BANH MI

Vietnamese Style Meatball Sandwiches

My daughter took me to a Vietnamese sandwich place last August while I was in Hawaii. The tiny, not all fashionable place was a funky, family owned restaurant. It seems me that the smell and grease was deeply saturated into the wall and my germ phobia forbid me to sit squarely on the chair at first. I had to trust her judgment though. She knows all that good stuff. Well,it was tasty!  I wasn’t blown away but I was satisfied.  I try to recreate that flavor here. Interestingly, carrots and daikon marinated in vinegar taste exactly like Japanese NAMASU(なます or 酢の物-vinegar stuff). It compliments the spicy meatballs. Other than French baguette (I bought it for 99 cents), I had rest of ingridients at home so it was low budget yet great homey dinner which I’m sure I’ll repeat often.

Meatballs – makes 4-5 sandwiches

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• 4 garlic coves, minced
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce or oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot chili sauce or more if you tolerate spicy
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Line baking sheet with plastic wrap.
2. In large bowl, mix all ingredients.
3. Have bowl of cold water near by, Wet hands and roll about a tablespoonful of meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Rewet hands each time. Arrange on prepared baking sheet. Cover and chill for 1 hour or more.

Sandwiches

• 1 cup coarsely grated or thin matchstick cut carrots
• 1 cup coarsely grated or thin matchstick cut peeled daikon
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar-superfine sugar preferred
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• French-bread baguette- cut 6 to 8 inches long
• fresh cilantro sprigs

1. Toss carrots, daikon, rice vinegar, sugar, salt and sesame oil in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Tossing occasionally.
2. Mean while, preheat oven to 300 F. Heat skillet over medium heat. Add meatballs and brown.
3. Put browned meatballs in cooking sheet lined with foil then finish cooking in the oven - about 5 minutes.

Hot chili Mayonnaise

Mix well 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon of hot chili sauce (more or less to taste)

Assembly

1. Cut each baguette horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each half to make space for meatballs.
2. Spread hot chili mayonnaise inside cavity of each bread
3. Put drained vinegar carrots and daikon then 4-5 meatballs in each bread. Put on some cilantro sprigs.

Cheese Cake with Sour Cream Topping

My husband as a pâtissière

This cheese cake is in one of my top 5 dish list he makes(see clam sauce spaghetti). This recipe was given to us from a friend some 25 years ago. The richness of cream cheese flanked by lightness of sour cream makes this cheese cake a delightful treat. Somewhat old fashioned yet never disappointing and always in style with fresh fruits. A friend also shared that clam sauce spaghetti recipe too but my husband tweaked it enough to make it his own but this cheese cake he carefully follows the original. Having this cake reminds me of that friend who is a psychologist lives with her psychologist husband and two beautiful daughters in Dallas Texas. I miss her very much.

My husband made this not for me but his office’s pot luck lunch. I had to beg him to bring home a sliver slice for me to taste and it was good! If it’s more than that then I may have lost control…

Crust

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter

Mix all with fingers until even consistency (pastry will be crumbly).Press over bottom and sides (1/2 inch up) of a 10 inch spring form pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350F

Cheese cake

• 24 oz cream cheese
• 2 egg yolks plus 4 egg whites
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Beat egg whites until stiff
2. Add sugar and vanilla to egg whites and beat until satiny. Transfer to another bowl.
3. Beat egg yolks into cream cheese
4. Fold the egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture.
5. Pour into the crust
6. Bake 50-60 minutes at 350F until center of pie is firm. Cool at least 15 minutes before adding topping

Topping

• 1 pint sour cream
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix and pour over slightly cooled cheese cake. Refrigerate cheesecake overnight. It is actually better the 2nd and 3rd day.

People in office don’t believe that he made it himself. They all asked him to thank me. Hey, I really don’t mind the mix up.

His favorite pastime - reading.

