We have been so spoiled with our weather lately, that when I went to take our dog for a walk yesterday morning, the blast of cold air nearly knocked me over! I had to get a hat, gloves, winter coat. I was kind of pissed, but then I had to remember it is December! When I got back from our 10 minute walk I checked the weather and it was a chilly 23 degrees.
I love adding shredded zucchini to my eggs for a breakfast sammie – for some reason the eggs taste so fluffy and almost soufflé like. I had two open face breakfast sammies. The rosemary ham on the bottom was delicious – ask for it the next time you go to the deli – its so good!
I decided to do another interval on the treadmill using the HIIT app on my phone. I typically watch The Chew while working out, so my headphones are plugged into the t.v. While I was running every few minutes I would hear a whistle blowing, and I kept looking around thinking “who’s phone is whistling??!!”
Um, turns out, that would be mine! I didn’t realize that when the interval switched, it whistles at you to switch gears. Doh! My fastest run split yesterday was 6.5 mph.
It’s kind of funny when I look at the things I eat now, that I never would have touched 15 years ago. The only ethnic things I ate were Mexican tacos and Italian spaghetti! Now I love chicken tikka masala, butternut squash with ginger shrimp soup, and artichoke pasta, just to name a few.
Now when I get a magazine that has interesting ethnic recipes, I no longer look the other way. A while back Bon Appetit had a recipe for a bahn mi meatball sandwich with pickled veggies. The first time I made it, I left the veggies chopped too big, my bun was too hard and it was difficult to eat. I also left off the mayo, but I left it below in the recipe anyway.
This time I shredded the carrot and daikon radish, and I used a soft hot dog bun. The result? Pure deliciousness! And for some reason I didn’t post the recipe last time either – it was back in 2009, and I am not sure I even knew how to link to anything back then. Yep, still not the most technical!
Bahn Mi Meatballs
- 1 poundground pork
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 green onions, finely chopped (I left this out)
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
- 1 tablespoonhot chili sauce (such as sriracha)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
Sandwiches
- 2 cup scoarsely grated carrots
- 2 cups coarsely grated peeled daikon (Japanese white radish)**
- 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
- 4 10-inch-long individual baguettes or four 10-inch-long pieces French-bread baguette (cut from 2 baguettes) (I used a hot dog bun)
- Thinly sliced jalapeño chiles
- 16large fresh cilantro sprigs
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*Available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.
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**Available at some supermarkets and at Asian markets.
Preparation
hot chili mayo
Stir all ingredients in small bowl. Season with salt. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
meatballs
Line rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Using moistened hands and scant tablespoonful for each, roll meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Arrange on baking sheet. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
sandwiches
Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, tossing occasionally.
Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat sesame oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of meatballs. Sauté until brown and cooked through, turning meatballs often and lowering heat if browning too quickly, about 15 minutes. Transfer meatballs to another rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven. Repeat with remaining meatballs.
Cut each baguette or baguette piece horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each bread half to leave 1/2-inch-thick shell. Spread hot chili mayo over each bread shell. Arrange jalapeños, then cilantro, in bottom halves. Fill each with 1/4 of meatballs. Drain pickled vegetables; place atop meatballs. Press on baguette tops.
This version turned out way better and it was much easier to eat – the meatballs are spicy, but still had a bit of crust on them from when I cooked them in the cast iron skillet. And the balance of the pickled veggies is amazeballs too – I did end up adding a touch more sriracha to the sandwich when I got to my desk, but this one is a keeper.
It makes a lot of meatballs, so I made toothpick mini versions of them and walked around the office asking who wanted to taste my balls. Ha, I am so funny! But I thought this could be a nice appetizer at a holiday party – I put a drop of sriracha on each meatball, topped it with a little of the carrot/daikon mix, covered it with a piece of cilantro and put the toothpick in.
Work has been busy the last couple of days, which makes the afternoons go by so much faster. Dinner was going to be super easy because I ended up making a beef brisket chili from the leftover brisket we had on Sunday.
