Vietnamese-style Meatball Spring Rolls

For my meatball recipe this week, I was inspired by these Vietnamese-style lettuce cups (click here) that are in the most recent issue of Bon Appetit. I decided to use meatballs, instead of the shrimp that I usually use to make fresh spring rolls. I couldn't decide between pork or shrimp meatballs, so I mixed them together and used both meats, which made the most amazingly delicious meatballs ever!



Mix together:
1 1/2 lbs. each ground pork and minced shrimp meat
1 finely minced lemongrass stalk
3 T. minced cilantro
4 garlic cloves, pressed
3-4 T. fish sauce
3/4 c. finely crushed saltine crackers
Mix well and form into 1 inch sized meatballs. Chill at least one hour before cooking, or freeze for later. I used about 2/3 of these meatballs to make the spring rolls here, and I froze the rest. While the meatballs chill, make the dipping sauce and prepare all the components for making the rolls.



Spicy Dipping Sauce
Mix in a wide mouth pint jar with a tight fitting lid:
1 c. water
juice of 2 limes
1/2 c. fish sauce
1 T. sugar
3 pressed garlic cloves
1/2 T. crushed red peppers
Shake to dissolve sugar and mix. Store refrigerated.

I cooked the meatballs in two batches in a large caste iron skillet then transferred them to a bowl. Lay out all the components for making the rolls: meatballs, fresh red leaf lettuce, fresh cilantro, cooked fine rice vermicelli (cook in boiling water 5 minutes or so, drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again), pie dish of warm water for softening rice sheet wrappers, rice sheets, and a platter for the finished rolls.



Making attractive spring rolls takes a bit of practice. Even if the first few attempts look rather sad, they can be either wadded together, or completely deconstructed, and they will taste just as delicious as a more artistic roll. These are rather fun to make and are really not that difficult to get the hang of making. This is how I do it: Soak a rice sheet for a few minutes in warm (not hot) water until pliable. Place on a flat surface. On it, place a torn bit of lettuce leaf (remove and discard the ribs) in the center or slightly off to one side, top it with two meatballs, a tiny mound of vermicelli (1-2 T.), and several cilantro leaves. Fold the shortest end over to cover fillings, then fold first one side and then the other over that, and finally roll the package towards the far end, securely but not too overly tight. I soaked one sheet while I was constructing and rolling another, which seemed about the right amount of time to soften it without it disintegrating.

I thought a platter of these would be enough to eat for dinner while watching the Academy Awards last night, but there was some quiet grumblings of discontent among the ranks, so we made a pot of rice and some stir-fried cabbage with a bit of sesame oil to go with. I'm glad we did, the rolls all quickly disappeared, and the simple cabbage and rice was perfect alongside. Even if not very photogenic, it was really delicious.

Meatball Beef Pho

Happy Valentine's Day, or rather, Happy Chocolate Day! I prefer to celebrate this Hallmark holiday without the Hallmarkness, and I see this calendar holiday mostly as a good excuse to bake a decadent homemade chocolate dessert. Tonight, I'm making individual chocolate souffles (cooked exactly 14 minutes) using Julia Child's recipe. With the typical February weather we are having today -wet, cold and nasty- they will be perfect.

"We got up in the morning to the persistent steady thumping of rain on the roof and we lay in bed at night and listened to the persistent steady thumping of rain on the roof." "It rained and rained and rained and rained. It drizzled -misted -drooled -spat -poured -and just plain rained." -Betty MacDoanld, The Egg and I



When the weather is wet and cold, a beef soup is the perfect food to have. Beef Pho, a Vietnamese beef broth and rice noodle soup, is always a popular choice for a quick and filling lunch or dinner. It is especially comforting to have when it's rather cold outside and the skies have been pouring down rain for days on end, as is generally the case here in the Puget Sound area, off and on from the first of November to the end of May. With a decent bowl of Pho available on practically every block in the city, it may not seem worth it to bother to make your own, but we live thirty some miles north, and when I have a craving for a bowl of Pho, I find it much preferable to spend my Sunday afternoon puttering in the kitchen making beef broth, than to drive through traffic in search of good Pho -and there's the added bonus of having leftovers the next day (or freeze half for a second meal later). This is not at all difficult to make, and the time required is mostly hands off cooking, so you can make Pho while you're watching a movie, knitting (or both), or whatever.