Pressure Cooker Pork Belly

Buta no kakuni (豚の角煮）

Our newspaper (The Oregonian) issues a section called  FOODDAY every Tuesday. In the January 11th edition I read an interesting article about ‘IN’ and ‘OUT’ of foods for 2011 .  ‘Pork Belly is in the ‘OUT’ list. Ooo Kei, I’m against trend without realizing it. The article said “…think of this as our culinary wish list of things we’d love to see happening in the kitchen in 2011.” I’m curious; who gets decide what’s IN and what’s OUT? Is there a committee for this? If so how many members in it?

Here is Oregonian FOODDAY’s OUT list with my take on them:

• Pork belly-I agree somewhat. The use of bacon went too far. One time experience of eating a bacon donut is enough for me.
• Energy drinks-I don’t drink so I have no comment.
• Smoked paprika-I didn’t know that existed. I am perfectly satisfied with regular paprika.
• Food reality shows on TV- My favorite cooking show is Iron Chef America but the voice over on old Iron Chef is funny too.
• Stunt food-I still have not tried KFC’s Double Down and again I seldom go to fast food places.
• Vague, watered-down labels- I’m sucker for label  like ‘local’ or ‘free range’  I thought I was supporting local farmers.
• Cupcakes- I just started warming up to the cuteness of cupcakes last month and now it’s OUT?  I purchased  lots of cupcake cases and I ‘m not afraid to use them.

Thanks to electric pressure cooker, this meat is incredibly soft, like melt-in-your-mouth kind. I used to have a stove top pressure cooker but I can’t find it. Probably buried deep in the freezer.

My husband bought this Cuisinart electric pressure cooker. Easier to use than stove top one. I recommend this to everyone.

Ingredients serve 2 to 4

• Pork belly 800g- try to cut in big square chunks (kaku means square/rectangle) . Do not separate meat from fat.
• Sake 2 cups
• Ginger 80g skin and slice
• Water 1 cup
• 1 long green onion stalk
• Brown sugar 3-4 tablespoon
• Soy sauce 3-4 tablespoon
• Small green onion thinly slice length wise then put in ice cold water for few minutes

Directions

1. In electric pressure cooker, brown meat using the  ‘Browning‘ mode
   
2. Add sake, water and ginger then cook on high pressure for a few minutes then cook using the low pressure setting for another 45 minutes. Turn off cooker. Let it cool (do not skip this step). This allows the flavor to penetrate the meat.
3. After cool down, add brown sugar and soy sauce and pressure cook on low pressure for about 15 minutes.
4. Put the iced green onion on top of pork and serve

Steamed vegetables and cooked rice complete this meal.

I guess I should list FOODDAY’s ‘IN’ food list here too:

• Meatballs
• Spices, flavor/health connection-Spices don’t just make food taste better. They have powerful healing properties that may help fight illness.
• Korean flavors- Yes to bibmibap and bulgogi!
• Real cooking on TV-They recommending “Avec Eric”
• Unusual grains and seeds-ancient grains farro and spelt. Also sprouted seeds like cashews and chia.
• Homemade pie

In the end I have to say “whatever”. Whether its trendy or not, I just cook what I want to make in the moment (I do try to buy produce in season though) and hopefully I make someone happy along with myself.

Ganache-Filled Chocolate Cups

It was hard to make PRETTY chocolate cups. When the cups were finally hardened, I wanted to cry and throw them away before making ganache filling. They were not up to my standards!  They were embarrassing  to post on my blog!  After I calmed down a bit, I thought I put so much effort already, let’s finish it. I could throw away after that if I hate it.

So this recipe is definitely for people whom have lots of time and patience.

Chocolate cups

Equipment-

• Candy thermometer,
• 10 silver foil mini baking cups-turn baking cups inside out, so that foil-side is on inside, and reshape without straightening pleats.

Ingredient

• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate(62  percent) broken into small pieces

Tempering chocolate

Fill a medium sauce pan with 2 inches water: bring water to simmer. Fill a large metal bowl  with ice and cold water, set aside.

Put 2/3 of the chocolate into metal bowl fitted with a candy thermometer. Set bowl over but not touching the simmering water, and, stirring occasionally, heat until chocolate reaches 115F. Remove bowl from heat, add remaining chocolate and put the bowl in the ice bath, stirring constantly until temperature reduces to 84F. Return bowl over simmering water and heat again until temperature reaches 89F.

