How to Cook Legit Vietnamese Food Using Ingredients from Your Local Supermarket

First of all, Vietnamese elements are more accessible than ever: most mid-sized American cities now have at least one Asian trade, but even principal supermarkets stock plenty of southeast Asian pantry basics: rice stick noodles, soy and fish sauce , maybe even some ready-to-use lemongrass paste. Then there’s the wealth of educational resources out there, from blogs to books, breaking down the nuances and guiding principles of Vietnamese cuisine .

But in the age of information overload, if you must choose only one cookbook, Vietnamese-American culinary queen Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Food Any Day is a bona fide classic. It’s the first modern Vietnamese cookbook written with the express goal of “liberating the American home cook.” That means preparation pho broth in a pressure cooker for two hours, rather than simmering a pile of bones for 24.

Nguyen points out that Instant Pots are readily available in Vietnam, and that many Vietnamese-American cooks, including her own mother, have embraced technology in the kitchen. What makes Nguyen’s food “authentic” isn’t a strict adherence to traditional recipes, but rather her deep understanding of Vietnamese flavors. Culinary techniques, and her ability to apply them to new situations, using readily available components.

Nguyen’s condiment collection Aubrie Pick, courtesy of Ten Speed Shop Like a Vietnamese Auntie “Shop like my mother, a sharp woman in her eighties. Demand service,” Nguyen writes. “If you can’t get what you want, it’s time to try another market or look online.” Nguyen treats shopping like a scavenger hunt, asking staff to help her find the best cuts of meat and tough-to-find components. For condiments, which are used for both cookery and dipping in Vietnamese cuisine, Nguyen lists several brands that are widely available at supermarket chains, such as Red Boat or Three Crabs fish sauce, which she often uses as an umami booster and salting agent.

If you plan to master Vietnamese food, add these condiments to your pantry—along with spices and fresh herbs, they will form the building blocks of your flavors. Ginger-Garlic Fish Parcels from Vietnamese Food Any Day Aubrie Pick, courtesy of Ten Speed No Steamer?

Stateside, a fillet of salmon or halibut can stand in for the basa, tilapia, and snakehead found in Vietnamese trades. Pressure-Cook Your Stocks and Stews Today’s contemporary pho restaurants tout their 24-hour broth as if each hour spent simmering brings the dish closer to heaven, but, in a pinch, a pressure cooker or multicooker will achieve comparable results in a fraction of the time.

Nguyen includes recipes for pressure-cooker chicken stock and vegetable stock, which serve as a base for various soups. She also uses the time-saving appliance for the sole pho recipe in the book—a fantastic smoked turkey pho. Turkey pho isn’t a particularly traditional option, but as Nguyen explains, “Vietnam’s national dish, pho noodle soup, is surprisingly flexible and democratic.” (Just look at California’s “dry,” sautéed chicken pho, or Houston’s crawfish version.) Smoked turkey is widely available year-round, and it adds an extra dimension of savor, helping you to produce a complex albeit unorthodox broth. Typically cooked in clay pots, homestyle comfort food like braised pork and eggs in coconut caramel —the preparation is known as kho —are nostalgic triggers for most Vietnamese.

In the book, Nguyen cuts the prep time in half with the help of a pressure cooker. If you don’t own a Chinese bamboo or metal steamer, Nguyen advises you to “take a cue from the French and bake it in parchment paper.” Parchment offers the fish a similar level of moisture while in addition allowing you to include seasonings like oyster sauce, soy sauce, ginger, and scallions. To serve, Nguyen hints splitting the parchment open at the table and adding cooked rice directly into the packet to soak up the flavorful juices.

Use Store-Bought Rice Crackers and Puff Pastry There are some components you just don’t need to spend time and effort to make. Going to Nguyen, who, she can “rarely afford those kinds of morning calories or the time to make from-scratch dough” makes mini versions of the dish using frozen puff pastry .

In Vietnam, the dish is traditionally served with homemade rice crackers ( bánh đa ), but it can be tedious to do all of that for a quick snack.