Missing those Bánh mì? Make your own!

Yes you can, you can make your very own Bánh mì! You'll most likely need to visit an Asian grocery store for the daikon and red pork seasoning and if they happen to have sandwiches already made, then just eat those! I would.

Just FYI, this is a two day process. Day 1 will be make the pickles and marinate the pork. Day 2 you will cook the pork and make the sandwiches. Day 3 you will have leftovers and you will make sandwiches that can be put in the freezer and be pulled out on a later date. What, did I just let you in on a little secret? If you make the sandwich and omit the veggies, you can wrap it securely in parchment or plastic wrap, stick it in a ziplock and freeze that motherfucker! Hold up, you're now wondering "can I do this with the sandwiches from the restaurant or market?" Yes you can! Pull out the veggies from the extra sandwiches (make a noodle bowl or add to a salad) and wrap that sandwich up.

Ready?

I doubled the recipe

Day 1

The pickles traditionally uses daikon and carrots in a vinegar base. Visit your Asian market on your next grocery run for daikon and the pork seasoning and you'll also be able to grab a lot of tasty foods to shake up your days. If you can't find daikon, that's ok, use 2 lbs of carrots. It'll still be tasty. These pickles are tasty with many, many dishes.

Đồ Chua (Daikon and Carrot pickles)

• 1 lb daikon (washed, peeled, and cut in bite size pieces) 
• 1 lb carrots (washed, peeled, and cut in bite size pieces) 
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Toss all of this in a large bowl, stick your hands in and churn it about until the daikon (or carrots) become flexible enough to bend and not break. This will take about 5 mins or so. Once you get a bendy veggie rinse the sugar/salt mixture off and place back in another large bowl.

Next in a separate bowl, mix

• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 1/4 c vinegar
• 1 c warm water

Mix until dissolved.

Grab a few glass jars with lids or anything with a lid that can be stored in the fridge. Pack that container(s) with the daikon/carrot mixture. Next ladle the liquid over the veggies until they are just covered. You'll probably have some liquid left over, it's ok to discard.

Place these in the fridge, they'll be ready for eating the next day. I feel comfortable eating on these for about a couple months or so.

BBQ Red Pork

I'm using a simplified version of the recipe, just like any bbq you can get really elaborate and go many routes with this. My version uses a packet mix and pork tenderloin. If you don't want to make the pork or have chicken, use it. You can also just use deli ham in this sandwich, it's still tasty.

• 1 packet of Char Siu or Roast Red Pork seasoning mix
• 2 lbs of pork tenderloin (you can use the skinnier, prepackaged pork tenderloins that are unseasoned and it only has to be close to 2 lbs)

Grab a large flat bottomed dish that can hold the pork overnight and go into the oven or transferred to an oven safe dish. Rinse your pork off and if it's a large tenderloin then cut in half lengthwise (you want more surface for the marinade).

I also doubled this recipe

Now rub the marinade all over that pig! Your hands will get red from the seasoning and it'll wash off after awhile, but wear gloves if possible. I ignored the directions on the back of the package for adding water to the marinade and it worked out fine.

Cover the dish with plastic wrap and leave overnight in the fridge.



Day 2

Time to bake the pork! Preheat oven to 400 degrees, pop pork in for about 20 - 30 mins. Bake the pork until the top looks slightly charred. The goal is to get your pork to sorta look like the pork on the picture of the package.

Sorta looks like the package

Once it's done, pull out of the oven and transfer the pork to a cutting board and let it rest. Always let your meat rest, always. If you cut in to it too quickly, juices will flow out and the meat becomes dry. (Insert joke about dry nether regions.)

While the pork is resting, gather your toppings:

• French bread or ciabatta
• butter or mayonnaise
• lettuce
• cucumbers (sliced thin)
• daikon/carrot pickles
• jalapenos (sliced thin)
• cilantro
• soy sauce
• siracha

I had some little red peppers
that wanted to participate

Toast the bread in the oven or toaster. Slice the pork into thin slices. Generously spread the butter or mayonnaise on the inside of your toasted bread, add the sliced pork, your veggies, and that's it. (I really like a little sprinkle of soy sauce and siracha too.)


Day 3

Make more sandwiches and if you can, maybe send some $ to a local restaurant that's closed. 

Wonton soup and a hug

Comfort food take center stage. Please and thank you for your ability to make just a moment seem ok and feeding our feelings with something a bit tastier.

Here's another food memory, wonton soup, partially from my mom but more so from my sister. (Sis is still alive and it seems dire to even have to clarify but it's the reality these days.)

I've never made this or many of the other recipes I've been trying these last few weeks, but I need to be comforted and so does my House. My mom cooked to comfort, my sister cooks to comfort, and I cook to comfort. Now is the time to embrace these meals and gain a few pounds. It's ok.

When I chatted with my sister about this recipe, she, just like my mom does not write down her recipes. No actual measurements for anything, but I've got the gist and I remember the way it's suppose to taste. So I took what I remember from my mom, what my sister told me, and a little internet research and came up with this recipe.

It took a couple of hours to prepare but it was comforting, much like a hug from my mom and sis.

