What recipe would  you like to learn if you get one afternoon to learn from a Vietnamese grandmother? For us, and some friends, it was crispy banh xeo and Vietnamese egg rolls, called chả giò in the south and nem rán in the north. Since we blogged about banh xeo already, we’ll concentrate on the venerable egg roll. How are Vietnamese egg rolls different, than say, Chinese egg rolls? Vietnamese egg rolls are typically wrapped with a rice paper whereas Chinese egg rolls are wrapped a wheat base wrapper.  They both contain a variety of chopped vegetables and can be made with pork, shrimp, or leaner meats such as chicken or turkey.  The textural differences between rice paper and wheat paper is stunning. The rice paper roll is both crispy, bubbly and pleasantly chewy, a great alternative to the wheat based wrapper.   Hong’s parents have been making Vietnamese egg rolls for over 20 years in addition to banh cam at their church, raising money for parish activities.

So for one afternoon we were all eager sponges, soaking up tips learned from over 40 years of cooking from Hong’s mom, a mother of four and grandmother of two and soon to be three, making banh xeo and chả giò. We’ve previously posted the banh xeo recipe so we won’t comment too much on that here, except to use a good nonstick pan and go low and slow on the heat for crispy banh xeo.  But in case you’re wondering, the banh xeo made by all the learners came out delicious!

Okay, so now that we’ve tantalized you with banh xeo, let’s get serious about making chả giò. Its harder to find Vietnamese egg rolls made from rice paper these days. The convenience of the wheat wrapper along with even golden brown color makes it an easy alternative. The main reason is that rice paper is a little tricky to fry and doesn’t get beautifully golden brown like the wheat based egg roll wrappers. When the rice paper hits the hot oil, it immediately bubbles up and blisters.  If two egg rolls touch, they will stick to one another. The blistering does calm down after a few seconds, however allowing you to fry as normal.

The filling can be any variety or combination of meats described above. Personally we love pork and shrimp together, but any will do. We always use wood ear mushrooms and bean thread noodles but vary other vegetables depending on what we have on hand or convenient at the market. Vegetables we prefer any combination of shredded jicama, taro, or carrots.  Bean sprouts are another alternative. Vietnamese egg rolls typically do not contain cabbage.

Wrapping an egg roll isn’t terribly complex. However, we didn’t realize some of the reasons why we roll the way we do. Hong’s mom said it’s not just to keep the filling inside, but to also have even layers of wrapper around the filling so it will cook evenly and brown evenly. This is most evident at the ends of the egg rolls, when not wrapped carefully, tends to have only 1 or 2 layers of wrapper so it will cook faster and turns dark or burns while the rest of the egg roll is nice and golden.

To avoid this, place your filling on one end of your wrapper paper.  Press down each end to form first layer. Crease the bottom, then fold the double layer of wrapper back up, forming 3 layers of paper covering the ends. Use this method whether you’re using rice paper or wheat paper.  Another trick we learned is that Mom doesn’t use an egg wash to seal the egg rolls. The egg causes a discoloration at the seal and it dirties the cooking oil. Instead, she makes a simple tapioca starch slurry, cooked to a viscous paste that works like a charm.

Enjoy Vietnamese egg rolls with noodles such as bun thit nuong  or simply on it’s own, wrapped with lettuce and Vietnamese herbs such as perilla, balm, mint or basil dipped with some nuoc mam cham and do chua.

We all had a great time eating, learning, and laughing together.  Thank you so much Mom!

Yield: about 40-50 egg rolls

Ingredients:

2 lb ground pork
2 medium jicama, shredded
1 small taro root, shredded
2 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup wood ear mushroom, soaked
1 cup bean thread noodle, soaked and cut
2 ts salt
2 ts ground pepper
2 ts sugar
2 package (25 peices) spring roll shells (wei-chuan brand) or packages of rice paper

Tapioca slurry
2 tbs tapioca flour
2 tbs water

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Test flavoring to your tastes by microwaving a small tablespoon for about 30s and adjust seasoning to your taste. Any vegetable such as Jicama and taro can be substituted (or omitted) for carrots or bean sprouts. Any type of ground meat can be substituted combined such as chicken or turkey or pork and shrimp.

