Vietnamese Chicken Phở for the Soul (Phở Gà)

Phở, or Vietnamese rice noodle soup, is a meal so quintessential to Vietnamese cooking that I was bound to post a recipe sometime or another.  I don’t make it that often, but for you pho-natics out there, here you go!

The best phở really does come from home – both my mom and Phong’s can make some killer phở gà (chicken phở).  And it’s easy too, as long as you learn some tricks of the trade that were passed down to me by my mom and Phong’s.  The main thing is to make your broth as flavorful as possible.  My mom taught me how to taste and appreciate the broth, and that if you had to add an overwhelming amount of condiments to it (ie, hoisin and sriracha), then you’re basically trying to cover up some inherent flaw in how it was made.  Sometimes I’ll add a little bit of both when I go out to phở restaurants, but at home, my phở stays as is – maybe a sliced jalapeno on the side for some heat.

Here’s some Pho-1-1 pho you (I know, I really can’t help myself!):

1.  Lesson from my MIL: instead of boiling the rice noodles while they’re dry, soak them in COLD water for about an hour.  Then drain.  Now they’re more pliable.

Now, in a small saucepan, boil some water.  Take a small strainer and fill it with some noodles. Dip it in the saucepan, oh, for about 20 seconds, swishing the noodles back and forth with your chopsticks, until they become cooked…

Now they’re done!  No boiling the heck out of them for long at all!  And the best part is, the noodles come out perfectly al dente, not those soggy kinds that you’ll get if you left them raging mad in the pot too long.

2. Char the onion before putting it in the broth.  But as you can see from the picture above, I don’t have a gas stovetop to do that over the stovetop, unfortunately, but I do have a grill plate that I placed onto my stovetop and was able to char my onion that way.  Or, you can do as Jaden does for her pho ga at Steamy Kitchen, and broil it in the oven to get that depth of flavor.

3.  If you want to buy one of those pho seasoning sachets at the Asian grocery store, go ahead.  It’s filled with spices like ginger, star anise, and cinnamon.  I just made what I had on hand – my mom and mom-in-law rarely use the sachets and just rely on a really flavorful broth with hints of charred onion, ginger, and star anise.  So I do what they do!

4.  What’s that daikon radish doing in the recipe?!  Relax, just keep reading, and relax.  This is optional, and a secret from my mama, but it does lend a clean, slightly sweet flavor to the broth.  It becomes really tender, so if you want, you can slice it and put it in your bowl at the end too, for some more veggie intake.  Or just leave it in the pot and let it work its magic.

5.  For the thinly sliced onion garnish, soak the sliced onion in ice water for a few minutes, then pat dry.  This is done if you don’t want an overly “raw,” or “stinky,” as my MIL calls it, taste.

6.  I poach the chicken with the skin on, so that when it’s cooking and making the broth, the meat inside doesn’t dry out.  That’s why I initially call for 16 cups of water, because I eventually skim off about 4 cups from excess fat in the broth and other scum.

7.  I usually poach a whole chicken, but the grocery store only had ready-cut whole chicken.  So I got that, and it actually worked better for me, because I could leave in the backbone and neckbone to extract more flavor while I was shredding the rest of the chicken.

8.  If you’re confused about which types of fish sauce I recommend, go to Wandering Chopsticks’ blog and scroll down to the pic of different nuoc mam bottles – the one in the middle and right are what I use (Phu Quoc is good, but Three Crabs Brand is the only one I buy if I have a choice).

Chicken Phở for the Soul

serves anywhere from 4-6

16 cups water

2 tsp sea salt

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (2 breasts, backbone, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings, and neck bone – discard the gizzards)

1 yellow onion, peeled, halved, and charred

1 small daikon radish (about a 6-inch long radish), peeled and left whole

1 stalk of ginger, about 4-5 inches long, peeled, and cut in half lengthwise

5-6 star anise pods

4 Tbsp good-quality fish sauce (I like the Vietnamese Three Crabs Brand or Phu Quoc)

1/2 tsp granulated sugar, or to taste

1 package (12 or 16 oz) pho noodles, soaked in COLD water for about an hour

For garnish:

