Cooking: Vietnamese Pork Ball Lettuce Wraps

I was going to bring a Broadway pea salad to a birthday happy hour celebration, but then the hostess suggested I put it into lettuce cups and so I decided to just scrap that pea salad plan and make this:  Pork and Lemongrass Meatballs in Lettuce Cups. I went to an Asian market and bought lemongrass like the recipe called for, but I had never worked with this ingredient.  I decided to take a hammer to the last five inches of it before mincing.

I got a lot of aggression out and found the last five inches of lemongrass toward the bulb very easy to mince with my chef's knife:)

I then put about 2 tablespoons of that minced lemongrass into a bowl with 2 pounds of ground pork along with 2 tablespoons of minced shallot, 4 stalks of scallions sliced, 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 4 tablespoons of chopped cilantro, 4 large cloves of minced garlic, and a 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper because I didn't have any white pepper.

I then took my mini scoop and plopped them onto my lighted barbecue grill full of 20 lit briquets.  

These are my Vietnamese pork balls after 10 minutes after which I turned them over to brown on the other side.

Here are my Vietnamese pork balls after 20 minutes of grilling in the rain.

While my pork balls were grilling, I grated half of a large carrot and mandolin sliced 4 Persian cucumbers into a bowl of 4 tablespoons of lime juice, 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon minced lemongrass and chopped Serrano and Fresno chile pepper.

I also rinsed and spun a head of butter lettuce and placed the leaves into a bowl.

Lastly I used tongs to place the meatballs into a serving bowl and poped into a 200 degree oven to keep warm for serving a half hour later at the party while I showered and got ready for a birthday celebration.  My appetizers were well received, and I had leftoverer  meatballs and cucumber salad which will be terrific atop a bowl of rice vermicelli along with sprinkles of chopped mint and cilantro for a homemade lunch.

Cooking: Quiche and Soup

Anticipating a busy work week, I spent my Monday afternoon grocery shopping and cooking a mushroom quiche and a cream of cauliflower and broccoli soup.

I chopped cauliflower and broccoli, freshly harvested from the garden and then drizzled olive oil and sprinkled salt to roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

While the vegetables were roasting, I chopped and minced an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a fennel bulb.

And diced a couple of slices of bacon because....

I needed some fat to sauté my onion, garlic and fennel bulb.  However, the bacon was rather lean, and so I added some pasture-raised pork lard to the sauté.  

I also poured myself a glass of Chardonnay and set out a homemade chicken stock because the soup called for those ingredients.

My cauliflower and broccoli had finished roasting.

And into the soup pot went the roasted vegetables and my glass of wine until the alcohol evaporated followed by the chicken broth.

While my soup simmered for about an hour before pureeing in the blender, I had also collected sprigs of thyme and marjoram from the herb garden and diced a shallot and sliced brown crimini mushrooms as well as grated leftover Emmenthaler and Gruyere cheeses which had made for some tasty grilled cheese sandwiches.  I had also pressed a frozen pie crust into a glass pie plate, crimping and poking holes all over it before baking in the 400 degree oven for twelve minutes.  Sauté the mushrooms and shallots and herbs--the leaves will fall off the branches which you can pluck out--until soft and caramelized.  Sprinkle the vegetables and the grated cheese into the  bottom of the pre-baked pie crust, but don't forget to reserve some of the cheese like I had forgotten to sprinkle on top of the custard.  Beat six eggs with heavy whipping cream and pour into the pre-filled pie shell.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, and  then turn the oven down to 350 and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the quiche to bake for another 20 to 25 minutes.  The top can be jiggly in the middle because it will set.