Mix the water and tapioca in small sauce pan on low heat and cook until it thickens to paste and turn of heat and set aside.

Place about 2 tbs of filling onto the edge of your wrapper and make one half roll. Crease the ends as shown above, and then fold up the sides. Complete the roll and seal with small amount of tapioca slurry.

Fry in small batches at 350 degrees until golden brown. Place on cooling rack.

Note: Rice paper will never brown as nice as wheat based paper. If using rice paper, fry only a few at a time, do not let them touch or touch them for the first minute.

Epicurean Garden of the Gods at Ceasars Palace Grand Tasting event

We’ve been to our fair share of food festivals over the years and thought we’ve experienced it all until Vegas Uncorked 2012.   Hosted by Bon Appetit, Vegas Uncorked brings together some of the world’s finest restaurants and renown chefs right to your table.  Literally. Michelin starred chef Michael Mina dishing up forbidden rice with foie table side? Check.  The exuberant and beautiful Kimchi Chronicles host Marja Vongerichten stopping by your table to give you the skinny on all the variety of panchan she made? Yes! Bluff the jovial chef José Andrés out of his stack of chips in a no holds no limit Texas Hold’em tournament? Yes, Yes! Have Francois Payard swipe warm chocolate ganache on your lips? Excuse our French, but hell, yes!  In a nutshell, Vegas Uncorked is the ultimate event for the food and wine lover, not just for the sheer variety of chefs, food, and restaurants, but for the unique events and intimate settings that allows your average home cook to chat it up these increasingly popular celebrity chefs.  We could have asked the adopted Marja about her panchan, but instead asked her about how she found her birth mother and finding her roots in though the foods of Korea.

Michael Mina plating forbidden rice table side. Bon Appetit Editor in Chief Adam Rappaport in a revealing Q & A with Marja and Jean-Georges Vongerichten

But if meeting one chef on an intimate level is not your thing, how about meeting them all at once at the Grand Tasting?   It wasn’t that long ago that the venerable all- you- can eat buffets would be the highlight of our family trips to Vegas.  This last trip however, we bypassed the buffet line altogether to sample almost of all of the finest Los Vegas, and indeed some of the world’s finest  restaurants all in one evening.  With  over 50 world renown chefs and restaurants and over 100 of the worlds finest wineries in the newly renovated Garden of the Gods Pool and Oasis at Ceasars Palace, the the Grand Tasting is an epicurean paradise for the over 2500 guests in attendance.  While crowded, there was never a long wait for the expansive options such as salt baked whole seabass from Estiatorio Milos of The Cosmopolitan, or Gordon Ramsey’s beef Wellington, or Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill coconut ceviche.

While there was no shortage of megastar chefs such as Todd English, Guy Savoy, Nobu Matsuhisa on hand,  favorite local chefs made a strong presence such as Endo-san of Raku Abriya who was  manning his charcoal robata grill of succulent skewers of kurobuto pork cheeks.  Meanwhile,  another local, chef Guo-Ming Xin of Beijing Noodle #9 was there demonstrating the magical hand pulled noodles technique, a tradition pass down through the centuries.  Move over Celine, this was easily one of the best shows in Vegas.  Even chef Ceasar was on hand ditching the toga for an apron and toque.

When we couldn’t stuff our bellies any further, it was time to head hit the gambling tables, after all this is Vegas right?  Luckily for us, Vegas Uncorked also sponsored a celebrity chef poker tournament where  a buy in allowed you to rub elbows with the likes of  José Andrés and Mary Sue Milliken. Bluff them or go all in if you dare, it was a fast pace no limit affair with the prize going to local charities.

