Monthly Archives: November 2011

163 Vietnamese Sandwich, Chinatown, Boston

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After tasting multiple banh mi places, I think 163 Vietnamese Sandwich on Harrison, has my favorite barbeque beef banh mi. If there are other suggestions, I would welcome them! They serve various cold cut, chicken, vegetarian (soy protein) banh mi.163 also has bubble teas, fruit shakes (including jackfruit, mango, avocado and other fruits).

They also have inexpensive $3-$4 mini rice or noodle plate with various proteins like pork, chicken or barbeque beef. They also sell fried spring rolls. The Golden Bag filled with a sizable crunchy, savory, tangy and sweet flavored banh mi. 163 is generous with its fillings and you can add spicy chilis if you prefer.

The baguette is lightly toasted, daikon, carrot, cilantro, homemade mayonnaise and barbeque beef. The best part is the generous helping of barbeque beef, which is marinated well, juicy and tender.

163 Vietnamese Sandwich on Urbanspoon

Pasta with Broccolini and Sausage

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After perusing my favorite November and December food magazine, what really sung to me was the recipe for Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage. I searched the farmer stalls, Whole Foods and local supermarket for broccoli rabe and had no luck.

However, I found broccolini and thought to myself, maybe this would be a good substitute. I did not use the anchovy fillets or orecchiette pasta, but I think the version created was unbelievably balanced, spicy, fresh and the broccolini was texturally enjoyable. I can only hope in a future replication is as successful.

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

Serves 2 to 4

  • 2 T extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 T lemon juice
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 lb whole wheat pasta medium shells
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 6 ounces Italian sausage or spicy jalapeno chicken sausage
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 lb  broccolini, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
  • 3/4 T unsalted butter
  • 1/2 ounce Parmesean cheese grated 1/4 c, plus extra serving

Combine 1/2 T oil, lemon juice and 1/2 tsp garlic in bowl. Bring 2 quarts water to boil. Add pasta and 1/2 T salt and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 c cooking water and drain pasta.

While pasta cooks, heat 1/2 T oil in non stick skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, until browned and cooked for 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Leave rendered fat in skillet.

Return skillet medium heat, add 2 T oil, remaining garlic and pepper flakes. Cook, stir ofeten until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Increase heat to high and half brocccoli rabe, cook until wilted about 1 minutes. Add remaining brocoolini and 1/4  tsp salt. Stir often until crisp tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer broccolini to colander set in bowl. Do not wash skillet.

Bring broth and 1/2 cup pasta water to boil in empty skillet over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup 4 to 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and add butter. Add sauce, rabe, sausage and 1/4 cup parmesan to pasta and toss to combine. Add cooking water to adjust consistency. Serve immediately.

Spicy jalapeno chicken sausage
Pasta with broccolini, sausage and shavings of parmesean cheese

Char Siu Two Ways, Fried Rice and Ramen

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You can never beat the simplicity of fried rice. It has a few ingredients egg and frozen peas and uses left over rice from take out or last night’s dinner.

I also enjoy packaged ramen with some char siu. Add a little water, the spice packet and dinner is ready. When you add char siu to either, both rice and ramen are even better.

Adapted from Mr. Chow London

Serves 2-3

  • 1/4 cup peas
  • 2 1/2 cups steamed or boiled rice
  • 1 egg beaten (optional)
  • 1 spring onions or chopped onion
  • 1 clove garlic (optional)
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Stir fry in 1 tbsp oil frozen peas for 1 – 2 minutes, remove from the wok or pan. Add more oil to the wok or pan if necessary and, when hot add the beaten egg to form a thin pancake. As soon as the egg is cooked remove from the pan and chop.

Heat 2 – 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok or pan, when hot stir-fry the white part of the spring onion, garlic,  add the cooked rice and stir over a low heat until the rice is uniformly heated through. Add the peas, egg and salt and stir and mix all the ingredients together until piping hot.

I followed this recipe from Rasa Malysia for barbeque pork or char siu. The meat turned out tender, still a little bit fatty and charred.

I had the char siu with the fried rice. The juicy, lightly sweet red pork really was good with the pan-fried rice.

Char siu with packaged spicy ramen, a few spicy pan-fried dumplings and little bit of char siu. This dinner was quick, warming (temperature and spice) and satisfying.

Soy Ginger Garlic Chicken Spinach Salad

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I love a hearty spinach salad and it is even better with Asian flavors such as soy and ginger. The tender, sweet and salty chicken is addictive and the marinade becomes a warm dressing for the greens.

Adapted from Saveur

  • 3 T. soy sauce
  • 3 T. Sriacha (chile sauce)
  • 1 1⁄2  T. rice vinegar
  • 1 T. Asian sesame oil
  • 1 T. honey
  • 1/4 cup of chicken stock
  • 6 chicken boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • 5 ounches spinach
  • 1 shredded carrot (8 baby carrots)

Chop garlic and ginger in a food processor. Add soy, gojujang, vinegar, sesame oil, and honey; purée. Put sauce into a bowl. Marinate pieces of chicken thighs for 20 minutes. Cook chicken for 4 minutes on each side and then add chicken stock to deglaze pan. Place chicken on shredded carrot and spinach.

Bed of spinach and shredded carrot

Soy ginger garlic chicken spinach salad

Portuguese Egg Tarts

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Throughout our childhood, we have had countless Chinese egg tarts. Recently, we wanted to try making Portuguese Egg Tarts. A Portuguese Egg Tart has many similarities to Chinese egg tarts and the origins of Portuguese tarts are from Macau, a Portuguese colony.

We made the tart crust with puff pastry, versus a shortening based crust. We were surprised how easy they were to make because of the puff shortcut. We realized the egg tart should be more bruleed, which can be achieved by using the broil setting for a few minutes.

Adapted from Edible Garden and Rasa Malaysia

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup sugar (I would use slightly lesser than this next time)
  • 1/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/4 cup of heavy cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 block of puff pastry sheet

Thaw the puff pastry sheet  for 40 minutes and roll to about 1/2″ thickness on a floured surface. Roll it from the width-side tightly and cut into small discs. Roll each disc (flouring the surface sufficiently) to the rough size of the muffin tray.

Grease a muffin tray and pre heat oven to 350F.

Microwave milk and cream in microwave for 2 minutes. Whisk sugar into the milk mixture until dissolved. Place the egg yolks one at a time into the liquid mixture and then the vanilla.

Lay each rolled out disc into the muffin tray, pour the cooled custard to about 3/4 level and bake for about 20 mins.

The custard will bubble up during baking. Turn the broil function on for 3 minutes to brown the Portuguese egg tart.

Whisking the egg into the milk, cream and sugar mixture.

Cutting circular rounds of puffPress puff circles into greased muffin tin.

Fill custard almost the way to the top.

The warm, freshly baked Portuguese tarts.