Kitchen Queens: New Orleans

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Queens

New Orleans" was provided by... -This time on "Kitchen New Orleans," three dishes that celebrate the Asian traditions of the Crescent City. Kicking it off -- bibimbap rice bowl, a traditional Korean specialty prepared by Lenora Chong of Morrow's. Next, salmon with an aromatic red curry sauce and Asian slaw from Cynthia VuTran of Caf Minh. And finally, Vietnamese-style sugar-glazed pork and onions by Luot Nguyen of Magasin Caf. Stirring the pot with creativity and style, they're the New Orleans kitchen queens. First stop, New Orleans' Marigny District, which has emerged as a vibrant dining and entertainment scene just downriver from the French Quarter. Morrow's on St. Claude Avenue is a neighborhood standout, a go-to spot for its New Orleans fair with a Korean twist. The distinctive menu is the creation of Chef Lenora Chong, who moved to Louisiana with her family in 1987. Chef Lenora's parents met in Korea during the Vietnam War, when her father served in the Army. He became a chef, inspiring his daughter to pursue a career in professional restaurant kitchens. Today, this self-taught chef is guided at her own restaurant by her mother, Sun Fowler, and by her deep connection to two culinary worlds. -This happens to be one of my favorite dishes from Korea. Whenever I'm feeling nostalgic, missing home, just need some comfort food, this is my go-to dish. I -- It's a one-dish dinner. It's really easy to make, and I'm gonna show you how to prepare it. We're gonna start with our marinade for my beef. I have one rib eye steak here that I have sliced into strips. We're gonna start with the marinade, and we're gonna puree all the ingredients. What I have here is a half of -- half an onion. I have one Fuji apple. I have one yellow kiwi. So I have some brown sugar, I have chopped garlic, fresh chopped ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. And I'm gonna combine all the wet ingredients. Sesame oil. These are Asian flavors, the ginger and the garlic. A lot of Korean cooking is with lots of garlic. Very -- The flavors are very pungent, very robust. And so, you've got the acidity, you've got the sweet, you've got the salty from the soy sauce. It all makes for a really great teriyaki sauce.

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So, all the ingredients are nicely blended, and you've got a nice marinade here. It's got a little texture of that ginger and garlic. I'm not gonna use all of that. And then we're gonna add our rib eye. And this only needs to marinate for a few minutes. And go right to the skillet with it. Set that to the side for a moment. So these are the ingredients for the rice bowl. What we have here is sauted shiitake mushrooms, we have julienned carrots. So I've got bean sprouts that we've blanched and seasoned with a little salt, sesame oil, and our red pepper flakes. We've got blanched baby spinach that we've seasoned with salt and sesame only, and then we've got an egg that we'll fry and top the bowl off with. So I've sliced some cucumbers on a bias and seasoned them with a little crushed pepper and a little salt. A pinch of sugar, as well. So those are ready to go. Well, let's go over to the stove, and we're going to saute our beef and fry our eggs so that we can assemble our bowl. So, now we're at the stove. We're getting ready to saute our beef that I've already pre-marinated. And we're gonna fry an egg to assemble and top our rice bowl with. Start with a little bit of canola oil, that for the egg. Little bit more for the beef.

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While that's cooking......fry the egg, and it's gonna be a sunny-side-up egg. Doesn't take long. That's why we slice it very thinly. Shouldn't cook long at all. We only want to brown it. So, basically, our beef is done. I'll turn the stove off. We're gonna get our rice bowl together. We're gonna start with this bowl of steamed rice. That off to the side. So we're gonna arrange our ingredients, starting with our beef. And how about you? Grab one of those and start putting it in. And my mother's gonna assist me. Her name is Sun. We're gonna add the seasoned spinach. -Bean sprouts. -Bean sprouts. Our shiitake mushrooms that we've sauted.

