Andrea Nguyen's 'Vietnamese Food Any Day'Is it me, or does the term "weeknight cooking" seem a little shifty? It's odd: What we want most are dishes we can bang out in that small window between getting home (or finishing our workday) and hunger striking, but in this recipe-saturated world, our options appear to have been limited to meatballs and chicken — maybe a spiced carrot composition or cauliflower, in "steak" or whole-roasted form. When I go online, that's the bulk of what I'm seeing in the way of weeknight fodder. Cookbooks haven't done much better. Either what's dubbed a cinch you can make in a pinch winds up being be less cinchy (or quick) than you might have liked, or else, what's advertised as "new and fresh ideas" turns out to be more of the same (how about another meatball?). If I was asked to recommend a cookbook that could take you through the week, my unhesitating answer would be Andrea Nguyen's "Vietnamese Food Any Day." Published just last year, it taps into the rhythm of our daily lives and proposes recipes that are both realistic for people who appreciate flavorful food they can make at the end of a busy day and diverse enough to be followed night after night without boredom setting in. Nguyen stuck her landing, and she did it with a cuisine that, although common to her (she was born in Vietnam and came to the United States as a refugee), is usually treated as though it's "foreign" — meaning complicated, exotic, inaccessible, or else, cheap or impoverished — by her fellow Americans. Her book is a triumph in that regard, but it's not just a good Vietnamese cookbook; it's a good cookbook of any category. Few cookbooks have impressed me this much recently. I'm most impressed by how in tune "Vietnamese Food Any Day" is with the realities of home cooking. I also give Nguyen major props for making her book so casually — but purposefully — instructional; it's an education in how to integrate ingredients that are usually "othered"" into your everyday cooking. She doesn't require you to invest in a whole new cabinetful of ingredients, and she zeroes in on items you can find in most supermarkets. Another accomplishment: She has made me crave soup for dinner. The chapter on the slurpy substance has everything from an aromatic ginger-infused canh (the type of water-based soup known to be "fragrant, wholesome and fast") full of shrimp and dark greens to her restorative overnight rice porridge, which you start the night before by soaking cooked rice and finish in 30 minutes when you're ready to eat the next day (breakfast, lunch or dinner). There's cauliflower, but it's transformed into "wings" instead of a "steak," first fried then dipped in a sweet, spicy garlicky sauce. She does chicken, too, but it's "coconut-kissed" and tossed with chiles (still takes only 20 minutes) or roasted with a honey-hoisin glaze and a mess of vegetables. Then, we have the classic known as shaking beef, a steak-on-salad hybrid served for special occasions at restaurants in Vietnam where red meat is thought of as an extravagance. It's an entirely home-friendly endeavor that takes just half an hour to make, and Nguyen developed a version with tofu, too. She has passed the recipes onto us and now we can shake our pans to-and-fro whenever we want, once — or twice — a week. Andrea Nguyen, I bow to you. Oh, and, everyone else, if you have 10 minutes to spare, make the no-churn Vietnamese coffee ice cream on Page 210, okay? (You have to wait a few hours for it to freeze, but I think you can handle that.)  | Menu | Crispy Lemongrass Salmon A fish that's as crispy as billed is not to be ignored, and this one has the added benefits of brown sugar, curry powder and, of course, lemongrass. Honey-Hoisin Roast Chicken and Vegetables Introducing your new Best Roast Chicken that's also an all-in-one meal.  | Focus on the generosity of alternatives | Nguyen is always thinking about how to make our lives easier; she might advise us to place newspaper on the floor to prevent toilsome cleanup from stir-fry sputtering; give us more than one option for an ingredient we might not already have in our pantry (so Bragg Liquid Aminos can be replaced with Maggi Seasoning sauce or soy sauce), or let us know we can swap in molasses for a homemade caramel sauce if the extra step is too much. She has a sidebar on prep tips and shortcuts for working with lemongrass. (Remember: "you can't chew what you can't chop.") For the roast chicken below, she suggests saving two thighs, or making extra, to prepare her roast chicken soup.  | Recipes | Crispy Lemongrass SalmonSalmon was something Nguyen didn't encounter until coming to America, and her family "adopted it as if it were native to Vietnam." They treated it with a paste of lemongrass, curry powder and shallot that Older Sister Thien, their cook in Saigon, would spread on a whole fish. She grilled that fish, but Nguyen and her mother put it on a salmon fillet and broil it to get its skin extra-crispy. You can take a cue from the author and serve the fish with rice, toss it into a noodle salad, or try it over a bed of wilted greens. For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe on our website at washingtonpost.com/recipes. IngredientsServings: 4
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass (from 1 medium stalk)
1 1/2 teaspoons packed light or dark brown sugar
Fine sea salt, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped shallot
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce, plus more as needed
1/2 teaspoon Madras-style curry powder (preferably Sun brand)
1 tablespoon canola or another neutral oil, plus more as needed
