Banh Mi Burgers
Important Note #1 - This is a draft recipe. I made it somewhat improvisationally, so the amounts are in many cases a rough guess. Please don’t consider this a bulletproof tested recipe.
Important Note #2 - I tend to think of most larger recipes as a series of smaller recipes that get assembled, so this is presented in that way.
Important Note #3 - I almost never add salt and pepper to taste to recipes as an instruction. Assume that you should taste things, decide if you think they’re salty enough, and then add more if needed.
Mushroom Paté
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 lb oyster mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 3 thyme leaves, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp maggi seasoning
Method
- Place the mushrooms and onion in a food processor and process to a fine mince, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Heat the olive oil over medium high and add the contents of the food processor. Cook on medium to medium high, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms have released their liquid and dried again.
- Use a small amount of chicken stock to do a final deglaze of the pan, then reduce to au sec.
- Add the maggi, stir, turn the heat off, then add the thyme leaves and allow the residual heat to soften them.
Allow the paté to cool, then store in the refrigerator until needed.
Banh Mi Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tsp sriracha
Method
- Mix all ingredients thoroughly and store, covered, in the fridge.
Not-Really-Pickled Carrot + Radish
I made this using store-bought pre-shredded carrot sticks, because I’m lazy, and a Korean radish, because I wanted to see what would happen.
Ingredients
- 1/2 c carrot sticks
- 1/2 c grated daikon radish
- 1 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
Method
- Combine all ingredients and store, covered, in the fridge.
Banh Mi Burger
Ingredients
- 1lb 80/20 ground beef
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1/4 tsp chinese five spice powder
Method
- Mix all of the ingredients together, then separate the beef into four oval patties.
- Grill or fry the patties via your method of choice. I grilled them on a pellet grill at 450 for 9 minutes per side.
Final Assembly
I made these with two mini baguettes cut in half down the middle because I live in the middle of nowhere and that was the closest thing I could get to the traditional sandwich roll. I think in the future I’ll make these on brioche buns just for practicality. The sandwiches wouldn’t close.
If you can get the french sandwich rolls, do that, and scoop out a bit of the soft part of the bread to create room for the fillings.
Ingredients
- 4 french sandwich rolls
- 1/2 english cucumber, sliced thin
- Cilantro, to taste
Method
- Liberally apply the Banh Mi Sauce to both sides of each roll.
- Apply a thin layer of the Mushroom Paté to the bottom half of the roll.
- Apply a thin layer of sliced cucumber to the bottom half of the roll.
- Place the Banh Mi Burger on top of the paté layer.
- Top the burger with the “not-really-pickled” vegetables and cilantro to your taste.
In no particular order, an update on various interests and hobbies.
Clocks
The mantle clock is running strong, but about five minutes fast per day. It uses a balance wheel, which is a particularly fragile and difficult-to-adjust mechanism, so I haven’t taken it down and tried to fix that yet.
The grandfather clock is out for repairs with a professional. Again. He thinks he’s found the source of the problem, and intends to publish a youtube video about it. I think it’s probably a good (or bad) sign when someone has to post a video about a new and interesting way that a clock can break. (It was magnets.)
MiniDisc
Since he was here to collect all the parts of the grandfather clock, I asked the clock guy (who also does radio repairs,) if he wanted to take a swing at one of my MiniDisc players. It was sold as non-functional with the description of “makes a whooshing noise.” I bought it because it came with what turned out to be a true goldmine of discs recorded “by a Los Angeles DJ.” The player was in beautiful physical condition, and it’s now repaired and working after a swap of the digital to analog converter.
Oh, and I bought a copy of Pure Moods on CD to convert over to MD, because it feels somehow cosmically right. Also the way this particular album looms in the psyche of people who were kids in the 90s. Young me would probably be ecstatic that we finally had a copy.
TTRPGs
I think I’ve lost one of my Earthdawn books somewhere in the house. I’ve done a thorough-enough search to think that maybe I never actually had it, but there’s some anecdata to suggest that I did. Unrelated to that, I was able to find a copy of Prelude to War at a local(-ish) used book store, leaving only four books missing from my 1e Earthdawn collection.
At the same time I also picked up The Complete Sha’ir’s Handbook, which is wizard archetypes for the old D&D setting of Al-Qadim. It’s in pristine condition and was a pretty penny in the bookstore’s rare book room. I usually prefer to buy play copies, because Toys Are Meant to be Played With, but sometimes with these old TTRPG books it’s either buy the perfect copy at collector’s prices or accept I won’t own it. Even play copies are rare. These old D&D settings are interesting to me, and the books are often very “of their time” in an almost charmingly unaware way. Nobody who wrote this book had ever heard the word appropriation, and it usually shows.
The hardbound copy of Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast finally arrived. It went directly on a shelf, because I don’t currently have the capacity to do anything with it, but I remember being charmed by the concept and thinking it might be light enough to convince some local friends to pick up casually without having to resort to digital play. With all due apologies to people who can only ever get their gaming group together on Discord, it’s not the same.
World of Warcraft
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria is probably the best and smartest thing Blizzard has done since Wrath of the Lich King. No I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic. It’s that good. I think part of why it’s that good is that it’s meant to be a limited duration event, which means that it can be fun in a way which is not also trying to prolong my subscription past its natural lifespan. It’s not trying to sell me any DLC.
It’s a reminder that somewhere in the shambling husk of Blizzard Activision is the beating heart of the company that made Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2. That, if they weren’t in the throes of a dark insanity known as shareholder primacy, they might actually be capable of doing the one thing anyone actually wants them to do: making a good game.
I hope they keep this format and go on to do it for other expansions. I’d be especially glad to see it of Shadowlands, the one expansion I never got around to playing.