Tag parties that cook

Go Banh Mi Crazy with this Parties That Cook Vietnamese Sandwich Recipe

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General, Menus & Recipes Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , March 31st, 2011 @ 2:05 pm

Lucky you! April Fool’s Day isn’t until tomorrow, so we will not prank you. After all, we wouldn’t want to be one of those awkwardly early pranksters… Yeah.

This completely serious blog post was inspired by MEE. Bun Mee, that is. Opening Friday in San Francisco, this Vietnamese street food restaurant is stirring up a lot of buzz from popular sources like Thrillist and Daily Candy. With nine banh mi variations in the works, what’s not to be excited about? In case you want to try making your own, Parties That Cook has your recipe for delicious Banh Mi Sandwiches, complete with tangy Pickled Vegetables and the spicy kick of Hot Chili Mayo!

Vietnamese Pork Meatball Banh Mi Sandwiches with Cilantro and Mint
This recipe can also be found in our Appetizer Recipe Library.

Ingredients
Pickled Vegetables:
2 cups Carrots (about 1 ½ large carrots), peeled and coarsely grated
2 cups Daikon (Japanese white radish – about half a large radish), peeled and coarsely grated
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Hot Chili Mayo:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 whole green onions, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 pounds ground pork
½ cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 green onions, finely chopped
2 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 Tablespoon Sriracha
2 Tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon canola oil

Sandwich Assembly:
2 baguettes
Red jalapeño slices for garnish
1 bunch fresh cilantro sprigs
1 bunch mint
Toothpicks

Methods/Steps
Prepare Vegetables: Place the carrots, daikon, rice vinegar, sugar and salt into a small bowl and let sit for ½ hour up to 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

Make Mayo: Stir mayo, green onions, Sriracha and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Make Meatballs: Preheat oven to 300°F. In a large bowl, gently mix pork, basil, garlic, green onions, fish sauce, Sriracha, sugar, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Using moistened hands or a small scoop, roll meat mixture into 1 ½-inch meatballs.  Arrange on baking sheet.

Cook Meatballs: Heat sesame oil and canola oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs. Sear meatballs until brown all over. Lower the heat if browning too quickly, about 5 minutes. Transfer meatballs to another sheet pan. Repeat with remaining meatballs. Then place into oven to finish cooking for 7-8 minutes, until cooked through.

Assemble Sandwiches: Cut each baguette into 8 mini baguettes. Then cut each mini baguette 2/3rd the way through (leaving one side attached). Pull out enough bread from each mini baguette to leave 1/4-inch-thick shell. Spread hot chili mayo over each bread shell. Cut a meatball in half and place in a mini baguette.  In the middle of the meatball, place cilantro and mint, pickled carrot and Daikon, and finish with a sprig of cilantro. Arrange red jalapeños on top. Secure with a toothpick.

Serve: Garnish tray by making sure the cilantro and vegetables are poking out showing off all of the beautiful colors.

Serves/Makes
Makes 24 Mini Sandwiches

Recipe adapted by Parties That Cook®

For other Vietnamese food options, Thrillist has rolled out a Bay Area Banh Mi Map.  You should also check out Kitchen Side Car and Little Knock – the forces behind tonight’s Rice Paper Scissors, a Saigon-style pop-up open from 6pm until they’re sold out! Follow @kitchensidecar and @littleknock for the exact location.

Parties That Cook’s Chicago Team Cookbook Club: Chicago Cooks: 25 Years of Chicago Culinary History

1 comment By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Entertaining, General, Menus & Recipes, News & Events Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , March 29th, 2011 @ 12:09 pm

The Parties That Cook Blog has seen some wonderful guest posts in the past. We’re going to keep the tradition going with a recap of the most recent cookbook club meeting from our Chicago office! This installment of our Chicago Team’s Cookbook Club is brought to you by Chefs Heidi, Brandy, Liz and Molly. Thanks ladies!

After having to reschedule our book club due to the great snow storm of 2011 that hit Chicago a few weeks back, the PTC girls gathered at Brandy’s house. We were all very excited to review the book, Chicago Cooks: 25 Years of Chicago Culinary History and Great Recipes from Les Dames d’Escoffier. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm was quickly deflated.

We started with Heidi’s choice for the first course: Spicy Crab and Shrimp Rolls with Salsa. This was probably the best recipe that we reviewed because it was fairly easy and the flavors were quite good (paprika, saffron, cayenne and cumin). We often wondered if the recipes had been tested because the cooking times were incorrect on several recipes.  It took longer to cook these than the recipe indicated. Heidi also suggested doubling the cooking liquid and reserving it for dipping the rolls which would have been much better than a jarred salsa.

For our entrée, Brandy made Hickory Smoked Bacon Wrapped Rainbow Trout. This was a very simple recipe. The whole fish was stuffed with rosemary and wrapped in bacon. It was difficult to serve, but thanks to Molly and Brandy’s fabulous filleting abilities, we managed to plate it up. This is definitely not the recipe to serve when you want a beautiful presentation. We all agreed that it may have been easier to fillet the fish before cooking and wrapping each individual piece with bacon.

Alongside the fish, we served Liz’s Onion Flan. This recipe was completely off on yields and cooking times. Aside from that, it was your basic egg custard dish – similar to a quiche.


For dessert, Molly, our resident pastry Chef, made a decadent Chocolate Hazelnut Cake. We were all very impressed when Molly unveiled her cakes. They were worthy of sitting on the shelves of the finest bakeries in town. Molly later confessed that she dolled up the cakes that otherwise would have looked like hockey pucks (literally). She added a lovely Raspberry Buttercream, Raspberry Sauce, fresh Raspberries and a chocolate disc that she brought back from her recent trip to Switzerland. The cake recipe from the book was good, but Molly’s additions elevated it to 5 star restaurant quality! It was a decadent but surprisingly light dessert. To quote some of the girls, “It didn’t feel like a gut bomb”.

I think we all agreed that this Chicago Cooks book didn’t “cook” up enough interest to merit a purchase. Though not every cookbook reviewed is a success, this doesn’t stop us from wanting to try more in the future! Look out for the next guest post of Parties That Cook’s Chicago Cookbook Club! For more ideas on cooking parties in Chicago, or for hands-on cooking classes in Chicago, you know Parties That Cook is your go-to company!

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