I put Tony’s in a bread bowl. He’d never had one before! Our store sells them every couple of weeks:
I toasted it in the toaster oven after taking out a lot of the filling.
He likes Parmesan cheese on his chili – so weird!
He was a bit underwhelmed with the bread bowl concept – he maybe ate about 1/8 of the bowl after eating the chili – the chili he liked though, beans and all!
I decided to have an ounce of tortilla chips for dipping – I like to put a spoonful of chili on a tortilla, dousing it with Tabasco, and eating my chili more like a dip. So good – except I am seriously almost out of the buffalo Tabasco sauce already!
So I ended up earning 50 points in the Skinny Snowman Challenge – not bad! I’ve been happiest about keeping up with the drinking of water – most days I have a minimum of 80 ounces.
Alright, I have to jump in the shower and get my shit ready for work – it’s overcast and cold today – what I really want to do is go back under my down comforter and go back to sleep!
I love hot sauce, in fact I have someone from Texas sending me some 🙂 Those meatballs look amazing.
You are going to get some awesome google searches with this title, ha!!
The title of this post and of course the post itself made me laugh all day yesterday. Thanks for making me smile Biz!!
Hmmm…other than the daikon radish and fresh buns, I bet I have everything in my house to make these if I use ground turkey. I do love me some Asian inspired dishes 🙂
This post (and the comments) made me LOL!
It looks really good. I will have to try it one day.
uh, yes I’ll eat anything you make. We too have been spoiled with good weather here. Although I am sure my kids would love it better if it snowed 🙂
So bummed I didn’t get to see you this week. It was such a quick trip to Chicago and my time was booked up. The weather was amazing!! I want to get back to Chicago someday and really enjoy the city. It is one of my faves now.
Love the title…haha. I wish I could buy a soup bread bowl. It looks even better toasted!
Yes, our weather certainly screams December now…eek! It gives my Roxy energy though, so I’m happy for that! The rosemary ham sounds great but, that means maybe I’ll see it here in two years…lol! The banh mi looks delicious, I so have to try that. I love how you walked around the office asking if people wanted to taste your balls, you crack me up! 🙂
I love Banh Mi! If you have a Vietnamese grocery store or bakery in your area, you should stop by and pick up some Vietnamese bread. It looks like a French Baguette, but it’s super soft and fluffy on the inside. Yum!
Sadly Jenn, we live in the sticks, no ethnic grocery stores – I’ll have to do a google search and see if there even is a Vietnamese grocery in the vacinity – could be a cool road trip on my widow football Sundays! 😀
Bahn Mi are all the rage around these parts. I really need to try them, your version looks delicious. I just discovered an old bottle of cholula chile lime version in my pantry and I LOVE it, but now I can’t find it at my store. I will need to go on a hunt!
I DO! Love me some bahn mi, this looks amazeballs.
Ha – you just wanted to say amazeballs Jacky!
Tony’s never had a bread bowl before last night? That’s wild! They are a huge treat for me in the cold weather – you get your soup, and your bread, and the soup soaks into the bread…drooling. 🙂
Tony has never been to Panara, and seldom eats soup. Jeez, judgments hurt! Oh and I wouldn’t eat that meatball sandwich if I was starving on a desert island…did the say dessert?
Tony doesn’t like tasting my balls. Well, I take that back, he’ll have them sliced thin an a meat lovers pizza, but that’s about it. I could say something about his balls, but our parents read the blog!
your balls looks delicious! 🙂 I love eating chili with tortilla chips!! I just bought some of the buffalo tabasco….havent cracked it open yet!
OMG, as soon as you open that bottle, you’ll want to put it on everything!!
Haha I’d love to try your balls! They look pretty awesome!
I thought this was funny….”He likes Parmesan cheese on his chili – so weird!” because someone I know likes to put hot sauce on almost everything 🙂
Ha – okay John, but that doesn’t count, because adding hot sauce to everything isn’t weird, it’s a requirement! 😀
I have to say, that meatball sandwich sounds amazing! Great flavor combos!