Pork Wonton Soup

Makes roughly 60 wontons and soup for 8 - 10 people

Pork Wontons

1 lb ground pork
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely diced
1/2 inch of ginger, finely diced
1 TBL fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of white pepper
2 tsp sugar
Wonton wrappers (sometimes called eggroll wrapper, needs to be about 4" x 4")

Mix all ingredients above (except wrappers) together in large bowl. Lay out a sheet pan and large plate to assemble wontons. Pre-separate about 10 wrappers and lay out individually. They are hard to separate on the fly while rolling.

Place a single wrapper on the plate, wet down the top half with a water dipped finger. Place about a rounded teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper, fold the bottom half over the top and seal. Press air out from the center around the filling to the edges. Leave like this or get fancy with your wonton folds.

Place on sheet pan, repeat until all wrappers or filling has been used.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Place 10 - 12 wontons gently into water and stir after 2 mins. Wontons will rise to the surface, gently simmer wontons for 4-5 mins (or until filling is cooked). With a slotted spoon, remove wontons to a covered dish to keep warm.



Wonton Soup Base

2 boxes chicken broth (32 oz each)
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced

In a large pot, bring to a boil all soup base ingredients except green onions. Turn down and simmer for 15 minutes, add green onions and cook for another 10 mins.

Serve warm wontons in a bowl with a nice ladle of soup. If you've got fresh cucumbers or radishes, slice those up and serve on the side. Creates a nice fresh contrast.

Go make some soup! Or something comforting that gives you a nice warm hug.

Let's dust off this thing....and make some salted lemons (Chanh Muối)

Well now, aren't these some strange-ass times. I mean, seriously, strange-ass times!

Skip the rant and go straight to the recipe provided by Garden Betty!

So I find myself twirling around, lost in thought, lost in grief, lost in confusion because I just simple don't know how to exist in this reality. I know I need to get up, shower, make breakfast and convince myself that everything will be ok. And will it? I really hope so. I truly, deeply hope that we come out of this with most of our lives, a better healthcare system, and some compassion (we've been missing some of that as of late).

This blog might be a little heavy, you can power through or skip to the recipe. Although, I hope you read the next bit because it involves my mom.

My mom passed away last October, approximately a year and a week after my brother had passed away (and my brother's passing was a week before my separation from my husband of 15 years). Just want to provide a little overview of this last year's shitshow. (Now queue pandemic!)

I've been feeling my mom's loss in many ways, but specifically her food. She was an amazing cook and loved providing food for anyone. And she provided food that was non-traditional to the rural area where she had landed in after moving to the US from Vietnam. They loved it and they loved her.

I remember her talking about the first time she walked into an American grocery store. She was mesmerized by how vast and strange it seemed to be so well stocked with so many non-fresh items. She was also accustomed to shopping everyday in Vietnam and picking up ingredients for the next meal; not meal planning, stocking, and freezing meals that American households had been sold was the new norm.

My mom adapted, she adapted to life in the US but she also adapted her recipes to use ingredients that the local grocery would not have for many years or just never have. One example is a lemongrass beef stew (Bún bò Huế) which requires rice noodles. My mom used spaghetti noodles and holy moly that is tasty and, I think, better.

So during this unbelievable time in our lives, I'm glad my mom has passed. She died happy - not worrying about what will happen to her, not worrying about her children, not worrying where everyone was going to get their next meal. It's now my turn to worry, she did enough in Vietnam. I'll take over for now, I'll cook my mom's meals and I'll do my best to think everything will be ok.

Now let's make salted lemons, cause you know we've been handed a big, cosmic bucket of lemons and need to do something with it.

Vietnamese Preserved Lemons (Chanh Muối)

Great for making lemonade, eat as an accompaniment to spicy foods, or just cook and bake with them!

Recipe provided by Garden Betty
https://www.gardenbetty.com/vietnamese-preserved-lemons-chanh-muoi-and-salty-lemonade/

Ingredients

1/4 cup kosher salt, plus more to sprinkle*
1 1/2 cups water
3 to 5 lemons (more or less, depending on how many will fit in your jar)

Instructions

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, dissolve the salt in water and then remove the brine from heat.

Wash and scrub your lemons thoroughly to remove any wax from store-bought lemons, or any dirt from homegrown lemons.

Slice off the top and bottom of the lemon so that a little flesh is showing.  Slice the lemon lengthwise into quarters, but do not slice all the way through.

Liberally salt the inside of your almost-quartered wedges and set aside while you slice and salt the other lemons.

Pack the lemons into your jar and cover them completely with brine.

If you’re using a widemouth jar, or if your lemons won’t stay submerged, you can wedge a couple of 3-inch toothpicks (the “party toothpicks” used to skewer burgers and such) inside the jar to form a single or crisscrossed grill.

Wipe any salt residue off the rim and seal the jar loosely with a lid, as you want to let the gases escape as your lemons ferment.

Leave the jar out at room temperature (in the sun, if you wish, though I’ve found no difference in quality) for at least three weeks. The lemons may turn darker and the brine may become cloudier during this time — that’s when you know they’re good and ready!

Always use a clean utensil to scoop the lemons out; other than that, the jar will keep at room temperature indefinitely and does not need to be refrigerated.



*I didn't use kosher salt, but I did use a kosher pickle jar. Does that still count? No, technically it doesn't, but I think it'll be ok. I'll let you know if it doesn't go well!