The following day, in what turned out to one of the best highlight of many on the trip, was a French pastry lesson from Francois Payard himself.  A third generation pastry chef, Chef Payard commanded the room of eager learners, passing along tips from his grandfather. “Use your lips as a thermometer, he says, it’s the most sensitive part of your body,” as he daubs silky chocolate ganache on students lips to gauge the correct temperature.  Chef Payard demonstrated a quick 10 minute chocolate pudding cake, lemon tart, and of course his famous macarons. While we prefer the French method, Payard has used the Italian method for the past 15 years. He emphasized following the recipe precisely and concentrating on proper technique as keys to successful macaron making. Another tip he offered was to rap all four sides of the baking tray on the counter for perfectly round macarons. Also, for large batches, instead of using the spatula to macaronage, try using a gloved hands to get a better feel for the batter.

Finally, to cap off the night’s festivities, we went to the Surfside Clam Bake at the Mandalay Beach.  We didn’t see many clams, but we’re not complaining as there were succulent lobster tails perfectly grilled by Rick Moonen of RM Seafood, fresh shucked Louisianna  oysters and plump shrimp, as well as suckling pig and whole roasted beef leg by Charlie Palmer’s  Aureole.  Bumping live music, the roar of the waves,  the sand at our feet and the unlimited Mionetto prosecco and sparkling wines  made for a wonderfully festive beach party.

The bubbly and effervescent Susan Feninger of Border Grill greets guests with her rendition of elotes, grilled corn on the cobb with Mexican cotija cheese. Charlie Palmer stands proud with his whole roasted leg of beef, carved to order.

We couldn’t have dreamed of a more unique experience to end our inaugural experience of Vegas Uncorked.  And to think we only experience two days out of four in this multiday festival, missing out on food truck and brunch events.  Whether you’re a home cook, wine enthusiast,  foodie,  or traveler wanting to get the most out of your Las Vegas dining experience, it would be wise to plan your next Vegas vacation around Vegas Uncorked.  We can’t wait to uncork Vegas in 2013.

*Disclaimer: We were provided with press passes to the events. However, our opinions are our own.

We’ve been busy bees. Not so much with cooking, but working on the yard and gardening.  We were fortunate to find our dream home with a nice chunk of land last year, and while most of our focus has been inside the house, this spring we  felt the urge to make use of our land and make it fruitful.  While the goal is not to be self sufficient, we hope to grow edibles that would bring us many meals and years of enjoyment to come. We’ve never had a garden before, but we’re diving head first into it. Our plan is to have a vegetable garden mainly for heirloom tomatoes and an Asian garden as well as a Vietnamese herb garden. Scattered around the gardens we planted some tropical fruit trees as well as California natives. Want to see what it looks like? Above are tía tô (Vietnamese perilla) seedlings started from seeds from Mom’s garden back in Michigan.

Rau răm (Vietnamese coriander top left) was rooted from supermarket clippings.  Super market clippings are a great way to start your Vietnamese herb garden on the cheap.  Kinh giới (Vietnamese balm- top right) was also rooted from grocery clippings.  Most herbs will root, choose the larger stem ones that are more mature and stick them in a cup of water near a window sill and transplant them to peat pots filled with starting mix when several roots to support the seedling.

This is the first time we’re growing blueberries  and the nickle and dime sized fruits on the O’neals are almost ripe while the smaller but more abundant Misty and Sunshine varieties are still plumping up.

If you live in Southern California, stop by the markets in Little Saigon and they’ll sell small seedlings of ngò ôm (rice paddy herb) wrapped in plastic grocery bags. No it’s not for your carrying convenience, but how it’s grown. As the name implies, this herb grows in the rice paddies of Vietnam and love the hot and humid condition. Unless you have a greenhouse at home, you can similate a rice paddy by growing it in a large clear water dispenser container with it’s top cut off. It keeps the humidity in and also allows air to circulate.

This is also our first time ever planting tomatoes. We purchased heirloom Paul Robeson, Carmello, Black Plum, and Isis Candy seedlings from Laurel’s Heirloom Tomatoes in the Los Angeles South Bay area.  It’s been about a month since we transplanted them into our raised bed and they’re growing vigorously, seemingly a few inches each day!

