Vietnamese Bahn Mi Sandwich

There is a wonderful authentic Vietnamese joint here in town that sells the most delightful bahn mi sandwiches. My husband has been wanting me to recreate these at home for some time but  I'll admit, I was intimidated. Today I finally decided to make his wish come true and wow, are these sandwiches good! I'm kicking myself for not trying to make them sooner! 

6-8 hoagie type buns

1 carrot, julienned 

1 diaikon (carrot sized), julienned 

1 cup vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons salt

1 pound lean ground pork

1 pound lean ground beef 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small onion, diced 

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 large tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

2/3 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup hoisin sauce 

1 cup oyster sauce 

Black pepper

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Chopped cilantro as garnish 

Simmer your vinegar, salt, and sugar together in a sauce pan until sugar is dissolved. Combine your carrots and diaikon in a bowl and cover them with the vinegar mixture. Allow the mixture to marinate for at least one hour. 

Add your oil to a large deep skillet and soften onion. Add your garlic and ginger and cook for an additional minute. Add 1/2 a cup of the vinegar your veggies are sitting in and simmer for an additional minute or two. Add your stock, hoisin, oyster sauce, and pepper. Allow sauce to reduce for 10 minutes. Add your beef and pork and break it up into peices and cook it through (about 7-8 minutes). 

While your meat cooks place your rolls in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes to crisp up. Slice down the center without cutting them into 2 pieces. Fill with meat, top with the pickled vegetables, cilantro, and peanuts. 

This is such a flavorful and memorable sandwich. You will love chowing down in flavor town. Enjoy! 

Pistachio Wedding Cookies

Italian wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding buttons, whatever you want to call them, wedding cookies are my favorite.  They are salty, butter, and sweet all at the same time. With such a huge flavor profile to live up to, they are not a low fat or healthy cookie by any means. But that's ok, sometimes we deserve to indulge. And if I'm going to indulge, these cookies are my favorite. These are so easy too! 

1 1/2 sticks of room temperature butter

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 box pistachio instant pudding mix (3.4 ounces)

1 3/4 cup white flour

1/2 tsp salt 

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix your butter and white sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla, pudding mix, flour, and salt. My son loved this cookie mix because its eggless, so I actually let him lick the beater! Roll your dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or longer. 

Preheat oven to 350. Roll your dough into small 1 inch balls. Bake for 8 minutes. Wait for cookies to be warm, but not completely cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. If they are too hot when you sprinkle them with sugar the sugar will melt. 

Quentin's White Sauce

My husband makes an amazing tzatziki sauce. He has made this for me three times now and every time we eat it, I can't stop telling him how delicious it is. He has named it "Quentin's white sauce" because we are both notoriously bad spellers and tzatziki is just a cruel spelling joke. Anyway, I love Quentin's white sauce and am always happy when he makes it. 

3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayo or Greek yogurt 

1/3 cup cucumber (peeled and diced) 

2 Tbs tahini sauce

1 Tbs lemon juice 

2 Tbs fresh chopped dill

5 fresh mint leaves chopped (optional)

1 small clove garlic minced 

Salt and pepper to taste 

You simply mix all the ingredients together and then there are a variety of ways you can serve it. It's best if you can make this a few hours in advance and let the flavors marry in the fridge for a bit. I love anything that's make ahead (nap time productivity baby)! 

Tonight we covered toasted bread in hummus, roasted chicken, and then topped it with the white sauce. 

I love to mix leftover white sauce into some rice for a lovely Greek tasting pilaf. You could also use your remaining cucumber, add tomatoes, and make a wonderful little salad. 

You could put this over any type of grilled meat inside of a pita or flatbread, add tomatoes and white sauce and its bomb. 

This would be wonderful over falafel, kabobs, fish, couscous, etc. Really any type of bland anything that would marry well with Greek flavors, this should be your go to sauce. So good. You won't be sorry. 

Bon appetite! 

Where you can find me...

Hi there!

I recently started handling the social media for my in-laws company, The Lavender Apple. They own a lavender farm and sell over 40 hand crafted natural products. They live on a beautiful piece of land nestled at the mouth of a canyon and it is idealic at times. You can follow along on instagram at the.lavender.apple.com. I will also be publishing recipes I try that are more suited for their "lavender farm audience" over on their blog at http://thepurpleapple-lavender.blogspot.com

You can see me actually making an effort on my blog photos over there. 

I will still be posting all of my favorite recipes here on Joyful Bellies. These ones are the recipes I love so much that I plan on putting them in my usual rotation. I just thought some of you might also be interested in following The Lavender Apple as well. 

Bon Appetite! 

Nelson Cake

Sorry I've been a little M.I.A. on the good old blog lately. With the holidays my husband has been home and he's been manning the kitchen recently. Well his break is over tomorrow, so I guess I'm back in the saddle as they would say. 

To finish off his break, we get to celebrate  with his birthday. It's tradition in our family to make the birthday person a cake called "Nelson Cake". It is glorious. It's chocolatey, moist, sweet, and satisfying. There are never leftover pieces of this after a birthday party. In fact, you better grab a fork right now. 

Cake:

1 cup water

1 stick butter 

1/4 cup shortening

4 tbs cocoa powder (Dutch processed)

2 cup sugar

2 cups flower

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

Combine water, butter, shortening and cocoa in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add to a bowl with sugar and flour. Add remaining ingredients and mix.  We normally make two 9 inch round cakes that bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes.

Buttercream frosting:

1 stick room temp butter

4 tbs cocoa powder 

2 tsp vanilla 

8 oz of powdered sugar

2-4 tbs milk

I like to add butter, vanilla, milk and a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and mix slowly at first, then on high for about a minute to get it light and fluffy. Add the remaining cocoa and powdered sugar and whip until light.  

Whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Assemble in layers from ground to ceiling: cake then frosting then whipped cream then cake then frosting then whipped cream on top

*if you put cool whip on this instead of homemade whipped cream my husband will track you down and haunt your dreams

** my mother in-law is holding out on the real recipe. This is as close as we can get. Maybe she will tell us the whole recipe on her deathbed someday.