Eel Sauce

 Found this tucked in a cookbook. I couldn’t find it until recently! 

It’s meant to be drizzled on like a thick sauce. It’s been a couple years but trust me, it’s good. 

Eel Sauce

1 cup mirin

1/2 cup sake

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons Hondashi pellets (Japanese product) 

Stir to dissolve. Boil.

Add 1 cup soy sauce, boil again then reduce to simmer 15 minutes. Bring back to boil then add a cornstarch slurry of 1 Tb cold water to 1 Tb cornstarch. Stir. Boil 5 min. Cool 1 hour then bottle. 

Buckeyes

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb creamy peanut butter

• 2 sticks softened butter

• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 lb confectioners’ sugar

• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

• In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.
• Chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.
• Press a toothpick into the top of the peanut butter ball as the handle for dipping into the chocolate. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving!

Bánh mì By Mark Bittman

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 30 minutes

Bánh mì — a Vietnamese-style hoagie — is often a complicated affair with different components. Here it’s pared down to the absolute essentials: pork and pickled vegetables. Pretty cool for 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 small daikon radish or 4 small regular red radishes

• 1 large carrot

• 1 small cucumber

• Salt

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 1-inch fresh ginger

• 1 garlic clove

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil

• 1 pound ground pork

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise

• 2 teaspoons Sriracha, or more to taste

• 4 hard sub rolls

• Several sprigs fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. Trim and peel the daikon or 4 small radishes, carrot, and cucumber. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. If you’re using a food processor for grating, cut the vegetables into chunks that will fit through the feed tube. Shred them by machine or by hand on a box grater. Put the vegetables in a colander in the sink; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt and 3 tablespoons sugar, and toss. Let sit.

2. Put a large skillet over medium-high heat. Peel and mince 1-inch ginger and 1 garlic clove. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to the skillet along with the ginger and garlic. After a quick stir, add the ground pork; let it brown in the pan, 2 or 3 minutes. 

3. Add 1 tablespoon each fish sauce and soy sauce to the pork. Stir and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes. When the pork is fully cooked, remove the pan from the heat.

4. Turn the broiler to high; put the rack 6 inches from the heat. While it heats, stir together 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 2 teaspoons Sriracha in a small bowl. Split the sub rolls open and broil them until lightly toasted, 1 to 3 minutes. When the sub rolls are toasted, remove them from the broiler; spread with Sriracha mayonnaise.

5. By now, the shredded vegetables will have released some water; squeeze out the water through the colander. Divide the vegetables among the sub rolls. Lay the pork on top of the shredded vegetables. Top with several cilantro sprigs (stems and all) and serve.

Tofu Banh Mi
Skip the ground pork. (If you also skip the fish sauce and use eggless mayo, this becomes vegan.) In step 2, crumble 1 ½ pounds (1 ½ blocks) firm for extra-firm tofu into the skillet. Cook, stirring, and scraping the bottom of the skillet occasionally, and adjusting the heat as necessary, until the tofu browns and crisps as much or as little as you like it, anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about a minute, then stir in the fish sauce and soy sauce. Proceed with the recipe.