Danielle Chang, co-founder of The Hao Life and host of "Lucky Chow" on PBS, is stopping by TODAY to share a few of her favorite Asian-influenced wellness dishes for summer. She shows us how to make cold noodle salad with pork and frozen Thai iced tea pops.
This is my go-to on warm nights when it's almost too hot to cook, but I'm craving a seasonal, veggie-forward, cold noodle salad. The pork slices, borrowed from the Japanese hot pot, shabu shabu, is named after the swish-swash of the meat as it cooks in boiled water for mere seconds. Optional — but highly recommended — is the tender pork, the perfect complement to the seasonal salad mix of chrysanthemum greens, radishes and other spring-into-summer faves. Sesame seeds, seaweed flakes, radishes and other nourishing ingredients make their way into this warm-weather favorite.
Super-sweet and strong Thai iced tea, brewed with Ceylon tea and sweetened with condensed milk, can't really get better … except when it's turned into a frozen treat. At markets across Southeast Asia, the tea is "pulled" by pouring it back and forth at high heights — both to give the tea a thick frothy top and also to cool it down while thoroughly mixing it with the condensed milk. In Thailand, this drink is often sold to-go in little plastic bags with straws, which sounds almost as fun as these frozen pops. The iced tea served in Thai restaurants derives its candy-like color from food coloring (oddly enough, the same shade of Yellow No. 6 food dye formerly used in Kraft Mac & Cheese) to produce the bold hues that this tea is normally associated with. Just before serving, it is usually topped with evaporated milk, which gives the tea a creamy body. For ice pops, I like to pour the tea into molds almost to the top, then add a tablespoon or two of evaporated milk to create that creamy body.
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