Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

Today on "Cook's Country"... Bryan visits FOB Kitchen in Oakland and shares his version of sinigang.

I share the story of La Cocina, a business incubator for immigrant women.

And Morgan makes neorm sach moan.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-The San Francisco Bay area is home to a thriving Filipino community, so I knew I had to head there in search of sinigang.

My first stop was FOB Kitchen in Oakland, California.

I connected with chef/owner Janice Dulce.

I wanted to learn more about her cooking style and the food she serves at her restaurant.

How would you describe the food that you serve here at FOB?

-It's hard to say.

I don't want to say it's Filipino food.

It's, like, Filipino-American food.

It's food that I grew up eating.

It's my favorites.

Sometimes I have people come in here, and they'll say, "This is not authentic."

But it's not authentic to what they had growing up.

But this is authentic to me.

-Janice is amazing.

She's a ball of energy with a passion for Filipino food.

And she was the perfect guide for my sinigang journey.

So tell me about sinigang.

-It was really a staple at my parents' house.

It's a ginger tamarind soup with a ton of vegetables.

-The sinigang that Janice serves is a tribute to the version she ate as a kid.

Obviously, we have a bunch of vegetables.

What are we going to be using today?

-So we're going to use kangkong, which is water spinach, green beans, eggplant, some bok choy, and some okra.

-But just because she grew up eating it doesn't mean she always appreciated the complexity of the stew.

-I would come home to my parents' house, and I'm like, "What's for dinner?"

They're like, "Oh, we're having sinigang."

I'm like [scoffs] "We're having sinigang again?"

-But Janice's relationship to Filipino food changed over time.

-I like to be able to see the vegetables in the soup.

I think it's fun.

And also, in a Filipino house, you eat sinigang with a fork and a spoon.

-Okay.

-So it's kind of nice to, like, kind of cut through it.

-Once she got older and moved away from home, she realized she missed the dishes she took for granted growing up.

-When I was growing up, I was embarrassed.

I just wanted to be like everybody else.

And now I just want, more and more, to embrace my own culture.

-Janice chose the name FOB Kitchen as a nod to this idea of learning to embrace her own culture.

Tell me about the name FOB Kitchen.

-"FOB" means "fresh off the boat," and it's a term that my brothers and I would use, and we would make fun of our family.

We'd be like, "Oh, gosh, you're so fob," or, you know -- Because they talk with a very thick and heavy accent.

And then when I wanted to open a pop-up, I realized, like, I never went to culinary school, I never worked in a kitchen professionally.

I learned it all from them, and, also, like, my palate I learned from them, and I wanted to honor my family.

But I also wanted to be playful.

But I also wanted to empower it and also reclaim it.

-Janice puts her own spin on her sinigang.

She uses pork ribs, which adds body to the stew.

Huge bricks of tamarind and fresh lemon juice lend a signature tang.

And most importantly, lots and lots of vegetables.

Cheers.

Oh, wow.

-Mm-hmm?

-That's so good.

-I think this is the best one I've ever made.

-I'm thoroughly impressed.

That tamarind adds such a sour depth to it.

-So good.

-Thank you so much.

That was incredible.

I appreciate it.

-I love having you here, Bryan.

-Thank you.

-Janice looks like a really fun woman.

-Oh, she is wonderful.

And she's a fantastic cook, too.

-Yeah.

And the one thing she said that really resonated with me was that people would come up to her and say that her sinigang wasn't authentic.

And her response was, "Well, it's authentic to me because this is how I grew up eating it."

I love that.

-Yeah, it's such a great way to approach cooking, I think, across the board.

So we came back fully inspired to make our own version of sinigang, thanks to Janice.

-I can't wait to try it.

-Why don't we get started, since this is a vegetable stew, with some of our vegetables?

We're going to begin by slicing about 1 1/2 cups of onion.

Okay.

So that is about 1 1/2 cups of onions there.

So another one of the vegetables -- it's actually a vegetable and aromatic -- that we're going to be putting in the soup is ginger.

So I have a two-inch piece of ginger here.

We're going to peel it.

We're going to julienne this ginger.

We're going to give it a thin slice so it sits flat on the bottom.

-Nice.

-And we're just going to shave it into really thin planks.

And then we'll just go to our little stacks and just give them a little slice.

-Nice!

-So we're going to throw this into our bowl with the onions because we're going to cook those together.

So now we're going to prepare one of our vegetables for the stew, and I have a daikon radish here.