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We've got a fresh ingredient, a lagniappe ingredient, that she's brought over, which is in the parsley family. And then we've got some pickled cucumbers -- cucumber kimchi. And then we've got sauted julienned carrots. So we're going to drizzle a little sesame oil over the entire bowl, and it makes for easier mixing. We didn't deviate from tradition here, but, once again, the ingredients can change because the origin of this dish is to clean out your refrigerator with all the leftover ingredients, all the vegetables, the pickled vegetables, the meats, and have a rice bowl -- dinner, breakfast, lunch. My mother here makes sure that we stay true to the heritage by making sure that everything is done properly. So, she keeps it very authentic. So I'm going to add the fried egg to the top of this. I'm gonna garnish the center of this yolk with a little bit of black sesame seeds. And it's ready to serve. And you serve it with the spicy pepper paste. Thanks, Mom. -A short streetcar trip up Canal Street lands riders in Mid-City, where Caf Minh offers sophisticated Vietnamese-, French-, and New Orleans-inspired fare. The restaurant was established in 2007 by Chef Cynthia VuTran, who escaped Vietnam with her family in 1979. Chef Cynthia began working in restaurants in New Orleans East to help support her family and went on to graduate from the Johnson & Wales culinary program. At Caf Minh, she combines her Vietnamese heritage with her professional training to create a modern fusion menu. -I'm prepare for you right now is the curry sauce to serve with the salmon steak, which we will cook it later. But we have to start with the sauce first. Okay, put your oil. Canola oil, olive oil, any oil that cheaper for you. And we have some ginger. You have garlic. Shallot.

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Just gonna sweat it down a little bit, until it cooks, if you can smell the aroma of the onion, the garlic, and the ginger. But don't burn them. Then you put in your dry spice. You have curry -- yellow curry. What we're doing right now, we bring out the oil of the -- the curry. The paprika. And then your Thai curry. It's Thai curry paste. You can get anywhere at the Asian market. Any brand is fine. They have a little bit spicy in there, a lot of herbs in there. They have, like, a... lemongrass, they have ginger, also. All spicy in there that we love. Then you have your sugar -- brown sugar. Then just kind of toss -- You kind of toast it. Basically, you're toasting all that dry spice. And then, after that, you got your tomato sauce. If you can make your tomato sauce, it would be great. If not, just use a regular tomato sauce. And then your soy sauce. If you feel like it's a little bit lumpy, you can use a whisk to whisk it. If not, just a wooden spoon is fine. So if you're cooking right now, you should able to smell all this aroma from the curry, the garlic, paprika, lemongrass, all the stuff in there -- all good stuff. This is what I call cook with love. And then coconut milk. So you're gonna stir. Keep stirring until your arm is tired. Just kidding. Just stir until it all blend together. Now you can use your whisk. See? Coconut milk -- any brand is fine, too. But don't get coconut cream. Coconut cream is too thick, and you don't get a lot of coconut flavor. So you want to use coconut milk. The salmon that we have is available all year long. You can get that anywhere. It's -- And I love salmon. And the salmon is very -- go well with this sauce, the rich of the coconut. You have, like, a sweet from the fish, spice from the sauce. So it's just really balanced out. When you whisk it all together, all smooth, simmer it down. About 5, 10 minute. When it's cooking, you're gonna go and get your fish ready. Here I have a fillet of fish. And we have a little bit of seasoning right here, which is a house blackened seasoning. So we make our own seasoning. So we use this to cook in most of our fish and seafood. And you can use this for meat, too. So, it's the house seasoning. So, they have, like, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, paprika, cayenne. Like, at least 10 ingredients in here. And we do it, we mix this up, and we use it every day. So it's a wonderful spice. And then you can sprinkle it with the blackened seasoning. Also, pepper if you don't have this seasoning. And make sure doing both sides. We like to use our hand for the seasoning. So, you can you use canola oil, olive oil, any oil that you like to cook with. And so, we just pan-sear them high heat so you have a nice color. So you see how the sauce coming together. Like I said, using a whisk so they all mixed well. Very easy to make at home. I'm from Vung Tu. It's a small village. It's a fisherman village. My dad is a fisherman and a farmer, so I guess that make me a farmer and a fisherman, I guess. I used to work at the Fairmont Hotel. And, like, right after high school, I saw a lot of youngsters coming in and unexperienced. And they go to school -- culinary art. And it's kind of, "Oh, they have culinary art." So, I mean, you can learn, you can go there and learn about cooking, management, pastry, you know, that kind of stuff that you can learn in school. And so I said, "You know what? Maybe I should go back to school." So I went back to school -- culinary art. And at the school that I went to, they have a competition. So, like, cooking competition. So my chef told me, my professor say, "Hey, you know what? You know, maybe you should go to do some cooking competition, do contest." I say, "Oh, why me? I'm Asian. I don't know anything about cooking American food." So I say, "We try." So we enter. So we try. So we went to state, national -- state, regional, and national. So I win all the three gold medal in all stage. So it's cool. And then after that, I have a scholarship from Johnson & Wales University. But they teach you management, like, all the program in six months. So I study hard, and I turned gray when I was there for six months. Just kidding. But it was fun, and I learned a lot from school. And -- But the most place that I learned is by working with other chefs and in the kitchen. That's the best way to learn. I like medium-rare, but some people like to eat well-done. I mean, it's okay, too, but I prefer medium-rare. But not rare. Medium-rare. You see a nice color. Let it cook maybe another two minutes. So it should come out, like, rare. So now I'm making the slaw for the salmon. In the salad, you're gonna have zucchini, yellow squash, cabbage -- green cabbage, red cabbage, and Napa cabbage -- and a little bit of cilantro. Once again, cilantro. We love cilantro. And cucumber. All the salad that in here that you don't like, you don't have to have it, you know? But it will go together very nicely. You have the crunch from all the texture of all the vegetable. So you got your vegetable done. You're gonna mix a vinaigrette. Very simple, simple, simple. You got a little of bit garlic, you got your ginger, a little bit of rice vinegar, and your soy sauce. You just mix it all together. And don't forget your salmon in the back that you're cooking. So mix it all together, and you just pour over your salad, your slaw. Or salad. Well, I like fresh ingredients. I like local that we can get here, local ingredients like fresh seafood, vegetable, fruit. I can get -- If I can get my hand on it, I try to come up with a dish that's not just for me to eat it, for our customer. The taste that we try to make it happen is balanced and healthy, in a healthy way. But we use a lot of Asian ingredient. So this is your slaw. You're ready -- Your slaw is now ready. You check on your sauce. Your sauce should be bubbling right now. Thick -- The consistency, the thickness of it -- see how thick it is -- that mean it's ready to roll. Turn it off. And salmon is ready at the same time. Nice sear. And you just turn it off and get your plate ready. For to plate this sauce, to make it more fancy, like, pretend you -- you a professional chef at home. So you put your sauce on the bottom of the plate using the bottom of the spoon. Just, like, go around, make a nice circle. If you like Jasmine rice, you can have your Jasmine rice ready. If you don't like Jasmine, you don't have to. You can do the salmon with the slaw. So we have Jasmine on top of the sauce. You put your salmon on top of the rice. Then you put the slaw on top of the salmon. You want to impress your husband, this is the way to do it. And then you sprinkle unsalted roasted peanut on top, just like that. And then, voil, you have your dinner ready. And the sauce, you can make it ahead of time, like a day ahead. The end. -Our final destination is Magazine Street, a picturesque and eclectic thoroughfare. Located on this charming street in Uptown New Orleans is Magasin Caf, where the menu features traditional Vietnamese specialties prepared by Chef Luot Nguyen, who fled Vietnam with her family in 1975. The family operated restaurants in Vietnam and opened their first U.S. restaurant in New Orleans East in the early 1990s. Staying true to her Vietnamese roots, Chef Luot introduces local diners to the dishes that she grew up eating. The glazed pork begins with caramelized sugar. -And after, I put one spoon sugar on. So you have to stand right here and stir the sugar. -When the sugar becomes a deep, rich, brown-colored syrup, the pork is added. -Quick. And after that one, you put the pork on.

