Pork Meatball Banh Mi

After knocking out a bunch of (Belated) Chinese New Year meals two weeks ago, we seem to have detoured into meals that come from or are inspired by Southeast Asia.  Part of that is totally random but a lot of the ingredients that work for Chinese food work just as well for Southeast Asian.  And since I don't make it to Chinatown that often, every time I go down there I tend to buy a ton of Asian ingredients that I can't find anywhere on the UWS.  Then I have to figure out a use for all of the random ingredients, like the Thai basil that we used in these pork meatballs.  But don't worry, this weekend we went back to our (Belated) Chinese New Year meals for some homemade dumplings that require a bunch of time and effort to put together (hence my need to make them over the weekend).  I'll try to post about the dumplings tomorrow.


I have been thinking about making these banh mis for some time.  I love banh mi and I am a big fan of meatballs so this recipe represents a very a natural pairing for me.  But the recipe ended up at the bottom of my list of bookmarked recipes so I sat on it for a long time.  But I was trying to come up with a recipe to use some ground pork so here I am.  When I tried just a bite of the pork meatballs I wasn't blown away.  They were flavorful, but they felt a little heavy and dense.  But when I took a bite of the sandwich with the hot chili mayo, pickled carrots and daikon, cilantro and jalapenos it all came together.  You got heat from the hot chili mayo (which I loved and I never ever love mayo) and jalapenos, bright acidity and snappy texture from from the carrots and daikon and bright herbaceous-ness from the cilantro.  All of the components just worked beautifully together.  The only component that didn't work was the bread and that was our fault.  By the time I made it to Fairway on Wednesday night the only baguettes left were slightly doughy whole wheat baguettes.  I did my best, but they were kind of leaden and spongy (and tasted really blah).  If the baguette had been nice and fresh, with a crackly exterior and a really tender crumb I think the banh mi would have been really tasty.  Because it really was the bread here that killed it for me.  So if you want to make this recipe (and you should because the sandwich has serious potential), do yourself a favor and either get proper crusty banh mi bread, or pick up a nice baguette and go to town.

Recipe after the jump!

Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon

I know it's a little déclassé, but I have a real soft spot for egg salad.  I picked up my love of egg salad at sleep away camp in elementary school and it has been one of my guilty pleasures ever since then.  My only problem is that I am a little picky when it comes to egg salad due to my pesky aversion to mayonnaise.  I take one look at most egg salads and run for the hills.  I think I can count on one hand the number of places whose egg salad I have been brave enough to taste.  First there was a bagel place near my first apartment in NYC whose egg salad I cautiously ordered after my first 6 months of staring at it skeptically - it was pretty good, but not amazing.  And then there was the egg salad sandwich I ordered at an airport in Canada on my way to Whistler (I can't remember if it was Montreal or Toronto, but I think it was Montreal) that was full of herbs (I remember tarragon, chives and chervil) and absolutely delicious.  I have tried to recreate it at home but my version has never lived up to the original (partially because I have a really tough time finding chervil at the grocery store).  Last week I was really close to ordering a simit (a Turkish bagel) with sumac egg salad from Simit and Smith, but I chickened out and ordered the simit with salmon, red onion and cream cheese instead.  The funny thing is that I haven't been able to get that sumac egg salad out of my mind ever since.  And then I was poking around the various food blogs I like yesterday and stumbled across a recipe for Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon on Smitten Kitchen and I decided that it was fate - I had to make egg salad.  I briefly considered adding some sumac to the Smitten Kitchen Recipe and then decided to save the sumac for another day.  I always add coarse dijon mustard and minced shallot to my egg salad (and often to tuna salad as well) because I love the flavor and texture of both, but the addition of pickled celery really intrigued me.  I often use finely chopped celery in tuna salad, but pickling it first had never occurred to me. 