This has got a potato-like texture -- not a ton of flavor -- but it absorbs a lot of the flavors from the stew as it cooks.

This is about a one-pounder.

So we're going to cut just the end of it off here, and we'll use about half of this.

And we're just going to give it a peel.

Okay.

So then we're just going to cut this in half lengthwise, turn it, and cut it about 1/4-inch thick crosswise.

Okay.

So our vegetables are prepped there.

We have our ginger, onion, and daikon radish.

So let's talk about the souring agent in the stew -- tamarind -- okay?

-Mm!

-So this is what tamarind looks like.

It's a sour fruit.

If you crack it open, you can see the inside of it.

So you can see that there's seeds right in the middle.

There's a lot of the shell.

So it's kind of hard to access and hard to use.

So one option you could use is tamarind concentrate.

It's tamarind that's been watered down.

I don't like it, and Janice didn't like using it, either, so she recommended we use this, a tamarind paste.

So it's just like this fruit here, but it's got the shell and a lot of the big seeds removed.

It's got a far better flavor.

But in order to access all the usable pulp, we first need to soak it in a bit of boiling water.

We're going to add this 1 cup of hot water to the tamarind paste.

Make sure you get it all submerged in the hot water.

So the ratio we're using here is 5 ounces of tamarind to 1 cup of boiling water.

And we're going to let that sit for a good 15 minutes to soften up the tamarind paste so we can get our hands in there and really loosen it up.

All right, Julia, so our tamarind has been soaking in this hot water for a good 15 minutes.

We're just going to go in there and break it up a little bit with our hand.

There's big seeds, like this here.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we're going to strain all this out.

And to strain it, we want to use our medium mesh strainer.

And then I like to always, whenever I'm pushing stuff through a strainer, I always like to work it with a ladle because that round, contoured edge really helps get good contact.

We'll use our rubber spatula just to scrape off what's underneath here.

Okay.

And that is ready for our soup.

Okay, Julia, so one of my favorite parts of this vegetable stew is the pork.

We have a three-pound rack of St. Louis-style pork spare ribs here.

You'll notice that they have been ripped crosswise through the bone, all the way down.

-Yeah.

Nice.

-So obviously, this is something your butcher will have to do for you.

But there's a real strong advantage to this.

By cutting these bones crosswise, you expose a lot of the gelatin and the marrow, so that adds a lot of flavor and body to the stew.

Really, really enhances it.

-Gotcha.

-However, if you can't find a butcher to do this for you, you could still use ribs and just cut them into single-bone portions, okay?

So we're going to pat these dry with paper towels because we're going to sear them.

Do both sides.

And now we're going to cut these ribs into two-bone portions.

So right in between the bones, just like that.

-So is that what you'd get in your -- in your bowl, is a portion of ribs like that?

-Yeah, exactly.

If the math doesn't work out cleanly and you get like one little riblet, that's -- that's okay, too.

-Someone's going to get a bonus piece.

-Yeah.

Season them all over with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt.

I'll give them a flip, hit the other side with the salt.

All right, now we're going to sear the ribs off.

So I have a tablespoon of vegetable oil heating up in our Dutch oven, and we're going to sear the ribs in two batches, about three to five minutes per side.

We're looking for them to get nice and browned on both sides.

Now, because there is a meaty side and a bone side, the meat side we'll, obviously, sear a little bit better because there's more for the pot to grab on to, whereas the bone side is a little bit concave.

So we're going to start off with half the ribs going meat side down first, okay?

That way, we get a strong sear on the first side.

-Makes sense.

-We'll let that go for about three to five minutes, until it's nicely browned on the first side.

All right, Julia, it's been about five minutes, and we can take a look.

You can see these are nicely browned on the first side.

-Beautiful.

-So we're going to cook them on the second side another five minutes or so.

So while that's cooking, we're going to go ahead and mince up a couple of Thai chilies.

So the Thai chilies are obviously going to add a little bit of heat.

If you're somebody who likes a little bit more heat, feel free to add a little bit more.

But I found, across the board, two Thai chilies is perfect for this stew.

So we're just going to give those a quick mince, like this.

All right, so we'll let these ribs finish cooking, and then we're going to fire off our second batch.

All right, Julia, so our second batch of ribs is looking good.

You can see, there's a lot of nice fond and some fat rendered out in the bottom of the pot.

And that is exactly what we want.

Now we are going to add our onions and ginger.

So we're gonna let this cook for about two minutes, until they just begin to soften.