A couple handfuls of bean sprouts

Thinly sliced yellow onion (let soak in ice- cold water for about 5 minutes, then pat dry)

Thinly sliced green onion

Cilantro

Thai basil

Freshly cracked black pepper

Optional: Hoisin sauce and sriracha hot sauce, thinly sliced jalapeno peppers

Preparation:

1.  In a large stockpot over high heat, boil the water.  Add the sea salt, and then the chicken pieces.  Bring back to a boil, for about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium-high.  Skim the scum and fat off every 5 minutes or so, until the broth runs clear (I skimmed off about 4 cups of the stuff after an hour of cooking).  After the first 15-20 minutes, take out the wings, thighs, drumsticks; take out the chicken breasts about 5-10 minutes after that when cooked through.  Allow the pieces of chicken to cool for about 20 minutes before shredding.

2.  Meanwhile, while you’re waiting for the chicken to cool, turn the heat down to medium-low.  Add the onion halves, daikon, star anise, ginger, fish sauce, and sugar.  Allow to gently simmer, with the backbone and neck bone still in the pot, for about 1 hour.  Adjust seasonings to taste (add more fish sauce, salt, or sugar to balance out the flavors).

3.  When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and excess fat.  Shred the chicken and place into a separate container (I put it in a tupperware because this pho lasts us a couple meals, and I can take out however much I need at a time).

4.  Prepare the pho rice noodles according to secret #1 as indicated above.

5.  Slice up all the green onions, roughly chop the cilantro, and thinly slice about 1/2 a yellow onion.  Soak the thinly sliced onion in ice water for about 5 minutes, then pat dry and set aside.

5.  To assemble your pho, place some noodles into your bowl.  Top with a few pieces of heated chicken (you can nuke the chicken if it’s been in the fridge, covered, in the microwave for a minute or until hot).  Ladle hot pho broth over the noodles and chicken, and top it off with bean sprouts, thinly sliced onion, green onions, and cilantro.  Add Thai basil and jalapeno if desired (I didn’t have any today).  Finish it off with freshly cracked black pepper.  Serve with hoisin sauce and Sriracha on the side, if desired.

Green with Envy Salad

I would call myself a heavy consumer of produce.  Yep.  My hubby and I can attack a whole head of lettuce (okay, maybe just half), as long as it isn’t filled with the typical, boring salad constituents like iceberg, pale tomatoes, and onion.  Ugh – how is that even legal?  I think the best salad I had ever eaten at a restaurant was at Habana, a Cuban restaurant in Costa Mesa’s the Lab (aka the anti-mall, as they say it).  The salad was half a head of romaine lettuce, brushed with olive oil and grilled (yes!  You CAN grill romaine!), then topped with marinated eggplant and other vegetables.  I’m all about sharing, but I was swatting eager forks away from my meal that night!

Anyways, my point is, I try to add things to salads that will keep them interesting.  Adding things like beans, peas, sun-dried tomatoes, or avocado all provide antioxidant-fighting nutrients and gives you a hefty amount of fiber to your day.  Here’s my “Green with Envy” salad.  I don’t really put amounts of anything in the recipe, because are you really going to measure “1/4 cup of clover sprouts” or “2 tablespoons of petit peas?”  I don’t think so.  You’re just going to add whatever you fancy.  But I’ll give you the exact proportions for the cilantro-yogurt salad dressing – I assure you, you’ll feel almost green goddess-like (or Jolly Green Giant-like, for you men out there) eating this salad.

Green with Envy Salad

serves as many as you want

Green leaf lettuce

Clover sprouts or pea sprouts (don’t eat alfalfa sprouts for now due to salmonella contamination – read about it here from the FDA!)

Thinly sliced green apple

Petit peas

Snow peas or sugar snap peas

Medium-boiled eggs

Fried shallots (you can find these prepackaged in Asian grocery stores)

Freshly cracked black pepper

For the Cilantro-Lime dressing:

1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic, pressed

1/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt

2 Tbsp fat-free mayonnaise

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Pinch of salt, to taste

Freshly cracked black pepper

Preparation:

1.  Compose your salad however you like.  For the salad dressing, combine all ingredients in the food processor or blender, and blend until the salad dressing is uniform in consistency.  Top the salad with your Cilantro-Lime salad dressing, and serve!

