Vietnamese Cuisine

Many thanks to Huyen Doan for cooking up a delicious meal of Egg Drop Soup and Vietnamese Meatballs, as well as her helpers, Jill and Nicole. The meatballs were served in sandwich form on sliced french bread, and the soup and sandwiches hit the spot for our large group of hungry LIFE members! The recipes for these dishes are included below. Huyen advised us to be very careful when stirring the eggs into the egg drop soup--only stir in one direction in order to create strings of eggs, rather than scrambled eggs. This was an especially informative and delicious program!

Vietnamese Egg Drop Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 can water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 bag frozen snow peas
• green onion or cilantro for garnish
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• black pepper

Instructions:

In a saucepan, bring the chicken broth and water to a boil. Add the snow peas and salt, sugar, and black pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2-3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Stir the mixture into the stock and let it simmer for a minute or two until the broth no longer tastes starchy.

Beat 3 eggs in a small bowl and very slowly pour in the eggs and gently stir in a clockwise direction until they form and turn off the heat.

Garnish with chopped green onion or cilantro and serve.

Vietnamese Meatball Sandwiches

Meatball Ingredients:	Sauce Ingredients:
·         1 pound ground pork	·         1 can chicken broth
·         1 large egg	·         1 tablespoon cornstarch
·         3 cloves garlic, minced	·         ½ tablespoon sugar
·         1 medium white/yellow onion (chopped)	·         ½ teaspoon salt
·         ½ tablespoon cornstarch	·         8 ounces diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
·         1 tablespoon sugar	·         1 tablespoon cooking oil
·         ½ teaspoon salt	·         1 garlic clove, minced
·         ½ teaspoon black pepper	·         1 tablespoon shallots, minced
·         ½ teaspoon garlic powder	·         1 scallion, chopped
	·         ½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:

Combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Scoop 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture and form into meat balls, put each on a plate or tray

In a saucepan or wok, heat 1 tablespoon cooking oil and fry the minced garlic and shallot until fragrant. Then add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste, sugar, chicken broth, black pepper and tomato sauce. Cook until broiled and add meatballs. Cover and simmer on low for 10 minutes.

(If you want thicker sauce you can add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.)

To make a sandwich, slice the baguette halfway to open, put the meatball inside and use the spoon to break it into chunks. Spoon the tomato sauce on top of the meatballs. Finish with cilantro and shredded carrots.