[ THE ELECTRIC KITCHEN ]

HECO

Try Vietnamese
hot sour soup

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"The Electric Kitchen" airing in the second half of July features Vietnamese Cooking with Jennifer Nguyen and Long Van Nguyen of A Saigon Café on Maui.

"Electric Kitchen" airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and 5:30 p.m. Thursday on Oceanic Cable Channel 16.

All the recipes from the show, as well as an archive of recipes dating to 1995, are available at the Hawaiian Electric Co. Web site, www.heco.com.

Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

8 cups water
6 tablespoons tamarind paste
6 tablespoons hot water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1-1/2 cups pineapple chunks
2 large tomatoes, chopped
3 stalks celery or zuiki taro stems (see note), in 1- to 2-inch strips
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, in 1- to 2-inch strips
Vegetable oil for frying
3 large shallots, sliced
Bean sprouts
Chopped cinnamon basil for garnish
1 to 2 Hawaiian or Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced (optional)

Bring the 8 cups water to a boil. Mix tamarind paste with the 6 tablespoons hot water and strain through a fine strainer.

Add 4 tablespoons of the strained tamarind paste, sugar, 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce, pineapple, tomatoes, and celery; cook 3 to 5 minutes.

Add chicken and cook until chicken is done, about 10 minutes. Taste soup and add more of the remaining 2 tablespoons tamarind paste and fish sauce, if desired.

In a small skillet, heat oil and fry shallots until golden brown; drain.

To serve, place bean sprouts in serving bowl; add soup. Garnish with shallots, basil and chile peppers. Makes 4 servings.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Note: Zuiki taro stem is available in Asian grocery stores or Chinatown.

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