Lips Like (Mint) Sugar

I love this.  Seriously.  All you have to do is throw in some mint leaves and sugar into the bowl of your food processor, give it a whirl a few times, and you’re done.  Do I really need to write the recipe?  Ok, fine.  Just for you.

I don’t remember where I got the idea for this, but I remember seeing “mint sugar” a while ago in some magazine at the bookstore, and the idea suddenly came to slap me on the forehead today because 1) it was hot, and I wanted some cold fruit, 2) I was cleaning out my fridge and realized I had no idea what to do with my fresh mint, and 3) these peaches I bought are sour, but I’m hungry and have to find a way to make them better.  Oooh, I know, mint sugar!  And let me tell you, the minty sweet sprinkle definitely gave the peaches a whole new dimension…perfect, as this weekend marks the beginning of a hot summer!

Do what you will with this, but it’s definitely an easy alternative to dress up a simple fruit salad for a party without having to feel like you need to compensate by adding dollops of whipped cream or custard to make it pretty.  The possibilities are endless – dip the rim of your glass in some mint sugar and fill it up with lemonade or a mojito.  Now the ideas are spinning around in my head – instead of using mint, try Thai basil too, which I bet would convince any fruit-o-phobe to eat their fruits if you spinkle it on fresh-cut watermelon or pineapple spears!

Mint Sugar

makes about 1/4 cup

1/3 cup loosely packed mint leaves (rinsed, then patted until completely dry with paper towels)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1.  Combine ingredients in a food processor.  Pulse a few times, until the mint leaves are finely chopped.  Serve immediately.

Tandoori-Style Grilled Chicken

I didn’t live too far away from home when I was in college, and like the usual college student, would come home on the weekends to do the usual – laundry, sleep, and grocery-shop in my mom’s pantry for some goodies to take back to my apartment.  We didn’t have cable for some time, but we did have public television programming, and I really looked forward to Saturdays, where they’d have the regular cooking show lineup.  This is where I learned so many cooking techniques – the whys and hows of cooking, oftentimes killing two birds with one stone by running on the treadmill in front of the TV.

My fave shows were Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, America’s Test Kitchen, and Mark Bittman Takes on America’s Chefs.  These were where the real cooking started – no need for glitz and glamour, just real, unadulterated food.  Because of America’s Test Kitchen, I made the best Hot & Sour Soup my husband and I ever ate.  I would lovingly cradle my subscription to Cook’s Illustrated, Christopher Kimball’s no-fuss magazine that doesn’t even have vivid pictures on every page, but reads like an intriguing novel.

Bittman Takes On America’s Chefs was a no-fuss, straight-forward approach to cooking, where even the most daunting dishes seemed easy and interpretation was not only encouraged, but an absolute necessity.  Here’s a recipe that was inspired from one of the episodes that featured chef Suvir Saran and his tandoori prawns.  I remember thinking, “This is awesome!  Indian food made simple!”  After watching that a few years ago, I went to the library, checked out his cookbook, and Phong and I made the Sweet Pepper Biryani with Cumin and Fennel.  SO.  GOOD.  I need not say more – we’ve kept the same recipe, tucked away in my chicken-scratch recipe collection, for over 2 years now.  It has flecks of fennel dust on it, but that’s part of my nasty recipe notebook’s charm.

Many of you may already know I put yogurt in A LOT of my baking to add moisture and lend a tender crumb; marinating meat in yogurt imparts a whole new flavor (not yogurt-y, by the way) while still tenderizing the meat.  This is my interpretation, with the spices I had in my cabinet thrown in.  I sliced zucchini, lengthwise into ribbons, and hubby grilled those too – I think they’re more fun to eat that way! Enjoy!