Remove bowl from heat and immediately pour 1 generous tablespoon chocolate into 1 prepared baking cup. (My bad. I used regular size baking cups. Should have been mini ones) Quickly turn cup to evenly coat inside then put on prepared baking sheet, chocolate lined side down – repeat with remaining cups (2 cups are extra in case of breakage). Let cups set at very cool room temperature until chocolate is fully hardened, about 6 hours.

For Ganache Filling

• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate (62 percent), chopped into small chunks
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Put chocolate in a large metal bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, combine cream and cinnamon, heat cream just to a boil.
3. Pour heated cream mixture over chocolate.
4. Stir slowly and continuously until chocolate is melted and creamy*.
5. Let cool to room temperature then fill the chocolate cups to just beneath rim. Chill in refrigerator until filling is set.

Dust cups with cocoa powder. Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you like.

* I discovered that this tastes good like CACAO’s cinnamon drinking chocolate. Yum.

This makes more than enough for filling the cups. I was able to find something to do with it…

mark @ no recipe posted a great looking chocolate pudding recipe other day. I will try that next time.

Chicken-Eat in two ways

Whatever I or my husband make, we usually end up with leftovers. Rather than just heat up whatever the next day, I add to or twist the leftovers so that it looks different and also in taste too. The big plus for leftover second act is that I don’t have to labor as much as making the original. Some dishes like curry rice and beef stew in other hand, taste better the next day. You just warm it up and eat as is. It’s a great feeling when you don’t have to play the ‘What’s for dinner’ game. I know a lady who makes everything double and freezes one. I think that is a great idea yet it is not for me. Why crowd up freezer space with forgotten items? I sometimes freeze left over but I usually don’t remember I even put it there unless I find it accidently.

What I like about this chicken recipe is the flavorful crispy skin. Some people don’t like skin but I think it is the best part. I like to eat crispy skin of roasted turkey at Thanksgiving. My four-year old grand daughter likes it too. She’s a great girl!

Crispy Skin Chicken

• 4 chicken thighs on the bone with skin on*
• 1/4 cup sake
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1  teaspoon freshly grated garlic
• pepper

1. De-bone the chicken. Lightly score the chicken skin with knife.
2. Open up a gallon zip lock bag and place it over a bowl. Put the sake, soy sauce, sesame oil. garlic and pepper in the bag. Then put in the prepared chicken to marinate for 20 minutes. Close the bag and lay it flat. Massage the bag once in a while to marinate evenly.
3. Preheat the oven to 425F. Cover a baking tray with foil and place the chicken on, skin side up. Bake for about 20 minutes, take out from the oven and brush with sesame oil. Be careful as there is a lot of hot juices from this dish. Put back in the oven for 15 minutes or until the skin is crispy.

* 2 chicken thighs for each person.

Chicken- donburi style

Tsuyu

• 3/4 cup dashi
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• grated daikon (大根おろし) optional about 1 tablespoon
• Cooked rice

1. heat up dashi in small sauce pan (see New Year's Eve post)
2. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Boil for few minutes and turn off the heat.
3. Add grated daikon and mix.

In a bowl, put hot cooked rice. Top with sliced chicken and pour tsuyu over the rice. Garnish with thinly sliced onion or sliced shiso leaves and red pickled ginger.

Bringing In A New Year With Noodles

年越しそば

This post is back ward on the date. We had this buckwheat noodle before the New Year. Japanese has this tradition to eat buckwheat noodle on New Year’s Eve to wish for long life just like long noodle represent. I don’t know why they eat ‘soba’ instead of udon though. When I was growing up our family always eat soba in chicken broth. It’s very hearty and warm you up on a cold winter night but I made cold soba noodle for this occasion simply because I like zarusoba (ざるそば）better. I made some tempura too. The whole thing has an official name tenzarusoba (天ざるそば）which means tempura and zarusoba. Aha! They are very clever.