The key to really good Pho is a genuine broth. Beef is classic, though I often make a Duck Pho that's really pretty amazing. Canned beef broth can be used (and I have) but it is just not quite the same thing. Beef shanks, or some other bone-in soup-bone-type cut, are what you need for this. I made this in the pressure cooker Sunday afternoon, and our kitchen smelled absolutely heavenly with the fragrance of the beefy cinnamon, star anise, ginger and lemongrass broth.

Pho Beef Broth
Place in pressure cooker:
2 # beef shank meat (best if browned first, but I forgot to)
5-6 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole garlic cloves
1 large shallot
5 black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
2 inch ginger root, sliced
1 t. vegetable oil
1-2 carrots, whole or broken
1 stalk lemongrass
1 stalk celery
Fill cooker to 3/4 mark (about 3 quarts). Bring to high pressure, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for one hour. Shut off heat, allow pressure to drop, and broth to cool a bit.



Remove shank bones and meat, shred, and set aside. The pressure cooked shank bones made a tasty treat for our old dog, Jane.



Strain the broth, and discard the STUFF. To strained broth, add:
2-4 T. fish sauce
1-2 t. sugar
salt and ground pepper to taste

meatballs -I used these frozen meatballs (click here), but pork meatballs would also be great. Simmer 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are done.

Meanwhile, cook 12-16 oz. rice sticks in boiling water for 8-10 minutes or until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, drain and set aside.



Place a serving of noodles in a large bowl, add meatballs, shredded beef, and broth. Top individual bowls with:
fresh bean sprouts
fresh whole or shredded cilantro, basil and/or mint leaves
finely sliced Thai chilies
sliced green onions (or diced yellow onions)
squeezes of lime juice
soy sauce and/or hot chili sauce, as desired

What's for Dinner Tonight?

NOT Smart Duck for the coyote's (or racoon's) dinner, at least! I know this is a terrible photo -it's painfully obvious by now that I'm not much of a photographer- but it shows her roosting for the night, safe on top of the shop roof when I was locking up the chickens last night. Daily answering the question, 'What's for dinner?' is what all home cooks (and coyotes and racoons) do, day after day. I personally almost always enjoy the challenge, and pondering the myriad of possibilities. What's everyone feeling like? What's in the freezer and cupboard? What haven't we had for awhile? What about this new recipe?



I've been on a bit of a Vietnamese food streak, started Friday night, when we went out to eat at the Vietnamese restaurant, Green Leaf (very good, I highly recommend it). Saturday, we made a Lobster Bisque and Crab Cakes (the seafood was a very much appreciated gift, and yes, the bisque was heavenly). Sunday we had the Vietnamese Chicken Curry and Rice that I posted, and Monday I made Venison with Peanuts, adapted from the Vietnamese cookbook, KOTO (I checked this out from the library and totally fell in love with it), with sticky rice and a simple salad. Thanks go to my youngest brother, Wayne for his expert hunting skills and sharing his venison with us.



Last night, I had planned to make an Asian-style Duck and Rice Soup, but decided to veer away from Vietnamese foods, and instead made duck cooked in red wine in the crock-pot, Coq au vin style. I put dried shiitake mushrooms, chopped carrots, sliced garlic, shallots, seasonings and the duck in the crock-pot and then poured over several odds and ends of red wine -a homemade grape-blueberry I'd just bottled but wasn't very impressed with, the last bit from a bottle we drank the night before (I was impressed with it), and several frozen portions I had saved in the freezer. I often pour that last half cup of wine left in the bottle into a container and freeze it. I stock several of these to pull out when I want just a bit of wine for cooking and don't want to buy a bottle. And a bit of wine is often just what I want to add to something.



