My husband always raves about his mother's dishes, as most men do. He talks about her stews and broths and noodle dishes with the highest regards. I usually lean more towards Italian food or American food just because that's what I know, but I've decided to take advantage of all the Asian markets around me and to see if my husband can maybe one day say the same about some of the Asian dishes I make. I recently bought the book "In the Vietnamese Kitchen" written by Andrea Nguyen. It had great reviews online so I figured it was a good starting point for a novice like me. Her book is beautiful by the way-filled with amazing photos and very descriptive details about the dishes. Just reading about each of the dishes is so interesting. There are a ton of dishes I'd like to try.
Last night I made Bo Kho. It's a stew filled with beef, carrots and has the essence of lemongrass, star anise and bay leaves. You dip large pieces of baguette in it and dip your beef in a salt, pepper and lemon mixture. It's hearty and homey and great on cold days-unlike today. I think we were all breaking out into a sweat eating it on such a hot day. Not so smart.
It takes a few hours to prepare it from beginning to end (mostly because it needs to cook for about 2 hours.) I started it last night around 7 and it didn't finish until 9 or so, so I just decided to save it for the next night.
My husband said that I should make the dish and he'll ask his mom to come over tomorrow for dinner to critique it. greeeeeat. He said that it would be the best way to learn. His mom could just tell me everything that was wrong with my dish and I would be a better cook for it. So, I agreed-I'm determined to learn and who better to learn from than my very own amazing cook of a mother in law?
So, my in-laws came over tonight for dinner and she said she could smell my stew from the street. She said it smelled like bo kho. Phew, that's a good thing. When she got here she took the ladle, spooned a small sip into it and said..................
"eh, it's okay." And then she went on to tell me what was wrong with it. My M-I-L is the sweetest thing, but when it comes to cooking, she knows her stuff so I grabbed my pen and paper and took my notes.
1. "You put tomatoes in it? You don't put tomatoes in it."
2. "You didn't put potatoes into it? I do."
3. "No chili powder? Next time put it in."
4. "Curry powder. Just a little bit."
5. "Black bean stuff- makes it salty and richer in flavor."
6. .....
The list goes on. My father in law was kind-he's a very soft spoken man. He said it was good and that it smelled like the real stuff too, but that "something" was missing.
I think my husband felt a little bad for me. He didn't want to translate everything his parents were saying about it at the dinner table. He made sure to tell me a few times how much he liked it. I guess ultimately that's what's truly important to me because he is the one I'd be making it for in the future...
Next time, I will do all the things my MIL told me to do, but for my first time, she said it wasn't bad, and that's one step in the right direction. I'll take it.
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