Viet World Kitchen

Spotlight on Vietnamese Herbs – LA Times article

Summer's hot-weather is peak time for growing and eating Vietnamese herbs. In fact, above is  my friend Alec Mitchell's Vietnamese herb 'garden' that he set up on his condo balcony in Culver City. He started the herbs with an indoor Aerogarden unit and planted the seedlings in recycled terracotta pots.

Fresh herbs (rau thom) are an elemental part of the cuisine so don’t miss out on them. They offer an amazing array of nuanced flavor and soft, leafy texture unlike common western herbs such as basil and parsley. For information on why fresh herbs matter in Vietnamese cooking, the awesome array of herbs, and how to source and grow them, check out this article I wrote for the Los Angeles Times Food Section that was published today:

• Fresh Herbs at the Center of Vietnamese Cuisine, LA Times Food Section, July 15, 2009

It’s a piece I’ve wanted to see in print for years! For more, check the Vietnamese Herb Primer and Gardening section on this site. Also, peruse pages 17-20 in Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

Uses for Rice Paddy Herb (Ngo Om)

Suddenly I'm flushed with lots of rice paddy herb (ngo om, pronounced "n-gaw om") due to the nifty new growing tip I got recently. In the Vietnamese Kitchen, the classic use for this herb is in sour fish soup with tamarind, tomato, and okra. After reading the post on how to create makeshift greenhouses for the plants, several people asked what other uses there are for the citrusy-cuminy little darling.

My suggestion is to chop up the tender sprigs and use them to finish any kind of dish where you'd normally have cumin. In a curry that employs Madras curry powder and coconut milk, I found that a bit of rice paddy herb contributed a refreshing endnote. At a Viet restaurant in San Jose, I noticed that they added ngo om at the last minute to a braised dish featuring eel and turmeric.

Thinking out of the Viet box, I recently experimented with adding finely chopped ngo om to guacamole, a yogurt-based salad dressing, as well as a raita (Indian yogurt-based sauce).  In these cases, the herb worked just fine. I just had this thought -- that rice paddy herb would probably be nice paired with legumes too, perhaps stirred into black beans right before serving or added to a vinaigrette to season cooked white beans or lentils, which would make a great summer salad or as a bed for panseared fish or scallop. A baba ghanoush-style roasted eggplant mash would get a nice lift from rice paddy herb.

So when you're cooking Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese food, think of rice paddy herb as a refreshing substitute for cumin (or enhancer of cumin's earthiness), a friend of turmeric, or just lovely on its own as a delicate seasoning. It's best chopped up since it's slender long stems are pretty to look at but awkward to chew. Whatever you do, DO NOT cook ngo om. Use it raw so you capture its essence well.

If you've got suggestions, share them with the rest of us!

Growing Rice Paddy Herb (Ngo Om)

Having to replenish my Vietnamese herb garden after the gopher attack a couple weeks ago, I visited my favorite Vietnamese market in San Jose, California, Thien Thanh (located on the corner of Keyes and Story Road). There's always a bunch of starters on sale at the door of market this time of year. A friendly store employee or two stays outside to keep an eye on customers and things happening in the tiny parking lot.

It was blazing hot and the shady overhang of the market entrance was a welcome respite from the heat, particularly when I see lush quart-size pots of tía tô (red perilla), kinh giới (Vietnamese balm), húng (mint), rau răm  (Vietnamese coriander), and various kinds of ớt (chiles). A man and woman surrounded me and honed in on making a sale. I was looking for just a pot of kinh giới and a chile plant but walked away with unexpectedly more.

Every year for the past 5 years, I've tried growing ngò om (Limnophila aromatica) and was unsuccessful at getting the sweet tender stems of the citrusy, cumin-y herb to flourish. It never grew much and would just poop out, no matter how much watering and feeding I did. This year, I vowed not to get one. Using dried cumin, just like my mom taught me, was good enough for finishing my canh chua cá (Vietnamese sour fish soup with tamarind, pineapple, and okra). Many southern Viet cooks who love this herb also finish curries with it.

 As I was checking out the herb selection, I noticed several pots covered in sweaty plastic. The man and woman informed me that it was ngò om. “Huh? What was it doing in plastic?,” I asked.

“That’s a great way to grow it,” he said, coyly smiling. The pot was full of mature rice paddy herb, and he advised me to take it home and put it in a larger pot so it would have room to grow. “Then, find a large plastic bag and put the entire plant in it. Poke a few holes to let air in, and the tie the bag up. You don’t have to water the plant.”

“No water at all?” I asked to double check. We’re being asked to conserve water this year in northern California so I was extra interested. Plus, I’m kind of lazy about watering. 

“No water,” he said, and the sale was made.

The clever method was essentially like making a tiny greenhouse for each pot. As the name suggests, rice paddy herb requires a lot of moisture and heat. In Vietnam’s humidity, particular in the southern region, this herb flourishes.