I cooked the duck on high all day in the crock-pot, turning it several times, since I hadn't marinated it in the wine overnight, as I really should have done for this, until it was falling off the bone. I removed the duck to a plate, removed all the bones and shredded the meat. Meanwhile, I made a roux, added the wine broth to thicken it all, and returned the sauce and the meat to the crock-pot and turned the heat to low until dinner and served it over pasta. Tonight? I can't decide. Caesar Salad and duck cooked in red wine in a sandwich roll comes to mind. Or maybe Vietnamese-style fried rice.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Vietnamese Chicken Curry is one of my absolute favorite things to eat. Why? Well, it's VIETNAMESE. It's CHICKEN THIGHS, with ginger, garlic, lemongrass and coconut milk, melded into a STEW -three of my absolute favorite things in the world of food. This is one of those things that is a bit exotic (unless you are Vietnamese and/or, like my kids, who are not the teeniest bit Vietnamese, have been eating it most of your life), yet the main ingredients are the familiarly comforting stew trinity of chicken, carrots and potatoes. It's a snap to put together, once you have the basic Vietnamese ingredients in your kitchen. Fish sauce and the canned coconut milk will store almost indefinitely, and lemongrass can be frozen, either whole or sliced, making it relatively easy to have the ingredients stored away for this.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

In large Ziploc bag, place 6 chicken thighs (or a whole pieced chicken, or use rabbit or duck instead, if that's what you have, or prefer)

Add to bag and smoosh around a bit:

1-2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped small

2 stalks lemongrass, white part only sliced thin

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 t. curry powder

1/2 t. each salt, black pepper and dried chili flakes

Leave to marinade 1 hour.

Fry in 1/4-1/2 inch hot oil, 2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks, until browned a bit. Remove potatoes. Drain all but 1-2 T. oil and add chicken (or what you are using) along with spices from the bag. Fry till browned on all sides.

Add:

3-5 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

fried potato chunks

14 oz. can lite coconut milk

14 oz. can chicken broth (or water plus 1 t. salt)

2-3 bay leaves

2 T. fish sauce

1 t. sugar

1/2 t. dried mint

Simmer 30-60 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook a pot of rice.

To serve, add 1/2-1 c. minced cilantro leaves (I didn't have any, and didn't want to make a special trip to the store to buy some, so I left them out this time, and it was just fine) and juice of 1 lime (or lemon). Serve stew in bowls over rice, adding more crushed chili flakes, cilantro, or lime wedges, if desired. And this reheats beautifully, which is just one more thing to love about it.

Banh Mi Pork Burgers

Back in January, Bon Apetit had a pork meatball sandwich recipe made with the Vietnamese ingredients and flavors found in the Vietnamese Sandwich, Banh Mi -one of my absolutely favorite foods. They substituted ground pork meatballs for the usual pate and/or grilled pork found in Banh Mi Sandwiches. I thought, "How can this not be a good thing?" but for one reason or the other, I never got around to making them. Months later, I saw Bahn Mi Burgers (a burger is just a huge flattened meatball, right?) on the food porn site, Tastespotting and after that it snowballed. It seemed I was seeing recipes for Banh Mi Burgers everywhere: Serious Eats, Saveur, All recipes.com and others. EVERYBODY it seems was onto the Banh Mi Burger idea.



This was a few months ago, but we had to wait until our ground pork was in packages in the freezer, and not nosing around in the mud in her pen, to make these burgers. That's part of the deal with raising your own foods: you eat what you raise, and you try and raise what you want to eat; you sometimes have to wait months for that food's season to come around -and you see its face. Chaos in the Kitchen's recipe for Banh Mi Burgers is adapted from Bon Apetit's meatball sandwich recipe, and the recipe I adapted last night. These burgers taste more like the filling for Vietnamese Spring Rolls tucked into a burger bun than a Vietnamese sandwich -which is every bit as good, or even better, than I thought they would be.



Banh Mi Pork Burgers

Mix salad and set aside for 1 hour or so.
2 c. shredded cabbage
2 c. grated daikon radish
2 c. grated carrots
1 jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 c. cilantro leaves
1/4 c. rice vinegar
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
Use on burgers and also serve on the side with the seasoned mayo dressing.

Mix seasoned mayo dressing.
1 c. mayo
1 T. Maggi Seasoning
2 T. rice vinegar
2 T. sugar
1 t. hot chili-garlic sauce (sriracha)

Mix for burgers:
1 lb. ground pork
1/4 c. basil, minced
2 T. cilantro, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 small leeks, finely shredded
1 T. fish sauce
1 T. Maggi Seasoning
1 t. hot chili garlic sauce (sriracha)
1 t. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sesame oil
Form four patties and fry in a caste iron skillet with a bit of sesame oil (or cook on a grill) until done. Lightly coat burger buns with sauce, add a dollop of salad, tomato slices and pork burgers. Serve with French fries, seasoned mayo dressing for dipping sauce, and more salad on the side.