First I prepared the ingridients for tempura- you could use most any vegetable  in your fridge.

• Lotus roots(蓮根）* Peel and slice then soak in cold water
• celery-slice in thin strip**
• carrots- peel  and slice in thin strip**
• burdock roots（ゴボウ）-slice in thin strip then soak in cold water for 10 minutes**
• shrimp- shelled  leaving tail on; place cuts in body of shrimp two places to prevent curve
• mushroom- separate in small sections
• Japanese sweet potato（薩摩いも）-peel and slice then soak in cold water for 10 minutes
• shiso leaves

* After soaking in water,dry with paper towel then lightly dust with cornstarch **combine  celery, carrots and burdock roots and dust with corn starch.

Second I prepared tempura batter

1. In a large bowl, beat two egg yolks.
2. Add two cups of cold water, mix well.
3. Add  a teaspoon of salt, mix well
4. Sift flour into the bowl (about 1 cup) gently whisk but do not mix too much. Add more flour if necessary . If you feel batter is too thick add more cold water.

Now we are ready for frying

In heavy skillet, pour about two inches of oil and heat up. Dip ingredients in batter and fry in the oil. For combined celery, carrots and burdock roots, bunch them up in the batter and fry together. Put a couple of paper towels on a plate and use them to soak up the excess oil after frying.

Make tempura dipping sauce-you may prepare night before and refrigerate. You can also use bottled zaru soba tsuyu (dipping sauce)

Put 3 cups of water in a pan. Add konbu (dried kelp) and cook over low heat until the water boils. Remove the kelp.

Raise heat to medium and place 1 handful of bonito flakes into the pan.

When it begins to boil, turn off the heat and let sit until the bonito flakes settle to the bottom. Put a paper towel on top of a strainer and filter the stock.

Take 1 cup of the stock, add 1 tablespoon each of sake, mirin and soy sauce and heat over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Adjust these seasonings to your own taste. Turn heat off and let cool.

Cook noodle according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. We like grated radish (daikon), green onions and wasabi in the dipping sauce.

As Japanese custom, they clean whole house before the New Year. Here, my husband cleaning floor.

Japanese New Year’s Symbol Meals

Osechi ryori (おせち料理）

I never liked to eat osechi ryori. My late mother prepared things a few days before the New Years and forced us to eat it the first three days of the new year. She would say that the use of ‘fire’ for those first three days was bad luck so she would cook absolutely the minimum. My father in other hand, would order my mother to warm up his sake and make some snacks for sake (酒のつまみ）all the time. He really knew how to irritate my mother.  My brothers and I had to eat those osech ryori cold and the only thing warm was mochi soup (雑煮) in the morning. We could hardly wait for those days to be over.

I really don’t know what posessed me to cook osechi ryori but I was intrigued by the process of cooking and the symbolism of each ingredients. The Japanese food market where I purchased the ingredients were full of people and osech ryori items were way over priced. I started questioning my motives; why I’m doing this?, is it worth my time and money? That thinking came at the end of shopping and my cart was full. It seems to me that to put everything back was too much of a hassle. I pushed the cart straight to cashier. I could have abandoned it yet I never had the courage to walk away… I should have.

black beans (kuromame 黒豆) – live healthy

Herring roe (kazunoko 数の子) – great descendants

Sardine (tazukuri 田作り) – good rice harvest

Seaweed (konbu 昆布) – joy

Burdock root (gobo ごぼう) – strong foundation

Taro (sato imo 里いも) – have lots of children 

Pink and red fishcake (kamaboko かまぼこ) – good luck colors. Japanese use these colors in celebrations.

Rolled sweet egg (datemaki 伊達巻き) – gorgeous

Shrimp (ebi 海老) – long life

Lotus root (renkon 蓮根) – bright future

Cooked chestnuts (kurikinton 栗金団) – good fortune

After all this I still don’t like it very much. Probably this is the last time I’ll make it.

And a small pleasure to end the day: marshmallow soba (buckwheat) tea

Hope you had a Happy New Year! And that your joy of cooking will continue.