Eat, Drink, Brunch

My lets play in the test kitchen at a friend's Casablanca ended up being a brunch party with wonderful company. 

                There was banh mis, cheese party, delicious refreshments, Rudy's, and dessert (spelled with 2's')

I hosted a banh mi bar~I was occupied with the prepping & cooking, didn't get to take many pics. Thanks VMA for the pics~

Kneading & Rinsing the veggies

 A few days before the brunch, I got a start on my veggies. Do Chua aka Pickled Carrots.

My mandolin was defected, so I had to chopped up some julienne carrots & grated the daikons.

After 45 min of chopping & grating, the next step was to massage them..JK..Sprinkle some salt and I started kneading for a few minutes to get all the moisture out until it was flimsy carrot.

bathing time!

Next step was to rinse off all the salt.

Now the veggies are ready to be bathe in a glass jar. They say you can make this a day or few hours ahead of time. My batch was pickled for about 4 days.

My first meat filling is from the pig. I tried to make Vietnamese sausage aka Cha Lua. click me for more info. For Christmas, I'm so asking Santa for a bad ass food processor. Cha Lua requires a lot of grinding to where the the pork becomes paste. I had lots of air bubbles, and it was mistaken for vegetarian sausage. Next time, I will ask the butcher to grind my pork twice, hopefully that helps!

 Ingredients were simple:

Ground Pork, Baking Soda, Fish Sauce, Water, and Tapioca Starch.

The prepping process took about 1.5 days

  

I was not pleased with the texture, so I fried it. It helped a little bit. Frying gave it a crispy texture on the outside. When you fry cha lua its called cha chien

My second filling is from the cow. A few days before the tasting I made my own Bo Ne. It was delicious & tons of flavor. But sure was greasy from all the butter I used -_-

 However, at the tasting I was so disappointed at myself. I went the frugal route and used sirloin instead of ribeye steak. OMG it was so BAD. I'm so embarrassed to discuss about it.  The eggs were also dry as well...hahah because I didn't use as much butter or grease like Paula Deen. I had the skillet work its magic on low heat.

 

winner winner chicken dinner

My third filling is from the hen. I made ga ro ti, roasted chicken. Save the best for last. 

Thanks Sous Chef~

Baguettes catered from Parisian Bakery & Thim Hing

Made my own Vietnamese mayo aka butter. Will defiantly work on that..still wondering why fresh garlic changes some things. I Didn't have the guts & time to make Pate, so I cheated and bought some ^_^

Preparing the chestnuts.

For dessert, I made Che Thai. Simple make ahead dessert. My favorite ingredient is the f aux pomegranate, its chestnuts covered in tapioca flour.

 Enough of banh mi, time for other goodies!!

Beautiful & Delicious Cheese Assortment

Birdy made Wrapped Baked Brie filled with some kind of jam and topped with brown sugar..So delicious~

Delicious beverages provided by the 211 ladies. So bubbly and refreshing~

 Chinese Egg Tarts & Mochi Balls courtesy of Mr. Lam.

Our Test Kitchen Item that failed...Brazilian Cheese Bread

That's it for now....can't wait to plan the next party~

later gators, bmg