Tandoori-Style Grilled Chicken

serves 4-6

2 lbs chicken thighs or breasts, skinless, boneless

1 1/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp sea salt

Preparation:

1.  In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients except for the chicken.  When all ingredients are combined, put the chicken in the yogurt marinade, making sure all the marinade coats the chicken.  Place in the fridge, covered, for about an hour.  Then grill it till it’s done!

Dry-Rub Salmon with Asparagus Spears

Salmon is probably the easiest fish to make a meal out of; you can bake it, roast it, pan-fry it, or eat it raw in the form of sushi.  I love how buttery the meat tastes, yet you know that the oil from the fish is loaded with some good omega-3 fats.  And if you choose wild-caught salmon instead of farm-raised, you’ll reap the extra bennies of knowing that your fish is lower in total fat, higher in protein, and doesn’t have synthetic colors injected into them to make their flesh appear more pink.

Here’s a simple, 2-minute way to prepare your salmon before sliding it into the oven.  Just create a nice dry rub with a little brown sugar, which will form a thin crust of flavor for the fish.  Place atop a bed of greens, add some roasted asparagus spears on the side along with crusty bread of brown rice, and there – a complete meal.

Dry-Rub Salmon with Asparagus Spears

serves 4

1 lb asparagus spears, trimmed at the ends

2 tsp olive oil

a pinch or two of sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp Herbes de Provence

Juice of 1/2 lemon

For the salmon:

1 1/4 lb fresh salmon

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp salt-free grilling blend (I use Mrs. Dash Chicken Grilling Blend)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt

Cooking spray

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 F.  In a jelly-roll pan, combine all ingredients for the asparagus and lightly toss.  Roast in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, turning the asparagus spears halfway through roasting, until fork-tender.  Take out asparagus and turn down the heat to 325 F.

2.  In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, grilling blend, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and sea salt.  Spray the inside of a jelly-roll pan with cooking spray, and place the salmon on the pan.  Spread 1/2 of the spice mixture on top of the salmon; flip over and repeat with the other side.  Place the salmon in the oven and bake for about 15-18 minutes, until cooked through and fish flakes easily with a fork.  Serve on top of a bed of greens or rice.

Tan and Nutty Blondies

No, it’s not because I let these bask out in the sun for a few hours after baking (although it is a rather nice day out today).  These blondies are “tan” with the addition of a little reduced-fat peanut butter, my secret to cutting the fat instead of using melted butter, but still resulting in a dense, moist bar cookie (I also substitute it for some of the butter in banana breads, too – bananas and PB are a match made in heaven, after all!).  The peanut butter adds an extra layer of flavor – slightly nutty and a great variation from the regular, vanilla/butter combination.  Of course, I couldn’t resist dropping in a few semisweet chocolate chips in for good measure.  You can always add whatever you have on hand for your mix-ins – chopped pecans, walnuts, or dried cherries would all be lovely.

And best of all, check out my nutrition facts for these blondies.  Not too bad, eh?  Oh, and if you bring these to a party or give these as gifts, make sure you let the recipient know that these contain nuts, just in case that someone has a nut allergy!

Tan and Nutty Blondies

makes 16

2 Tbsp reduced-fat peanut butter, heated in the microwave for a few seconds at a time, until runny

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup ultragrain flour, or all-purpose flour, mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Nonstick cooking spray

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.  Lightly spray a 8 x8 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the peanut butter and oil with the brown sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla extract; stir to blend.  Add the flour/cinnamon mixture and stir to combine, then mix in the chocolate chips.  Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake, for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the blondies comes out clean.

Nutrition Facts per serving (1 serving = 1 blondie bar): 124 calories, 5.8 grams fat, 16 grams carbs, 2 grams protein

Frijoles Negros con Platanos

When I was a kid, time after school was usually spent at my neighbor Isabel’s house until my mom came an hour later to pick us up.  Isabel was our babysitter (although at age 9, I was no baby), and we thought of her family as our extended family.  She even recently attended my wedding last year, and I kid you not, has not aged a bit since almost 20 years ago!  Being Cuban, her house was always filled with the fragrant aromas of sofrito bubbling on her stove, and fried plantains.  It was delicious, and from then on, I’ve always loved Cuban food.