Okay, Julia, it's been about two minutes, and you can see that the onions and the ginger are really beginning to soften, and it just smells wonderful, doesn't it?

-Yeah, you can really smell that ginger.

-All right, so now we're going to add our Thai chilies to a six-ounce diced vine-ripened tomato with the seeds.

-Okay.

-And we're going to let that cook until the tomatoes begin to break down and the whole thing blends together nicely.

That should take about five minutes.

So as these tomatoes are beginning to break down, we could use some of the liquid that comes out of them to scrape up some of the fond on the bottom of the pot, too.

All right, Julia, you see our tomatoes have really broken down, almost formed like a paste in the bottom of the pot.

And now we could add 4 cups of water.

So as I add that water, I'm just going to scrape up any of that browned fond on the bottom of the pot.

Now we're going to add 1/4 cup of fish sauce.

And then we're going to add 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

So we have two souring agents here.

We have the lemon juice and the tamarind.

Both come at it from a different angle, so both have a slightly different flavor.

So if we were in the Philippines and we had access to calamansi, we would use calamansi juice.

Now, calamansi is one of those tropical fruits that's grown in the Philippines.

It's sort of a cross in flavor between orange and lemon.

So, and most people agree that using just lemon juice is a suitable substitute here.

Okay.

And then we can add our tamarind paste.

So we can also add in our daikon radish.

It's going to really absorb a lot of the flavor of the stew.

So then we could finally put in our pork ribs.

Just want to nestle these into the liquid.

Okay.

And we want to make sure all of our pork is submerged in the liquid.

Now, we're going to bring this up to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, put a cover on it, and let it simmer until the pork is nice and tender, and it takes anywhere between an hour and a half and an hour and three-quarters.

-Okay.

-All right, Julia, it's been an hour and a half.

Let's take a look.

-Oh!

-It smells wonderful, doesn't it?

-Well, and that broth looks like it has a ton of flavor.

-Yeah.

So we want to make sure that our ribs are nice and tender, so we'll just give them a little poke with a paring knife.

They're very tender.

-Can't even pick them up.

-No.

Now we're going to prep up our remaining vegetables.

So we have some green beans and some Japanese eggplant.

At the restaurant, Janice uses a ton of different vegetables -- baby bok choy, okra, English peas, green beans, eggplant, the works, okay?

And she blanches each one of them separately so they're nice and bright green when she presents them to her guests.

At home, she says that she just throws the vegetables into the pot, right, the last 15 or 20 minutes of cooking.

And so, that's what we're going to do, making it a homestyle version of sinigang.

So we're going to just trim up 6 ounces of green beans.

I have most of them already trimmed here.

And then we can just cut them in half.

We're also going to use a Japanese eggplant.

So we're going to cut this on a slight bias, about 1/2-inch thick.

Now, Japanese eggplant is different from the bulbous style of globe eggplants that you typically find in the grocery store because the skin is thinner and there are less seeds.

And when it cooks up, it's really nice and creamy in the stew.

So about 1/2-inch thick.

-Oh, nice, big pieces.

-Yeah.

So this is about 6 ounces of Japanese eggplant.

We're going to just throw this right into our stew.

And then the same with our green beans.

Another 6 ounces of green beans here.

-Mmm.

-We're going to increase the heat to medium.

We'll stir those in, and we'll let this stew simmer uncovered now for a good 15 minutes, until those vegetables are tender.

And we'll come back occasionally and give it a stir to make sure they're all getting their fair share in that flavorful broth.

-Sounds good.

-Okay, Julia, it's been a good 15 minutes.

Our vegetables are tender.

-It smells terrific.

-It does, doesn't it?

We can shut off the heat now.

And I just want to give it a taste to see if we need any extra salt.

-[ Chuckles ] -It's really good.

I wish you could try what I'm tasting right now.

Okay, so I think we're ready -- ready to start eating, huh?

-Okay.

-We'll start off with the meaty vegetable, the pork.

Give you some eggplant, little bit of daikon.

Another piece of pork here.

-Oh, thank you.

-And then finally, a few of these green beans, some of that julienned ginger.

-Mmm!

-Then we're going to add a little bit of broth.

-Mmm!

-Wow.

It looks good.

-That looks delicious!

-So here's what we're gonna do.

We're going to take a portion from our stew bowl... -Uh-huh.

-...and transfer it to our plate.

-Okay.

-So take a little bit of pork, put it right at the foot of your rice there.

A little vegetable.

A little green bean, a little daikon, piece of eggplant.