One 1 1/3-pound skin-on salmon fillet, about 1-inch thick at the center StepsIn a small food processor, combine the lemongrass, brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and grind until the lemongrass is minced. Add the shallot, fish sauce, curry powder and oil and run the machine, pausing to scrape down the sides, until you have a coarse paste. Taste the seasoning paste. You want it a little saltier than you're comfortable with, so if needed, add more salt, a pinch at a time, or fish sauce in 1/2-teaspoon increments. Set aside. Cut the salmon crosswise into four equal portions, then make two 1/4-inch-deep, 2-inch-long slits, about 1/2 inch apart, on the skin side of each piece of fish. Rub the seasoning paste all over the fish and into the slits. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, position a rack 5 to 6 inches from the broiler element and set the oven to broil. Let it heat up for about 15 minutes, so it's really hot. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a rack inside. Drizzle the fish with canola oil and arrange the pieces, skin-side up, on the prepared rack. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes, until the skin is slightly charred. Use a metal spatula to flip the fish and then broil for about 3 minutes, until the flesh no longer looks raw and is beginning to brown. If you don't like crisp skin, broil the flesh side for about 1 minute longer to darken and pick up character. If you like crispy skin, flip the fish so the skin is up. Broil for 30 to 60 seconds longer to crisp the skin. Monitor carefully to avoid super-blackened skin. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Nutritional facts (per serving): Calories: 275; Protein: 34 g; Carbohydrates: 3 g; Fat: 14 g; Saturated Fat: 2 g; Cholesterol: 93 mg; Sodium: 885 mg; Fiber: 0 g; Sugar: 2 g. Honey-Hoisin Roast Chicken and Vegetables Although there's no such thing as a bad chicken that's been well-roasted, eating the same variety of well-roasted chicken can get a little boring. Not this one; it's not like the others. Nguyen's gà quay mât ong (that's Vietnamese for "honey-roasted chicken"), demands only a fraction of the time and effort as the Peking ducks that inspired it, but it will elicit a similar response from eaters. Instead of dealing with the whole bird, Nguyen goes with the thighs (for faster cooking and to ensure everyone at the table gets the more flavorful dark meat). She advises you to let them air dry before putting them in the oven, for crispier skin. NOTES: When prepping huge sweet potatoes, halve them crosswise first to more easily cut the wedges for this recipe. Instead of the Brussels sprouts or broccoli, use small parsnips, turnips or sunchokes: Scrub and keep the skin intact, then halve the vegetables for roasting. If the chicken isn't air-chilled, refrigerate the seasoned thighs on the rack, uncovered, overnight or up to 24 hours; let them sit at room temperature for 1 hour before roasting. The glaze will keep, covered, in the refrigerator, for up to 5 days. For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe on our website at washingtonpost.com/recipes. IngredientsServings: 4-6
Active time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes 4 garlic cloves, smashed
Chubby 1-inch (1-ounce) section fresh ginger, unpeeled, thinly sliced and smashed
Fine sea salt, to taste
1 tablespoon sake, gin or vodka
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Brimming 1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds total, preferably air-chilled)
3 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed, and cut into long wedges 3/4 to 1 inch thick
12 ounces Brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise, or broccoli florets, cut into 2-inch-wide pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, plus more to taste StepsIn a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the garlic, ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, sake, soy sauce and honey and bring to a bubbly boil. Remove from the heat and let rest for 5 minutes, then strain the glaze into a heatproof bowl or measuring cup. Set aside. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a rack inside. In a small bowl, combine the five-spice powder with 1 teaspoon of salt. Rub the seasonings on the flat underside of each chicken thigh, flip the thigh and peel back the skin, and then season the flesh underneath. Reposition the skin and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt on top. Put the thighs on the prepared rack, spaced as far apart as possible for best heat circulation during roasting. For good flavor and crisp skin, let the chicken sit, uncovered, at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes, no longer than 1 hour. Meanwhile, position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees. Line a second rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. In a medium bowl, combine the oil, pepper and a rounded 1/2 teaspoon of salt and then toss with the sweet potato and Brussels sprouts. Arrange the potatoes, skin-side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Set aside about 1/4 cup of the glaze to use for sauce. The remainder will be used during roasting. Slide the chicken onto the upper oven rack and the sweet potatoes onto the lower rack and roast for about 40 minutes, checking three times at 10-minute intervals. After the first 10 minutes, brush the glaze all over the skin of the chicken and add the Brussels sprouts to the baking sheet with the potatoes. After another 10 minutes, flip the thighs and glaze their undersides. Roast for 10 minutes more to set the glaze, then flip the thighs and brush glaze on the skin. Roast for a final 8 to 10 minutes, until the shiny skin is a rich brown and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh reaches 160 degrees. Remove the chicken from the oven. If the sweet potatoes didn't brown enough, roast on the top rack for 5 to 10 minutes longer. Let the chicken and vegetables rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Mix the reserved glaze with the hoisin sauce. Taste, and, if needed, add up to 1 1/2 teaspoons hoisin to create a pleasant savory-sweet finish. Transfer the chicken and vegetables to serving plates and serve, passing the hoisin mixture alongside. Nutritional facts (per serving): Calories: 643; Protein: 35 g; Carbohydrates: 47 g; Fat: 35 g; Saturated Fat: 8 g; Cholesterol: 151 mg; Sodium: 496 mg; Fiber: 6 g; Sugar: 23 g. Join our virtual cookbook club!Chat about the books, ask questions and share your creations by joining the Essential Cookbooks Facebook group here, and show others you've joined the club by posting your recipe photos on Instagram using #voraciouslycookbooks. Have a question?Email us at voraciously@washpost.com or message @eatvoraciously on Instagram. Charlotte Druckman is a journalist and food writer. She conceived and edited the collection "Women on Food" and is the author of "Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat" and "Staying in the Kitchen." In addition, she has written two cookbooks — "Stir, Sizzle, Bake: Recipes for Your Cast-Iron Skillet" and "Kitchen Remix: 75 Recipes for Making the Most of Your Ingredients," and co-wrote chef Anita Lo's "Cooking Without Borders." She lives in New York City. Find her on Instagram (@chardrucks) or Twitter (@cettedrucks). Photos by Justin Tsucalas; food styling by Nichole Bryant; props by Limonata Creative; illustrations by Louisa Cannell, all for The Washington Post. | 
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