Finally, the fruit trees. One day we hope to have our very own orchard in the backyard, but for now we’re happy with our baby fuyu persimmon (top left), longan, cherimoya, and meyer lemon as well as lychee and black miss fig tree (not pictured) haven’t died yet.

Thanks for stopping by on our garden tour! All this is possible because of Dad, who’s been staying with us has been digging, planting, performing countless other garden tasks this month. Now that the seeds are sowed we’re praying we don’t kill off all the fruit trees and vegetables. We’ll keep you updated!

This was supposed to be a happier post. We didn’t plan on introducing our latest Vietnamese food themed word art design “I Love Vietnamese food” this way, but somehow, we think he’ll approve and would loved to have proudly worn this.  We also have signed poster prints available for framing.  Visit our store and reserve your shirt as only limited quantities will be printed. A portion of each sale will be donated to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

On a similar note, we’re happy to announce that a donation was given to SenHoa due to the success of the “Heo Yeah” T shirts.  This would not have been possible without the inspiration from Karena Higgins who designed the pig for Filipino foods on Pig Parts and Beer, a blog created by Karena and Haydee Vicedo, where they share a great passion for Filipino cuisine. Please check out the great stuff they’re doing.

I’m Kim, and I’m a macaron addict. I’ve been obsessed with macarons for the past few months, researching and studying different techniques and recipes on how to make macarons. Macarons are French meringue confections that resemble a cookie sandwiches and they are all the rage these days. When I first laid my eyes on one, I couldn’t resist these adorably cute and colorful deserts. I was in love. I would come home after a long day of work and make a batch of macarons, and as they bake, press my nose against the oven door searching for any signs of “feet”. In this short time, I baked dozens of batches and experienced all the failures you can possibly imagine:  feetless, cracked, hollow, burnt, discolored, you name it— it happened to me. The successful batches were few and far between and I was elated and danced for joy when it did.  Crestfallen, intimidated, frustrated, and beatened down, I was ready to quit, but Hong refused to let me, saying, “there’s no quitters in this house.” So I persevered. After more research and practice, I finally got the hang of the intracacies and nuances to get consistent results. I found my macaron mojo. But just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I would make batches of macarons every weekend to make sure I still had it. I can definitely say I enjoy making macarons more then eating them. In fact, Hong does all my taste testing.

I still have much to learn but so far, I still have my macaron mojo and thought it would be fun  to teach some friends. Foodbuzz 24X24 gave me the opportunity to host a macaron party this weekend where I taught complete beginners how to make macarons.  It was a lot of pressure, but also a lot of fun. I taught them my favorite recipe from Stella at the Bravetart and used Annapet’s templates for piping at The Daily Palette.  They both provide great inspiration and taught me so much.

I set up different stations of the macaron process for our students.  At the “Mixing station”, we had 3 mixers lined up for a wopping 1400 Watts of mixing power.  At the “Flavor Station”, students had an array of flavors and colors to choose from. We had raspberry, pistaccio, amaretto, coffee, rose, lemon, ube, pandan, orange, pear, grape, and even durian to choose from. At the “Macronage station”, we went over how to fold the dry ingredients with the meringue. At the “Piping station”, we had baking pans lined with Silpats with template to pipe out uniform macarons.  Look at the concentration on those faces!

Every macaron baker knows that getting proper feet can be the most challenging part of the process. Our bakers couldn’t stay away from the “Feet station” where they waited with baited breath as feet magically appeared on their macarons.  I got lucky and everyone of our students had successful feet.  Everyone was dancing the Happy Feet dance! But of course feet is not the only thing that makes a perfect macaron, our students all had a great base and a cakey interior inside the crispy shell.

At the filling station, we had a variety of fillers from chocolate ganache, blood orange curd, Meyer lemon curd, mango curd, ube, and nutella. It was fun seeing all the different combination of flavors they came up with.

