Recipe: Banh Mi with fresh pickled onions

We try to have a leftovers night regularly in my house to make sure that we clear out the fridge and don't waste food. Rather than just eating the same dish again I prefer to turn it into something new. This week I had Vietnamese ingredients from our Bun Cha and also leftovers from a Sunday roast so Banh Mi was just what the doctor ordered!

Pickled Onions

1 red onion

1 cup white or rice vinegar

2 tbpsn salt

2 tbspn sugar

• Start by making the pickled onions, you can also pickle the cucumber this way if you like a more sour vegetable mix
• Chop the onions into rounds or half moon shapes and add to a bowl
• Sprinkle the salt and sugar on the onions
• Add the vinegar, enough to cover the onions
• Mix with a spoon and leave for 20 mins before preparing the sandwiches
• The colour from the onions may leave a faint pink colour in the liquid, this is normal
• Drain off the pickling liquid and then use for sandwiches, salads or Mexican food

Banh Mi

1 baguette

2 tbpsns liver pate

1 bird's eye chilli or 1 tbspn Schiracha sauce

1 tbspn mayonnaise

4 slices roasted meat or cold cuts (chicken, pork or beef all work well)

1 carrot

2 tbspn pickled onions

8-10 slices of cucumber

1/2 cup coriander leaves

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

• Ingredient amounts are for 1 sandwich, multiply by the number of guests
• I regularly make my own chicken liver pate but any commercial pate or Liverwurst can suffice
• Prepare the ingredients before collating the sandwich - slice the cucumber, julienne the carrots, de-stem the herbs, slice the meats, pickle the onions and set asside all the spread ingredients

• Cut the roll in half, spread one side with the pate and the other side with the mayonnaise; if you are allergic to eggs use butter. If using Schiracha spread on top of the mayonnaise
• Over the pate place your cold meats, for this sandwich I used a mix of leftover roast beef and cold cut Black Forest pork

• Spread the vegetables (cucumber, carrot, pickled onion and chilis) over both sides of the sandwich
• Stuff with coriander and mint and serve! 

Recipe: Bun cha - Vietnamese pork patties with herb salad

This is a labour intensive dish but absolutely delicious on a hot Summer's day.

Pork patties

500g (2lbs) ground lean pork

1 onion or 1 bunch of spring onions

1/4 bunch fresh mint

1/4 bunch fresh coriander

4 bird's eye chillis

2 carrots

2 eggs

1 sprig lemongrass

1 clove garlic

1 tbspn ginger

2 tbpsns soy sauce

1 tbspn Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc nam)

• I prepare the vegetable/herb mixture using a food processor or electric vegetable chopper to save time
• Grate or chop the carrots and onions and add to your mixer or a bowl
• Separate out some of the herbs,  you will use the rest in the salad about 1/4 of each bunch will do, you should end up with about 1 cup of each once you have removed the stems and separated the leaves
• Add diced garlic and ginger, mince the herbs and chili and add to the mix
• If mixing by hand then whisk the eggs before adding to the vegetable mix, if using a machine you can add directly 
• Add the liquid ingredients - soy and fish sauce. You should now have a quite liquid mix. 
• For a gluten free/low carb variation use Tamari or wheat free soy sauce
• Add to the minced pork and mix thoroughly to ensure that the herbs and egg are distributed throughout the meat
• Take a generous spoon (a serving spoon or ice cream scoop size) of each and form into patties, I do this by rolling into a ball and then tossing between my hands. Place on a tray covered in plastic until you are ready to cook. 
• This recipe should make enough for 4 people, as I often cook for 2 you can transfer 1 tray of meat patties to the freezer and once frozen store in a bag or box for another day
• Grill or fry the pork patties until a firm texture is reached then serve on top of the dressed salad detailed below
• Because there is no breading in this dish it is perfect for keto or gluten free eaters. 3g carbs (2g net) for 2 patties.