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-Chef Luot is using sliced pork loin. This is a version of thit kho, a classic Vietnamese braised meat dish. Every family has its own recipe for this home-cooked favorite. -I use a pot. See, that how you make the color come out. See? And after that one, I put the sugar on -- one spoon, two spoon. Okay. After that one, I have to put one spoon... I put two spoon fish sauce. And after that one, I put the pepper on. Depending how you want spicy. And I put a little bit cayenne pepper on. Like that. I put a little bit, a half spoonful of chicken bullion This come out good. And this one... Okay. I put the oil. That vegetable oil. That's what we use. And after that one, we put the garlic on. That's shallot. -The garlic and shallots are sauted until lightly browned. The shallots add sweetness to the dish. -I put in here. I cut the pork thin, so that why it go very fast. I want to put a little bit more sugar, sweeten it up. I like it sweet.

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-Chef Luot finishes the dish with black pepper and green onions. -Thit kho caramel pork. We done. -Thank you for joining this dining tour spotlighting women who are changing the culinary landscape of the Crescent City. See you next time for more inspirational chefs on "Kitchen New Orleans." You can find recipes for all of the dishes in this series, chef profiles, plus more information about "Kitchen New Orleans" by visiting wyes.org. Like and follow WYES-TV on Facebook and Instagram. -Funding for "Kitchen New Orleans" was provided by...