We ended up making coffee macarons with chocolate ganache, durian macarons, orange macarons with blood orange curd, rose macarons with chocolate ganache, pistachio macarons, lemon macarons with Meyer lemon curd, and ube macarons. I was so proud that all the students had successful batches. It took me countless batches to get it right and it only took them one try!

Since we we spent a good 3 hours baking, we provided some snacks.  We had French themed foods,  including escargots and a charcuterie plate of head cheese, home made pate, beer mustard,  French bread, and cornichons.

My first macaron class was an overwhelming success! Everyone made beautiful and delicious macarons that was shared by all.  Thank you again Foodbuzz for making this event possible. I hope this post encourages you to give macarons a shot, whether you’re a complete beginner or a frustated baker, don’t give up!

Still undecided what to make for Valentines? We all know the fastest way to someone’s heart is through the stomach (I made Hong a bowl of Mi Quang and now look at us). So if you’re still searching, try something exotic but oh so simple: lamb meatballs.   Last year on our vacation eating trip to NYC, one of our favorite restaurants was The Meatball Shop. It was casual, comforting (especially against the blistering February chill), and delicious. But let’s face it, everyone loves meatballs.  It’s hearty, still healthy, and cute!

The Meatball Shop was the brainchild of childhood friends chef Dan Holzman and partner Micheal Chernow. We met the affable chef Holzman here in LA at the 2011 Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival and got a chance to tell him how much we enjoyed his meatballs and his restaurant.  Like a choose your own adventure, diners can customize the meatball, its sauce, and accompaniments.

Our favorite was the lamb meatballs.  Lamb is a sexy cut of meat and this is one of the easiest ways to prepare it. The raisins and walnuts in this recipe gives this ball a subtly sweet and earthiness that really works well with the lamb.

Lamb Meatballs

Yield: 2 dozen 1.5 inch balls

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Meatballs

2 tbs olive oil

2 lbs ground lamb
3 large eggs
1 cup dark raisins, chopped
1/2 cup walnut halves, chopped
1/2 fresh mint, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 ts salt
1 ts fresh ground pepper

Classic Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1 ts chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 ts dried
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 ts salt or to taste
2 tbs tomato paste
2 28oz cans whole plum tomatoes, chopped w/ their liquid

Directions:

Meatballs

Preheat oven to 450. Drizzle olive oil into a baking dish and spread evenly. Set aside.

Combined all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Pack the meat firmly and roll the mixture into round 1 1/2 inch balls. Place the balls onto the baking dish and line snugly in even rolls vertically and horizontally in a grid, touching one another.

Roast for 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. The temperature should be 165 if you want to check with meat thermometer.

Allow the meatballs to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Classic Tomato Sauce

Heat the oil over the medium heat and add onions, bay leaf, garlic and salt, stirring until soft and translucent about 10 mins. Add tomato paste and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir constantly until sauce begins to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring every 5 minutes to prevent burning. Season to salt. Remove bay leaf before serving.

From The Meatball Shop CookbookThe Meatball Shop

Recently Dan Holzman and Michael Chernow published their first cookbook, proclaiming their love of meatballs and sharing all they learned and created. We’ve made beef, lamb and pork meatballs from the book and they all turn out great.  It’s a beautifully photographed book with easy to follow recipes, from balls, to sauces, to sides. The generous folks at The Meatball Shop are giving away one book to a lucky reader!

buy it!

You can purchase The Meatball Shop from Amazon

win it!

Leave a comment telling us what is your favorite type of meatball!  The mandatory entries must be done otherwise the bonus entries will not count.

bonus entries!

1. Subscribe to our blog and leave a blog comment saying you’ve subscribed (1 entry)

2. “Like” The Ravenous Couple on Facebook and leave a blog comment with your first name and last initial (1 entry)

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4. Follow both The Ravenous Couple and The Meatball Shop on Twitter and leave a blog comment after tweeting (1 entry) :
Win a copy of The Meatball Shop cookbook from @ravenouscouple and @MEATBALLERS! http://www.theravenouscouple.com/?p=2510

US entries only. Contests ends on midnight Saturday 2/18. A winner will be chosen at random.  Congrats to Hao, L!