Dressing (Nuoc Cham)

5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup fish sauce (Nuoc Mam)
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
1 large clove garlic
2 bird's eye chillis
1 spring onion

• Depending on how cold you like your dressing you may wish to begin with this step before making the pork
• Boil the water and add the sugar, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. 
• Splenda or Stevia work just as well for Keto; but this sauce will be odd if you omit all sweeteners. Sauce is around 1g carbs per 1/4 cup if using low carb sweeteners. 
• Add the fish sauce, be sure to use Vietnamese Nuoc Mam and not Thai fish sauce which is much stronger and overpowering in this recipe
• Add the lemon juice, if using fresh lemon juice strain the sauce to exclude all the pith
• Dice the garlic and add to the sauce
• Cut the spring onion and chilli into fine slices and add to the sauce
• Chill and serve, this recipe is enough to make sauce for 2 servings, discard after 2 weeks if unused
• The sauce can also be used as a dipping sauce for Summer rolls and other Vietnamese appetisers

Salad

1 cake of rice vermicelli

1 bunch fresh mint

1 bunch fresh coriander

200g bean sprouts 

4 tbspns roasted peanuts

1/2 cucumber

1 carrot

• The salad ingredients take some time to prepare; I suggest doing this before cooking the meat patties or they will cool too much before serving
• Boil the vermicelli for 5 minutes in hot water and then transfer to a colander. Rinse thoroughly with cold water to remove any rice starch from the noodles and to cool. 
• Leave the noodles to cool and dry thoroughly before using in the salad. If you do this step first the noodles should be cool by the time you finish preparing the other salad ingredients.
• Peel the carrots and julien, cut the cucumbers into strips
• Pull the leaves of the herbs off the stems and set asside, you should use the rest of the bunch that you didn't  use in the meat preparation
• Crush or dice the peanuts until to small crumbly pieces
• In a noodle bowl layer the salad - or ask your guests to choose their own. 
• I layer noodles, then vegetables, then herbs, pour dressing over, top with the meat and then crumble with peanuts. 
• Omit the noodles and replace with lettuce or more herbs for a low carb variation. 
• Serve with Summer rolls and a small dish of the dressing so that diners may dip their meat with each bite

Review: Pho 236, Newtown

Every neighbourhood has a restaurant like Pho 236; the walls are slightly sticky with oil, the plastic chairs have seen better decades let alone days and the menus are filled with helpful descriptors like 'Soup, short' but the restaurant is packed day and night and people walk out clutching their stomachs happily. Unlike Happy Chef just up the road Pho 236 doesn't even have the ubiquitous backlit plastic waterfall painting that seems to have been cloned across every cheap and cheerful Asian restaurant in Australia. This is just a space that you enter, functional only for people to eat and leave satisfied, not to linger and chat.



On a sunny Spring afternoon there really is nothing better than sitting down to a big fresh bowl of noodles and vegetables, and Pho 236 has amazingly fresh and authentic soups to appeal to any food afficionado. They do other Sino-Viet cuisine but really if a restaurant is named for a dish, you should order that dish.



Beef Pho $7.50

Par cooked beef is added to fresh delicious beef stock with fresh coriander, rice noodles and onions. Just perfect with lots of chilli.



Spicey noodle soup with chicken $8

An almost laksa like soup is thick with chilli oil and spices, soaked and roasted Viet style chicken is boned and shredded into the soup with thin rice noodles. Table thumpingly good. To top it off there's enough for me to take half home and eat it for lunch the next day, when it is just as good reheated. 2 tasty lunches for $8? Don't mind if I do.



Our order comes with fresh herbs, lemon and bean sprouts to be added at will to your soup. I add a very generous amount of coriander and lemon to my soup because they offset the fresh shredded chicken perfectly.



If you're so inclined though they also have red vinegar, soy and fresh birds eye chilli on every table.

There's nothing refined or special about Pho 236, it's just good fresh food done well and served fast and at $20 for two with a soft drink affordable for even those on a student budget. The service isn't the friendliest, though that may change if your Vietnamese is good; but the food is cheap and excellent and highly recommended. In Newtown where your choice of Asian restaurants is plentiful this is a local favourite for a good reason.

Pho 236
236 King St
Newtown
Near the Mitre 10, look for the sign

Casual dining atmosphere
Walk in for a table, come early for dinner