Traditional Hmong Food
Hmong food has been considered a combination of Chinese, Laotian and Vietnamese cuisines.
Many Hmong people traditionally eat three meals a days, without snacks in between.
Often the ingredients of the meal are the same, it is only the preparation that differs. For many Hmong people,
food is a tradition and spiritual experience. Hmong food consists of many spices and herbs.
Chilies, cilantro, ginger, green onion, garlic, mint, fish sauce, and oyster sauce are very popular ingredients.
Recipes to Try!
Hmong Egg Rolls
Ingredients:
- 1 lb or 2 lb ground meat of your choice (pork, chicken, turkey, beef)
- 2 cup shredded cabbage
- 2 cup shredded carrots
- 2 cup chopped onion
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 package rice vermicelli cellophane noodles
- 3 eggs
- 1 egg yolk for sealing the wrapper
- 50 sheets eggroll skins
- Add hot water to rice vermicelli cellophane noodles and let soak 5-10 minutes until soft. Then take scissors and cut up the noodles.
- Mix meat, cabbage, carrots, onion, oyster sauce, salt, noodles, eggs until well combined.
- Peel the eggroll skins.
- Place eggroll skin on a flat surface. Add the eggroll mixture and roll up. Seal the ends with egg yolk.
- Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
Pho
Ingredients:
- beef bones with marrow (leg bones) cut up in 2 inch pieces
- 2 charred onion (then rinse and remove black parts)
- 1 thumb (about 4 inches) charred ginger (same as above)
- 1 spice packet (get it at the asian store, put in the small white mesh bag - coriander, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cardamom)
- 1 inch chunk rock sugar
- lots of water (about 1-2 gallon)
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1 tbsp salt
- Pho broth seasoning
- Wash the beef bones clean.
- Add the bones to a large pot and fill with water until covered.
- Boil the bones for 5-10 minutes to get rid of the impurities
- Dump water out and rinse the bones
- Put the bones back in pot and add lots of cold water
- Bring back to boil, cook for 1 hour
- Add the charred onion, charred ginger, spice packet, rock sugar, fish sauce, salt, pho broth seasoning
- Cook for additional 1-4 hours. Cook longer if you want stronger flavor.
- Add seasoning.
Papaya Salad
Ingredients:
- 2 cups shredded green papaya
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 thai chili pepper (add more or less pepper to suit your taste)
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- 1/4 tsp crab paste
- 2 tbsp salted crab
- 2 tbsp palm sugar crushed + 1 tbsp water (melt for 30 seconds in a microwave)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (three crabs brand)
- 1/4 cup tamarind paste water
- 1/2 lime (this also equals about 1 tbsp, add more lime if you like it more sour)
- 1 1/2 tbsp crushed peanuts
- 5-7 cherry tomatoes sliced
- Peel the green skin off the papaya with a peeler. Use the asian shredding peeler to get thin shreds. Or if you don't have one, chop the papaya all around and then use a knife to slice it into strips (doing it the old fashioned way makes the salad crisp).
- Melt the crushed palm sugar with 1 tbsp water in a microwave for 30 seconds
- To make the tamarind paste water, take a block of tamarind and add equal amount of hot water. Let is soak for about 10-15 minutes and then squeeze out the juice. You can use it just like this or put it through a sieve to remove the seeds.
- In a mortar, smash/grind the thai chili pepper.
- Add the garlic clove and smash.
- Add the shrimp paste, crab paste. Mix.
- Add the salted crab and smash lightly to remove the juices from the crab.
- Add the fish sauce, sugar syrup, tamarind paste water. Mix.
- Add the tomatoes and smash lightly to bruise the tomatoes.
- Put the shredded green papaya in a large bowl.
- Add the sauce and crushed peanuts to the papaya and toss to coat the papaya.
- Serve
Come Back For New Recipes Every Week!