We had a fun opportunity and pleasure of hosting a ‘baby sprinkle’ for my dear sister and brother in law as they await the arrival of their second baby. Baby Sprinkles are smaller than Baby Showers and celebrate the birth of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on of babies.  We wanted to welcome the newest member of the family and ‘sprinkle’ my sister and brother in law with love, fun, laughter, and of course good food!   I’m so thankful to be selected for Foodbuzz 24×24 which sponsored the event and wanted to share with you all the fun, festivities, and of course menu of our baby sprinkle.  Since  the gender of the baby is to be a surprise, we decided to go with a green and yellow rubber ducky party theme.  I made this simple, yet elegant diaper cake as the main centerpiece.

We are lucky ducks living in Los Angeles with 75 degree weather in January so we had the party in our backyard.  Rubber ducks floating in a pond of water and blue crystals served as table centerpieces. Now to the fun part…the menu!  Here are some of the courses from the menu.  Our main course was sous vide flank steak tacos topped with salsa, guacamole, grilled green onions, jalepenos, and starfruit.

As a refreshing side dish, we had green papaya salad with Vietnamese beef jerky and a soy vinaigrette.

For refreshments, we had fresh rosemary and meyer lemonade with all the ingredients from our own garden.  We even made these adorable duck inserts for the straws.

For our dessert spread, we had a green and yellow desert station with assorted green and yellow candy. I also made these onesies bunting to decorate the table.

Our talented cousin made these adorable, delicious, and moist lemon cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting. She also made the duck toppers with white chocolate—simply amazing!

I’ve been on a macaron tear lately and made a variety of yellow and green macarons. From left to right, they are pear macarons with meyer lemon curd, meyer lemon macarons with meyer lemon curd, and finally pistachio macarons with a meyer lemon zested chocolate ganache. We painted the top of the macarons to add a lil’ pizazz!

What’s a party without some pops? We bought rice krispie treats and served them in pop form. The cake was a chocolate banana cake from Portos Bakery because every celebration needs a cake.

Finally, as party favors for the guests, we had an instant photobooth for guests to play around in the tub with rubber duckies!   My cute little niece is having merry time!

Can’t wait to meet our new addition to the fam bam.  Congrats again to my sister and brother in law and thank you to Foodbuzz for selecting us for 24×24  this month!

Does your pantry look like this? Ours was a recurring nightmare. No matter how many times we tried to clean the pantry, it would rear its messy, disorganized face again like a bad garden weed. Our pantry troubles began in our small apartment and followed us into our new home. We had bags of noodles, spices, flour, all intermingled. Some were in the original packaging while others wrapped in plastic grocery bags. We used our memory to remember what we had, instead of any organized method of inventory. Commonly we’ll buy new bags of spices because we couldn’t find the old bag. At last count, we had four bags of sesame seeds-two of them were partially used.

Before the Lunar New Year, Tết, it’s traditional to clean and organize your house. This new year, we resolved to clean and organize our pantry. We had to find something that would be versatile, easy to use, long lasting, and space saving. So the first time we tried Oxo Pop containers, we knew we had to get more. Check out how we solved our pantry nightmares:

In the past, inevitably, our pantry would go from order to disorder very quickly after a reorganization, but now, three weeks with the Oxo pop containers, everything has it’s place our pantry hasn’t disintergrated into a disorganized morass like before. We love it! Our pantry nightmares has been Oxo-fied!

The nice folks at Oxo have been generous to let us try out the Oxo pop along with their other organization tools and they’re giving away a set of Oxo Pop containers and other organizing products worth $100 total to one lucky reader!

To Win

Show us what you plan to Oxo-fy! Post a photo of your pantry on our Facebook page wall and the photo with the most likes will win! So get all your friends to vote on your photo. Contest ends Friday 1/27 at midnight pacific time.  Good luck!