So there I was, in the midst of cooking Tuesday night's dinner, while hard-boiling eggs and also assembling ingredients for the marinade for last night's dinner.  The kitchen was a disaster area.  Alex took one look and told me I was getting a little elaborate and/or crazy.  But thus far, everything has turned out wonderfully and I'm hopeful that tonight's dinner will be equally wonderful.  I ate a couple spoonfuls of the egg salad last night because I couldn't resist (both before and after the addition of the pickled celery and I thought the pickled celery really made a difference), and served the rest of it today over a bed of mixed greens with some whole wheat sourdough that I toasted until warm and crunchy.  It was absolutely lovely - the perfect light meal that was both nostalgic and delicious.  The pickled celery added a nice crunch and some brightness and acidity, while the minced shallots added a little sweetness and more crunch.  It was reminiscent of my own egg salad, but better.  And I am not too proud to admit it.  I think I am in love.

Recipe after the jump!

Thai-Style Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I will be the first to admit that chicken salad sandwiches aren't really my speed.  I mean honestly, I almost never propose making something with mayonnaise (except for devilled eggs because I have an unnatural thing for them).  I really dislike most deli "salads" (chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad) because there is way too much mayonnaise.  But I really do like to make tuna salad at home with just a touch of mayo, so I guess it's not altogether that surprising that I might like an Asian-inspired chicken salad with a little mayo...  Alex gets the credit for coming up with the majority of this recipe (although I was the one who proposed an Asian-ish chicken salad).  I was originally planning on poaching the chicken, but he wanted to marinate it in a mix of coconut milk, Thai green curry paste, ginger, lime juice, herbs and chilis.  And then he roasted it in the oven.  After he roasted the chicken, he shredded it and tossed with more herbs, shallots, scallions, lime juice, fish sauce, chilis and mayo.  He wanted to use a lot more mayo than I was comfortable with, but what else is new?  Alex likes mayo.  I do not.  I briefly considered topping the chicken salad with some fried shallots for crunch, but I didn't really want to add anymore salt.  I kind of wonder how it would have tasted if I had added a few.  I also proposed adding the romaine because I think that some salad greens in a sandwich are always welcome.  Plus, I had this whacky idea that lettuce is a traditional thing to include in a chicken salad sandwich.  I don't know for sure because I have never ordered one (or to my knowledge, eaten one), but it made sense in my head because it would keep the bread from getting soggy.  Plus a little lettuce never hurt anyone!

As far as chicken salad sandwiches go, I thought this one was pretty tasty.  The chicken salad was nice and fresh and clean.  Alex and I were both pretty happy with it (although we had to agree to disagree regarding the amount of mayo).  I know that for most people chicken salad is a totally standard thing, but for me it was a little outside of my comfort zone.  So I am pretty impressed with myself for both suggesting it and enjoying it.  Go me.  And go Alex for actually making the chicken salad (although I like to think that my original proposal and my trip to the grocery to store to pick up a baguette and mint were just as important as actually cooking).

Recipe after the jump!

Merquez Sausage Sandwich

A few years ago I discovered D'Artagnan's sausages.  I have tried several of the different varieties, including the wild boar sausage, the Andouille sausage, and the lamb merguez sausage.  Thus far, the merguez has been my favorite.  It's nicely spicy and incredibly flavorful.  Generally I cook the sausages in skillet and then serve them with a couscous I like to make with a combination of sauteed yellow onions, currants, toasted pine nuts, and flat-leaf parsley.  The sweetness of the currants pairs with the spicy sausages, and the couscous soaks up all of the wonderful sausage juices.  But last night I wasn't feeling the couscous (which is good because when I looked in the cabinet I discovered we were out of currants).  Instead I took some inspiration from B.Cafe and whipped up a mergeuz sausage sandwich on nice crusty bread, which we topped with sauteed red onions and garlic scapes, plus a nice fried egg (I love fresh organic eggs - they have such wonderfully rich, orange yolks).  I served my sandwich open-faced because for once I didn't want all of the bread, but Alex wanted an actual sandwich so that's what he got.  

This sausage sandwich is seriously yummy.  The egg yolk give the whole dish some extra richness, and provides it with something of a sauce.  The sauteed onions and garlic scapes provide a bit of freshness and another layer of flavor.   Then there's that delicious sausage.  But this certainly isn't a light meal - you need to serve it with a nice arugula salad to cut the heavy, rich flavors.  We were out of arugula so I served it with a big bowl of nice cherries from our CSA, and that also helped to balance out the richness of it all.

Recipe after the jump!