Growing up in Allentown, PA, my family would take trips down to Washington, DC to visit my great aunt and uncle. As an active kid, I always dreaded going down to DC because I had to spend most of the time cooped up inside my great aunt and uncle's apartment. The highlights of the trips were the amazing home cooked Vietnamese meals prepared by my great aunt. Her roasted chicken (ga ro ti) and sticky rice were my favorite dishes.

It's been over two decades since I had ga ro ti. I never see it at restaurants (at least in San Francisco), as most Viet places serve grilled chicken (ga nuong) with five spice. So last week, I decided to make Vietnamese roasted chicken. I called up my parents to get advice. Unfortunately, neither of my parents make the dish and my great aunt passed away several years ago. My dad said, "marinate it in soy, fish sauce, garlic and a little sugar"...like every other Viet dish, not much help there. I was on my own with this one.

I remember my great aunt pan fried her chicken low and slow. I believe this "roasting" method was used because traditional ovens weren't available in Vietnam back in the day, unless you were wealthy. My great aunt's chicken had an extra crispy skin and the meat was shreddable by hand, almost like a confit. To get this texture, the chicken needs to be cooked longer than normal.

I tried the pan frying technique and produced a good ga ro ti, but it required a lot of time and flipping of the chicken (props to my great aunt!). I debated covering the chicken, but was afraid the skin would get soft from the moist heat. Next, I tried browning the chicken in an oven-proof skillet and then finishing it off in the oven. I liked this method best. It produced a nice crispy skin and I didn't have to stand by the stove top. If you are thinking, why don't you skip the pan frying and just roast it in the oven, then my answer is... I have more control over browning with a skillet and the brown bits in the pan can be de-glazed to make a flavorful dirty sticky rice with scallions.

Hungry Bear and I enjoyed the ga ro ti so much, we made it again for Sunday night dinner along with the dirty sticky rice, stir-fried hollow greens and a light carrot cake for dessert. The chicken had a nice salty, garlicky flavor with a crackling skin. I never eat all of my chicken skin. I usually try a little and then pass the rest to Jane, who likes everything full fat. But the skin on this roasted chicken was so good, I wasn't sharing it with anyone! The perfect complement to the chicken was the dirty sticky rice, which has scallions and all the wonderful flavors from the de-glazed frying pan!

My great aunt's ga ro ti will always be number one in my heart. I may not have re-created her roasted chicken exactly, but I got pretty damn close!

SNDsters: Jane, Mark, Hungry Bear, Chuck

a

We don't make risotto very often, but when we do, Hungry Bear makes a cauliflower and mushroom risotto using sticky rice (glutinous/sweet rice). I love all things made with sticky rice, and this risotto is one of my favorite sweet rice dishes. The best part is that minimal stirring is required to make it.

The recipe is adapted from the Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration cookbook. For the most part, we like to reduce the butter and fat in a recipe whenever possible. But we also know when not to mess with a good thing, e.g. potato salad, nicely marbled meats and dessert. The main changes Hungry Bear made to the recipe were — removing the butter, swapping out milk for chicken stock, and increasing the quantity of mushrooms and cauliflower. Before anyone boos the removal of the butter (ahem, Jane!), Hungry Bear added extra coconut cream.

In case you are wondering why our recipes always serve 6 or more, we are either cooking for a large group, making mass quantities for leftovers (Hungry Bear's favorite part) or increasing proportions to avoid the partial use of an ingredient, e.g. cauliflower and cabbage. There have been many times when we used half a head of cauliflower and the other half spoiled in the fridge before we could use it again.

Back to the risotto, the only stirring required is to mix in the mushrooms, cauliflower and chicken stock to the steamed rice. It has a great combination of flavors and textures from the earthy shiitakes, sweet cauliflower and creamy rice. Still, the rice retains a slight firmness and the coconut cream keeps the grains separated. Hungry Bear likes her sticky rice risotto without cheese, but I like the extra flavor the Parmesan adds. It's a unique twist to traditional risotto and goes wonderfully with seared scallops!

a

I love Chinese sticky rice. It contains several of my favorite ingredients — sticky rice, Chinese sausage and mushrooms. I know I'm going to have Hungry Bear's sticky rice at least twice a year, at Thanksgiving dinner and during Lunar New Year (Vietnamese/Chinese New Year) festivities. It's become a traditional dish for us on these holidays.

I really enjoy the rich flavors from the Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, oyster sauce and soy sauce that get infused into the sweet, sticky rice. Chinese-American families often serve sticky rice in place of stuffing during Thanksgiving. It's great with turkey, roasted duck or just by itself. I didn't grow up eating this dish, but I now consider it a comfort food.

Hungry Bear started making Chinese sticky rice using a recipe from Grace Young's The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. The recipe has dried scallops and shrimp in it, which takes additional time to prepare. Over the years, Hungry Bear has altered Grace Young's recipe, excluding the dried seafood, in order to save prep time. The scallops and shrimp are a little too fishy for my tastes and I prefer my sticky rice without them.

Another common ingredient in sticky rice is chestnuts, which Hungry Bear's mom often includes in her recipe. A frequent reader, Judy, told us that her aunty used bamboo shoots in her sticky rice. Next time, Hungry Bear plans on adding either chestnuts or bamboo shoots for some variety.

Until then, I've included two Chinese sticky rice recipes. The first one is Hungry Bear's and the second recipe with dried seafood is Grace Young's, in case you want all the flavors of traditional sticky rice. I need to warn you that Hungry Bear's version makes a huge amount of rice. She likes to cook in mass quantities and all recipes are bear-size, which means they are quadrupled! Hungry Bear loves leftovers, therefore the need to cook in abundance.

I'll never complain about the large quantities because there's no such thing as too much Chinese sticky rice!

a