It’s amazingly simple to make this little dish and perfect for a little appetizer when you’re getting together with friends.  Definitely better than the ubiquitous chips and dip you’ll see at many a party.  Crisp plantains and savory black beans, cut with the coolness of light sour cream and a squeeze of lime.  I don’t fry my plantains in a lot of oil; instead, just a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, nonstick shallow pan will perfectly brown the plantains without getting too oily.  I call this my perfect little snack – to me, black beans are in their own right a superfood.  In a cup, you’ll get yourself 15 grams of protein (equivalent to about 2 ounces of meat), 15 grams of fiber (most need about 25-30 grams of fiber daily), 64% of your folate needs, and surprising to many, a high amount of antioxidants due to its flavonoid-rich dark skin.  It’s like the merlot grape in a land of chardonnays in terms of antioxidant power!

Frijoles Negros con Platanos

serves 4

For the black beans:

1 tsp olive oil

1 16-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

A couple pinches of cumin

A couple pinches of sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup water

1 serrano chile, deseeded and chopped finely

For the lightly fried plantains:

1 plantain (yellow with many brown spots), sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 Tbsp olive oil

Accompaniments:

Fat-free or light sour cream

Lime wedges

Diced tomato

Cilantro

1.  In a saucepan, heat the 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic, stirring frequently to sweat out the onions and lightly brown them.  Add the black beans, cumin, salt, and pepper to taste – adjust seasonings per preference.  Allow the mixture to simmer and bubble, until the liquid is slightly thickened and reduced.  Take 1/2 of the mixture (or all of it if you want the black bean mixture completely creamy), and pulse in the food processor until pureed.  Add the pureed black beans to the whole beans in the saucepan; stir to combine and set the saucepan on low heat, stirring a couple more minutes before serving.  Stir in the serrano chiles or garnish.

2.  For the plantains, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat in a large shallow pan.  Place the plantain slices on the pan, turning after a few minutes when golden brown.  Lightly brown a couple more minutes before taking the plantain off the pan and on  a couple paper towels.

3.  Serve with light or fat-free sour cream, and garnish with diced tomato and cilantro.

Lemon Tea Cookies From a Good Friend

They say that who your friends are reflect a part of yourself, and for me, I think that’s so true.  When I think of my friends Phi and Karen, who we are and what we do are so similar that sometimes it’s plain scary.  Phi has been my sistah-friend since the third grade, and back in the day, we would whip up any concoction our young cooking minds allowed us to imagine (I just remember her poor dad struggling through a smile at our somewhat-coffee cake, while we looked so proud of ourselves).  Heck, I’m sure we even made our Barbies cook.  Even now, twenty years later, we’ll be on the same wavelength and make the same things without even knowing it (look at the last post – she made pork tenderloin too!).  We talk about food all the time; I’ll tell her that I’m craving xoi lap xuong (Vietnamese sticky rice with caramelized onions, shrimp, and sausage), and she’ll tell me that she and her hubby just made it!

Now Karen I met while Phong and I were dating – her now-hubby has been Phong’s friend since they both were still in diapers.  We knew we’d be great friends once we both realized that quality food, Etsy, Anthropologie, and cute little Parisian things were just some of the things we had in common.  So how excited was I, to receive a birthday package filled with gourmet goodies, a cookbook, my old embosser (which finally gave back to me…a year later!), and some lemon tea cookies that she handmade with a cute recipe card attached to it?  And even MORE stoked that she put the nutrition info on it too?!  Wow, these people know me.

So here’s Karen’s recipe for her lemon tea cookies.  They are so tasty and literally melt in your mouth.  The cookies are basically a shortbread-type cookie and even though they use a bit of butter, they make 60 cookies and would be perfect for a bridal or baby shower, or even as part of favors for a party.  Mini is the new in; these cookies are a true example of portioning out decadent foods without depriving your hankering for quality desserts.  There’s no need for those gargantuan-sized desserts at restaurants where you’ll be set back about 15oo calories (yes, I’m telling you the truth – check out this link!).  What’s great about this recipe is that you can even halve the recipe as I did this afternoon, and enjoy one or two cookies with some Earl Grey tea (my favorite – unsweetened, no milk).