Spicy, fiery red, and murky, the appearance of bún bò Huế is almost the antithesis of it’s better known Vietnamese soup counterpart, phở bò, which is valued for it’s clarity and pure clean flavors. Although both have beef as it’s main ingredient, it would be a gross injustice to call a spicy version of pho.  It’s an entirely different animal altogether with flavors stewed from the marrows of both beef and pork bones along with stalks of bruised lemongrass. The clear broth is then infused with a spicy and wonderous medley of red annato oil,  crushed chile peppers, more lemongrass, along with a generous dollop of pungent minced fish paste.  If you’re not already salivating by now, you should be.  Ladled over thick rice noodles, common toppings include sliced beef shank, ham hock, cooked pork blood, pork patties called chả Huế,  and finally plenty of fresh herbs.  Hungry yet?

If you’re from Huế , you’ll just call it bún bò, but anywhere else in the world, you’ll call it bún bò Huế.  We just call it pure goodness.   You can make this goodness in your own home and it’s not that hard to do.   The  two main steps are making the broth and seasoning spice. Although the entire process might take about 4-6 hours (sometimes we simmer the broth overnight), the amount of time active cooking is minimal as you’ll see in the video.

Since we always make a huge pot (32 qt) of bún bò Huế, friday or saturday evenings are favorite times undertake this ritual so we can invite friends and family to enjoy over the weekend. Also, a little work goes a long way. The spice mix used to flavor the broth can be kept refrigerated for months to satisfy a bún bò Huế craving any time. To save time, we use a pre-package mix and supplement it with our own spices. Use this recipe as a guide, if you’re using a much smaller pot adjust your ingredients accordingly for smaller portions.

Bun Bo Hue Recipe

Yield: Serves at least 15 large bowls

Ingredients:

broth:
32 qt pot
6 lb pork bones
6 lb beef bones
3 lb beef shank
14 qt water
1-2 lbs sliced ham hocks
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbs fine shrimp paste

10-12 stalks of lemongrass, using only the white and green ends, bruise and tie together in bunches
1/4 whole pineapple (fresh if possible)
1 yellow onion, peeled

spice mix:
3/4 cup oil (grapeseed or olive oil)
3 tbs annatto seeds
1 packet of bún bò Huế seasoning
2 tbs minced garlic
2 tbs minced shallot
1/4 cup minced lemongrass
2-3 tbs chile pepper flakes (adjust according to your taste)
3 tbs fine shrimp paste

accompaniments:
bun bo hue noodles, cooked al dente according to directions and drained
precooked pork blood
cha hue or cha lua
sliced cabbage
sliced banana blossom (see this post on how to prepare)
rau ram
bean sprouts
fine shrimp paste

Directions:

clean the bones: In large stock pot, add the pork and beef bones and enough water to cover. Bring to boil and immediately dump out the water and bones in a clean sink, wash the pot and then rinse the bones, placing them back into the pot.

broth: Add bones, water, beef shank, pork hock, lemongrass, pineapple, onion, shrimp paste, salt, and sugar and bring to boil. With a fine mesh strainer occasionally remove any gunk that rises to the top. Then reduce the heat to lowest setting to simmer. The pork hocks should take about 45 min-1 hr to cook--when the skin is tender, remove and set aside. The 3lbs of beef shank takes roughly 3 hrs to cook. To see if the beef shank is cooked, poke a chopstick into the center, it should slide in with minimal pressure. If there is no blood oozing out, then it's done. Remove and place in water bath to avoid discoloration and set aside until ready to slice.