Okay, then in front of you, you have a little bowl of fish sauce mixed with Thai chili.

-I knew there was more Thai chili in my future.

-Yeah, I know you like heat.

We're going to treat it like it's liquid salt here.

We're going to add a little spoonful.

Little piece of vegetable, little piece of pork, little bit of rice.

-Well, you're using the fork almost like a knife, or the spoon like a knife.

-Right.

Yeah.

So everything gets served on the spoon, and you almost bulldoze everything onto the spoon with the fork.

And then you can just dig in.

-Mmm!

You can taste everything -- the fish sauce, the lemon juice.

-Yeah.

A little bit of kick from the chili, the ginger.

-Yeah, especially that ginger.

I just love how you have this little bowl of fish sauce.

You can really kind of customize your own little bite there.

-Mmm!

That daikon!

I know it simmered in there for almost two hours.

It still has texture.

-Yeah.

It's really nice, isn't it?

-Bryan, this was really fun.

Thank you.

-You're very welcome.

-So if you want to make this fragrant Filipino vegetable stew, start by using tamarind paste.

Use St. Louis-style ribs that have been cut in half by the butcher, and add a variety of vegetables at the very end just before serving.

From "Cook's Country," a Filipino favorite by way of Oakland, California -- sinigang.

I am a fan of this.

-They say the kitchen is the hearth of the home.

In San Francisco, La Cocina, a nonprofit business incubator, is also the hearth of the city.

La Cocina is a commercial kitchen that provides immigrant, working-class, and low-income women a place to work, to find access to business consulting, and to create connections to capital.

It's a place for them to fulfill their dreams.

A few years back, my friend and the former executive director of La Cocina invited me to speak at one of their conferences.

While I was there, I toured several La Cocina businesses and was amazed by the bold aromas and exciting tastes being cooked up by these inspiring women.

Since that visit, La Cocina has expanded their vision, opening a marketplace and publishing this beautiful cookbook.

At "Cook's Country," our very own Morgan Bolling met with Cambodian chef Nite Yun.

She was inspired to create a tribute recipe, tonight's neorm sach moan.

-I never met a chicken salad that I didn't like, so it's my lucky day, because Morgan's here, and she's going to show us a great chicken salad that she ate out in Oakland.

And the dish is called neorm sach moan.

-Yeah, Bridget, this is from Chef Nite Yun's restaurant, Nyum Bai.

So she has this chicken salad recipe on her menu.

It's been on since the beginning.

But I will give you a heads-up.

It is not chicken salad like I often think of, where chicken's a big part of it.

Chicken plays with a lot of the vegetables here, but it's not the biggest piece.

That said, we still need to get it going.

-Okay.

-So here I have 4 cups of water.

I'm going to add 2 teaspoons of salt and, of course, my chicken.

I have an 8-ounce chicken breast.

And I'm just going to cook this really, really gently.

So I'm going to bring it up to a simmer over medium heat.

Once it's simmering, I'm going to cover it and just let it go over low heat until it hits 160, which will take about 15 minutes.

It's been simmering with the lid on for 15 minutes.

-Okay.

-Let's check it out.

-Still there.

-Still there.

Still hanging.

I'm looking for 160.

-Right.

Okay.

-It looks like it's right there.

-Magic Morgan.

-Magic.

-That's what they call you.

-Okay, so I'm just going to let this cool for about 15 minutes.

And on to the dressing.

So here, it's got 6 tablespoons of fish sauce, 4 tablespoons, or 1/4 cup, of rice vinegar.

Also going to add 1/4 cup of sugar.

And then we're going to have some fun with some Thai chili.

-Lovely.

That's just one?

-Just one.

Nicely minced in there.

And then a minced garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

So I'm just going whisk this up to dissolve the sugar.

And that's it.

-That's it.

-That's the dressing.

So we're going to bring this down and add some of our vegetables.

-Okay.

-I love how fresh and vibrant and delicious this is.

And it has a ton of vegetables going on.

-Fantastic.

-So at her restaurant, Nite uses a mandolin.

I love what it does in this salad.

You get these really thin shreds.

It's also really consistent.

And you can actually be more efficient with a mandolin than you can with a knife.

That said, if you're scared of these, you can just use a knife, and it's just fine.

-Just take your time.

-Just take your time.

I have a red cabbage that I've quartered.

I'm only going to try to get a cup out of this.

And you do want to keep your fingers away from the blade.

-Yes.

-So I like to do just a few shreds and check them for thinness and make sure it's about the consistency I want.