Lemon Tea Cookies

makes about 60 mini cookies

For the cookies:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp grated lemon zest

For the frosting:

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 cup softened unsalted butter (if using salted butter, omit the 1/8 tsp of salt above)

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Make that dough:

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, confectioner’s sugar, and salt in a bowl.  Cream the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed; add the lemon juice and zest, and beat until well-combined.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat on low speed until well-combined.

Shape that dough:

Divide the dough in half or quarters.  Roll each half into a log about 1- 1/2 inches in diameter.  Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Bake your cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Cut each log into 1/4-inch slices.  Arrange them 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Cool the cookies, and spread lemon frosting on each cookie.

For the lemon frosting:

Beat the confectioner’s sugar, butter, and lemon juice in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Nutrition Facts (per 1 cookie): 58 calories, 2.9 grams fat, 0.4 grams protein, 6 grams carbs, 7.6 mg cholesterol

Pork Tenderloin with Mango Chutney

Pork tenderloin is the leanest cut of meat you’ll get from the pig.  Not only that, it is extremely tender and has only 122 calories and 3 grams of fat.  That’s comparable to skinless chicken breast – now you know why they call it the “other white meat.”  Anyways, I had a bottle of Trader Joe’s Mango-Ginger Chutney in my pantry that’s been wondering if I was going to give it some attention anytime soon, and today was its day.  I made a marinade of cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, lime, and mixed in some chutney to go with it.  I don’t know what I was aiming for – all I know is that I wanted something different using bold flavors and threw in whatever I perceived to be Indian-influenced without being a curry.  Whatever it was, it resulted in some good kick-in-your-pants flavor!

Make sure you use your meat thermometer for this one – you don’t want to overcook (or undercook) your meat and ruin an otherwise very good piece of meat.  I took the pork out of the oven when the inside of the meat registered about 155-160ºF, waited a few minutes before slicing, and the result was a beautiful interior – perfectly cooked, slightly pink with the juices running clear.

Pork Tenderloin with Mango Chutney

serves about 6-8

2 pork tenderloins, about 2.5 lbs total

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup pre-made mango-ginger chutney (or any other chutney you like)

3 Tbsp brown sugar

Juice of 1/2 lime

3 cloves garlic

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup water

1.  Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  In a baking dish, combine all ingredients from the olive oil to the sea salt.  Add the pork tenderloins and coat all sides with the marinade.  Let sit for about 15 minutes.

2.  In an oven-proof sautee pan over high heat, add the pork tenderloins when the pan is very hot.  Reserve the rest of the marinade and place to the side.  Sear the tenderloins until browned on all sides, about 2-3 minutes.  Place the pan into the oven and roast for about 22-25 minutes, until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the meat registers about 155-160ºF, slightly pink.  Take the pork out of the oven and let it rest a few minutes before cutting the meat.

3.  Take the reserved marinade and place into a small saucepan with the 1/2 cup water.  Bring to a boil, stirring the sauce.  Lower the heat and allow to simmer for about 6-7 minutes, until the sauce is slightly reduced.  Ladle over the roasted pork tenderloins and serve.

La Mer at the Halekulani in Waikiki

I’m deviating from my norm of posting healthy recipes from my kitchen and hanging up my dirty apron for this post.  Over the weekend, Phong took me to La Mer, a French restaurant located in the Halekulani in Waikiki, for my birthday.  It was, by far, the most fabulous dining experience I have ever had (I know, so bold, but true!).  Our meal was prepared by the only chef on the island that has gotten a Michelin star, a first for the both of us.  Here’s a snippet of the meal we had – Lobster Gelee with Sea Urchin from Aquitaine (very interesting but fresh, cool flavors), Provencale-Style Escargots in a Hazelnut-Garlic Butter, Crispy-Skinned Onaga with Warm Potato Terrine, and a Macadamia Nut Jivara.  It was an absolutely lovely birthday, followed by friends and fun the next day!