After removing the hocks and shank, continue to simmer the broth under low heat partially covered for at least another 1 hour (roughly minimum of 4 hours total--but you can simmer longer and overnight even) to get all the sweetness from the marrow bones. At this point, you can remove the bones, pineapple, etc. and strain the broth if you like. Otherwise, you can leave the bones in and scoop around it. Season broth to taste with additional shrimp paste and or salt/sugar.

spice mix: Steep the annatto seed in hot oil until it becomes amber red, and remove from heat and strain and discard seeds. In large saute pan on medium, heat the anatto oil, add garlic, minced lemongrass, minced shallots, and seasoning packet. Saute a few minutes until the mixture becomes fragrant. Remove from heat and mix in fine shrimp paste. Allow to cool and transfer to storage container. This lasts for months.

accompaniments: Slice beef shank thinly, cube pork blood, slice the cha. Prepare the noodles, shred the cabbage and banana blossom, rau ram, etc.

putting it all together: Add the spice mix to the broth according to your level of desired spiciness. You can now season the entire large pot with the spice mix according to your taste, or do what we do, season only the amount of broth you're going to serve and adjusting the level of spiciness to your guest's tastes. Ladle over prepared bowls of noodles and enjoy.

Cooks Notes: If you're making this in the evening, after removing the shank and hock, you can leave the pot on the lowest heat setting to simmer the bones over night. But please use caution and never do this if your pot is too small and broth is close to brim!

Just a few notes on the beef shank and the noodles. The shank is a tough cut because of abundant tendon and sinew, but that’s precisely why it’s good. We like the meat of the shank soft but tendon still chewy so we cook our 3 lb tendon roughly 3 hours. It’s not often found in regular markets so get this at your Asian market.  The rice noodles for bún bò Huế is also much thicker, just smaller than your banh canh or udon noodles. It should be cooked al dante, firm and just slightly chewy and not mushy soft.  Recently our favorite pot to cook noodles for soups and pasta is the Bialetti 5 qt pasta pot.   We love the functionality: it’s nonstick interior, heat resistant handles, and lock lid strainer. But it’s also gorgeous and it has a vaunted spot on our stove next to our cherry red le creuset for everyday use such as making canh. We’re happy to say that the nice folks at Bialetti will be giving away a 5 qt pasta pot to a lucky reader in favorite color (also comes in tourquoise and purple!) To enter:

Mandatory Entry

Leave a comment telling us your favorite Vietnamese noodle soup. The mandatory entry must be done otherwise the bonus entries will not count.

Bonus Entries

1. Subscribe to our blog and leave a blog comment here saying you’ve subscribed (1 entry)

2. “Like” The Ravenous Couple on Facebook and leave a blog comment here with your first name and last initial (1 entry)

3. “Like” Bialetti on Facebook and leave a blog comment here with your first name and last initial. (1 entry)

4. Follow The Ravenous Couple on Twitter and leave a blog comment here after tweeting (1 entry) : I just entered to win a #bialetti pasta pot from @ravenouscouple! Enter here: http://www.theravenouscouple.com/?p=1589

5. In addition to following us on Twitter, you can tweet every day with above comment from #4.  Leave a link to your tweet in a blog comment here (1 entry per day)

US addresses only. Contest ends Sunday 1/1 at midnight! Winners will be selected randomly and notified by email. Thank you everyone for entering, the winner is Tudo!

Disclosure: We were provided the pot to test, but the opinions are our own.

Before starting each meal, the Vietnamese will say “moi”  (adding kinh makes it more respectful) to each other, inviting friends and family to enjoy the meal.  So enjoy our bún bò Huế recipe, and..

This is our contribution to the final Delicious Vietnam, hosted by Anh of Food Lovers Journey. It’s been a great two year run, check out all the previous posts for a great collection of Vietnamese recipes from around the globe!

Due to popular demand and inspired by the Filipino version created by Pig Parts and Beer, we’ve printed Heo Yeah’s T’s just in time for the holidays and they’re ready to ship to your pork lovin’ friends and family. Shirts are printed on 100% cotton fashion fit t’s  and come in S-XL but in very limited quantities so don’t miss out (1/3 have already been reserved by pre-order!) Also, buy with confidence using paypal.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Senhoa, a nonprofit dedicated to helping victims of human trafficking in Southeast Asia.

Visit the Ravenous Couple Store today and get one for yourself and some for your friends and family. Thanks for the support!