Saturday, April 30, 2016

Banh Min Sloppy Joes



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I fell in love with magazines while growing up in the Eisenhower era. My dad had returned from duty in Berlin and made the transition from Army officer to ad guy. He was an account guy with Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn in Minneapolis, creating advertising for companies like Hormel and Wonder Bread.

One of the perks of being in the advertising business in the 1950's was that all of the media gave you free stuff. Magazines were an enormous ad medium back then....in fact, they still are. So the Gruggen household got magazines by the frigging truckload. Life, Look, The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, etc.

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I just loved reading all of those magazines back then and I'd like to think that my love of reading and writing was created by the immense amount of time I spent with those publications. Well, fast forward about 5 decades or so, I find I am still addicted to magazines. Thanks to my iPad Pro (the big one) and an extraordinary app called Texture, my magazines still get delivered to the Gruggen household by the frigging truckload. But they come in the form of bytes rather than the printed page.



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Texture is essentially Netflix for magazines. I pay $14.99 per month and get access to more than 170 magazines. And they are all of the AAA titles. In fact, you have to pick and choose, because there is just no way to get through all of them. What I find especially interesting is that there are more than a dozen food magazines. I found today's recipe in a Canadian food magazine called Ricardo. Now I have no idea why a Canadian food magazine would be called Ricardo, so I just roll with it.

Banh Min is a term used for Vietnamese sandwiches. It is thought that the French occupation of Vietnam had a lot to do with the creation of Banh Min, as a French baguette is usually considered the foundation of the sandwich. They are made with all different kinds of meats and vegetables. Ricardo's recipe is a very delicious Vietnamese take on the sloppy joe. This recipe serves six.


INGREDIENTS

For the Salad
2 cups thin sliced red cabbage
2 cups bean sprouts
1 carrot, thinly julienned
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

For the Sandwich
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1 clove chopped garlic
1 pound lean ground pork
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
6 hot dog buns
Salt and pepper


DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
  2. In another bowl, dissolve cornstarch into the broth. Add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sambal oelek and garlic. Set aside.
  3. In a large non-stick skillet over high heat, brown the meat in sesame oil, breaking it up as it cooks. Season with pepper.
  4. Add the broth mixture to the pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2 minutes until sauce thickens.
  5. Spoon the meat into the buns. Top with the salad (drained if needed). Serve with leftover salad on the side.




Wine pairing: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc






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