At home, I opened up the bag and followed his instructions to actually create 3 separate pots of plants to maximize my harvest. The stems fell apart easily for separation and I recycled the pots from the other plants I’d bought for these, filling them up with fresh potting soil. (These pots are the typical quart-size ones you’d find at nurseries. Use bigger pots and you’ll have to find extra large plastic bags!) The clusters of rice paddy herb went in and I gently patted the soil down to make sure they were securely in place.

It was a hot afternoon and I should have done this project in the shade, for after sitting in open air under the sun for just about 15 minutes, the delicate stems wilted. Bent over and looking glum, they didn’t look perky whatsoever. Great. My annual rice paddy herb disaster was manifesting in a new guise.   

Plants, as I’ve found, are pretty resilient so I persevered and put them in their makeshift green house. I used different kinds of plastic bags to see what would happen --  clear plastic produce bags as well as the handled kind you get at checkout. I avoid bags that were completely opaque and those with too much colored lettering. My rationale was based on the large greenhouses I’ve seen on farms. They’re covered with translucent plastic.

Closing the top with rubber bands found in the kitchen, I set the pots aside in full sun. In about 30 minutes, they were all standing upright again. Shazam. Amazing.

Over the course of the next few days, I realized the leaves were getting a bit brown so I moved them into a partial shaded part of the patio. Thus far, they’re growing taller and are alive. As for watering? I haven’t added a single drop.

 

Tips for Growing Vietnamese Herbs

Every spring I plant a number of Vietnamese herbs in my home garden. Purple and green leaf tia to (red perilla) and lemongrass-y kinh gioi (Vietnamese balm) are my favorites. I feed and nurture my perennial rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) so that it will flourish when the summer heat hits.

Tia to and kinh gioi often get buggy when I plant them together so over the years I've learned to space them far apart. Tia to goes into a whiskey barrel and kinh gioi is planted in the ground outside my front door. Every morning, I look at the kinh gioi plant to make sure that it's doing well. This morning, I had a feeling that our local gopher was going to attack the plant. Last year, the gopher ate the plant and I thought it was because it had been mistaken for a volunteer potato plant nearby, which the gopher ate too. I cleared the area this year of the potato but low and behold, there was a scrawny plant that popped up. "What is that thing next to the kinh gioi?" my hubby, Rory, asked yesterday.  I saw the potato plant but didn't yank it. This afternoon, Rory awoke from his nap and something looked different outside the living room window. That darn gopher ate both the potato and kinh gioi! The lesson here? Yank the potato and/or plant the herb in a pot! All that's left now is some roughed up soil -- as the photo on the left shows. ARGGHH.

Guess I'll be heading back to the Thien Thanh grocery store in San Jose for another plant. If you're looking for Viet herbs to plant, head to a Vietnamese market and ask. You may even find vendors selling starters right outside the door!

Gardening Tips
To keep pests away from my Vietnamese herbs, I sprinkle Sluggo -- small white pellets made of natural stuff that won't harm your pets but will keep pesky snails at bay. For bugs that like to gnaw on the heady leaves, I regularly spray the plants with Safer, a safe (get the name?!) insecticidal soap. To nurture the plants, I feed them with Dr. Earth, a fabulous dry fertilizer.  Of course, regular watering helps all of these plants.

Harvesting Vietnamese herbs
Pinch them back to get the plants nice and bushy. When harvesting, snip a good sprig so that the plant will bush out instead of get tall and leggy -- which won't yield many leaves. As the plants begin to flower, snip off the flowers to encourage the plants to put energy towards producing leaves, not flowers.

Save Seeds
At the end of the season in fall, let the plants flower and go to seed. Collect the seeds and save them or sprinkle them into the soil for next year's crop.

Seed and Plant Sources
I usually go to a Viet market in San Jose called Thien Thanh (455 Keyes Street) and they sell starter plants by the front entrance. If you live near a Viet enclave check the markets in the late spring for plants. If you want to go mail order, try these sources:

• Ever Green Seeds specializes in Asian veggies. Their pepper seed selection makes you weep for joy.
• Since 1917, Kitazawa Seed Company in Oakland, CA, has specialized in Asian vegetable and herb seeds. Among many things, they carry seeds for hojiso -- a Japanese perilla similar to tia to.
• Richter's Herbs from Canada is awesome, but can be slow with delivery. Request a catalog or order online to get things like thorny cilantro (ngo gai) and Vietnamese balm (kinh gioi).
• Baker Heirloom Seeds from Missouri has seeds from all over the world, including Southeast Asia.
• Flora Exotica in Canada lists a wealth of Vietnamese and Asian herbs on their site and will send worldwide, they claim.

More Information
For details on Vietnamese herbs (e.g., botanical names, descriptions, photos,  and storage tips) visit the Vietnamese Herb Primer page!