So I actually want this just a tiny bit thinner.

-Okay.

-So I'm just going to tighten this.

Let's check a few more.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now we're cooking.

So we've got really nice and fine, so light in the salad.

It's going to be really, really nice.

-Ethereal.

-Ethereal.

That's exactly the right word, Bridget.

I'm going to add this -- it's about a cup -- to my dressing.

I also have a Persian cucumber.

It's a lot like an English cucumber in that it has a thin skin, almost no seeds.

It's really light and refreshing.

And it's very, very cute.

If you can't find one, you can just use an English cucumber, and that's totally fine, as well.

So I'm cutting it in half crosswise, and then I'm going to use the mandolin to get really thin slices lengthwise.

I'm going to use the palm of my hand to guide it.

I'm not going to get my fingertips near this blade.

-I have full faith in you.

-Yes.

Slow and steady.

This is going to become a little snack.

And look at how beautiful and thin these are.

-You can see through them.

-I know.

So into the bowl.

With my radish, I can actually just cut off the tip to make it give me a flat surface to work with.

And again, same thing -- heel of my hand.

Okay, so these are going in.

I have some more radishes I'm also going to add in.

-So how many all day?

-I have four -- four radishes all day.

-Okay.

-I also have a few more vegetables.

I've got 4 cups of shredded green cabbage.

So the green and red together is really just about getting a lot of pretty color in there.

If you really wanted, you could just use all 5 cups of green cabbage or 5 cups of red.

I also have a thinly-sliced red bell pepper.

And I have 2 cups of roughly chopped mizuna.

So mizuna is a green that's from the mustard family.

It has some of the same intensity of arugula but some of the same bitterness of frise.

It's really, really nice here.

You can often find it at an Asian market.

But if you can't find it, it's okay.

You can just use arugula.

Don't let that keep you from making this.

Here I've got 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro.

-Beautiful.

-And 1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint and 1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil.

We have our chicken.

So this has been cooling about 15 minutes.

I'm just going to shred it into some nice, thin shreds.

-All right.

-So I'm just breaking up any really large pieces.

I want it to be really thinly shredded.

I love when you get something where a lot of the bites are the same size.

Now it is just time to toss.

-Okay.

-So I'm going to toss this together.

I like to sort of turn the bowl and the tongs to get in there.

You can smell the fish sauce.

You can smell the herbs.

So, of course, you could serve it right out of this bowl.

But since it is meant to be a celebratory meal, I have a pretty platter.

-You want to showcase that.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

-I'm just going to drizzle any dressing left in here over top.

I have 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts.

These are just salted peanuts.

I like when you get the little hint of salt.

They add a little richness.

And then this is 2 tablespoons of fresh cilantro leaves.

So they're actually the whole leaves here.

I just think they're so pretty.

-Absolutely beautiful.

-At her restaurant, Nite actually tries to make people feel like they're transported to Cambodia.

So she ordered tablecloths from Cambodia, and she plays the same 13 rock songs on repeat.

-Really?

Oh, that's great.

-Yeah.

I don't have the playlist for you, but I do have this delicious salad.

-Oh, I thought maybe you were going to sing.

-I could try, but it would not be fun for you, I promise.

I assure you that.

-That is beautiful.

-Isn't it?

I just think it's stunning.

When I think of beautiful food, I often think of cakes and desserts.

And then you look at something like this, and you're like, "Color and beauty."

-Fresh, vibrant, alive.

Mmm!

-Mm-hmm.

-That is gorgeous.

You've got the sweet, you've got the heat, you've got the sour, you've got salty.

It's gorgeous.

-And the garlic, it's, like, everything.

-Gorgeous.

And the freshness.

-Mm-hmm.

It's, like, all the fun flavors in one.

-It is all fun flavors.

I love the freshness.

I'm getting a little bit of that mint, the basil.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah, the Thai basil, the cilantro.

-Ohh!

-All that cabbage.

-Out of a scale of 1 to 10, this chicken takes it to 11.

-Whoa.

Hello.

-Thank you, Morgan.

-Thank you, Bridget.

-Well, if you want to make this beautiful chicken salad at home, start by poaching the chicken gently.

Thinly slice lots of beautiful vegetables.

And toss it all in a flavor-packed dressing.

So from "Cook's Country," a chicken salad of my dreams, the colorful, ethereal neorm sach moan.

And you can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes, they're all on our website.

That's CooksCountry.com/tv.

Ohh!

-I know.

It is -- It is dreamy.

-It is dreamy.