See, I knew I was going to get behind on these, so while this is meal 4, it’s technically week 7. Things have been a bit crazy, so while I haven’t had time to put together exclusively local meals, most of what I eat while the farmers market is in full swing ends up being local since that’s where I do the majority of my grocery shopping. Anyway! This is a bit of an ambitious dinner for me, but it’s a pretty awesome one, if I do say so myself. The centerpiece is the banh bao, a Vietnamese pork bun. Husband came across these on his travels for work at one point or another and we figured the recipe had to be fairly easy – meat and a hard-boiled egg in a dough wrapper. We found a recipe online and made a huge batch a few years ago. They freeze and reheat surprisingly well, but it definitely is quicker work with two people. For this version, I made my own self-rising flour using the ratio here, making a 3 cup batch of flour. The original recipe calls for milk and sugar, so I substituted in 1/2 cup honey and 1 cup of goat’s milk yogurt to keep it local. My flour is also a whole wheat flour, so they didn’t come out perfectly white like the traditional banh bao, but that’s just cosmetic anyway. The filling consists of a hard-boiled quail egg, scallions, and ground pork. I even took half the batch and added a few cheese curds just for fun. The quail eggs are a new offering from our farmers market poultry vendor this year, and it’s neat to be able to use quail eggs instead of quartering a chicken egg. The poultry vendor’s two girls are raising the quail and running the whole quail egg operation on their own, so supporting the next generation of farmers as well as two young girl entrepreneurs sweetens the deal! Going around the plate, next we have sliced, roasted cheesy asparagus. I picked the bigger asparagus lot at the market, sliced them on a mandoline slicer, then tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and topped with cheese. Into the oven at 425 for about 8-10 minutes, and voila! The cookies may not be made with local ingredients, but they are from a farmers market baker. Supporting local business is part of the One Local Summer equation, so while it’s a bit of a cheat, it’s chocolate chip cookies, how could I not? In the glass is some more homebrewed mead to finish out the meal.
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Quail Eggs – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Ground Pork – Countrytime Farm
Scallions – Jack’s Farm
Cheese – Cheese curds and Fat Cat from Birchrun Hills
Asparagus – Hill Creek Farm
Cookies – The Flour Fairies
Honey – Our Beehives
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil, baking powder