at the factory.

Armed with a camera, notepad and a pen I decided to spend my Friday morning on a short field trip at the tofu factory. The people there are extremely nice and were more than happy gave me a tour. Their family run operation uses an average of 300lbs of soy beans a day. Most of their costumers are restaurants but their products are only sold fresh at the factory and at 3 grocery stores in Seattle. They produce all types of tofu and also offer soy milk, yu chao kway, sesame pancakes, onion pancakes, and rice milk.

Making of tofu is hard work! I requires time, and lots of manpower…..yeah and soybeans too.

The process begins; Soybeans are soaked overnight:

The beans are then grounded up and the “milk” is extracted:

The milk is then coagulated in large wooden barrows, once the mixture sets, it is stirred to break up and separate the curds and whey:

Meanwhile, the wooden moulds are prepared by lining them with cheesecloth:

The mixture is now then poured into the moulds:

The moulds are capped before being pressed (to remove excess water) and you are rewarded with tofu!

Soybean pulp at the end of the day is then sold to farms which trun it into animal feed:

I mentioned they also make yu chao kway right? Here’s some fresh out of the fryer:

Warm thank you to Northwest Tofu for opening your doors and giving me such a wonderful and detailed tour. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Dough:
-100g dried mung beans (peeled and split)
-300g taro
-100g shortening
-125g wheat starch
-80g boiling water
-1 shy tsp baking ammonia

*Rinse and soak mung beans in water for a few hours to “rehydrate”. Peel taro and chop taro. Steam taro and mung beans until tender mash into a smooth paste. Stir boiling water into wheat starch, and let rest until cool enough to handle. Finally, knead everything together to create a smooth dough.

Filling:
-1 Chinese sausage
-1/4 cups each: shrimp, ground pork, bamboo shoots, cha siu (Chinese bbq pork)
-3-4 shitake mushrooms
-1/3 tsp 5 spice powder
-1/2 tsp ground pepper
-1/2 sesame oil
-dash of soy sauce
-pinch of salt

*Soak mushrooms in warm water until tender. Chop mushrooms, shrimp, bamboo shoots, sausage, cha siu into small pieces. Stir fry all the ingredients for about 5 mins over high heat.

Wrapping and Frying:
Divide dough into 20 pieces. Wrap a tsp of filling in a portion of dough. Repeat same process for the rest of the dough and filling. Deep fry the puffs in oil temp. of 200’C or 390’F. Remove when golden and puffy. Serve hot.

Note:
The most important factor when making these puff is the oil temp. in which you fry the puffs. If the temp. is too low the puffs will “dissolve” in the oil.

Ingredients:
-8 large ripe bananas
-2 tbs all purpose flour
-1 ½ loafs old bread (preferably wheat)
-4 tbs rum
-2 eggs
-1 ¼ cups sugar
-2 cups milk
-2 cups coconut milk
-4 tbs melted butter
-1 tbs vanilla
-1/4 cup raisins (optional)
-1/4 cup walnuts (optional)
-1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

*Slice bananas and mix with flour, 2 tbs rum, ¼ cup sugar, 2 tbs butter, raisins, nuts and cinnamon. Beat eggs with the remaining cup of sugar, add coconut milk, milk, vanilla, remaining butter, and rum. Slice bread into ½ inch thick slices. Grease an 8 inch cake ban pan. Quickly dip the bread slices in egg mixture and lay the slices into the bottom of pan to create the first “layer”. Add half of the bananas to a second layer, followed by another layer of bread, before finally topping it off with a layer of bananas. Bake at 350’F until golden, about 45 mins.

Reference:
ninhthuan from www.datviet.com