Vietnamese-Style Meatball Lettuce Wraps and cookbook review: Milk Street 365

The new Milk Street 365 is amazing. It is huge!! It’s a giant collection of global recipes. Each one we tried was super flavorful with the least effort possible. Delicious minimalism. Love that! It’s the book I wish I’d been given when I was younger. Totally giftable book for the beginner and seasoned foodie alike.

Milk Street 365 (Amazon affiliate link)

I will tell you all about the dishes we tried in a minute, but first I wanted to give you a recipe to try. Vietnamese-Style Meatball Lettuce Wraps. Oh my yum!!! Outstanding. All of the flavor. All of it. They are even more delicious than they are cute. Love delicious, healthy, easy, pocket-friendly dinners and this ticks all of the boxes! The fish sauce really makes the drizzle sauce craveable.

A huge thanks to the folks at Milk Street and Voracious for letting me share this and two more upcoming recipes with you!

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EXCERPTED FROM MILK STREET 365 BY CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL. COPYRIGHT © 2024 BY CPK MEDIA, LLC. PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNIE MILLER OF CB CREATIVE, USED WITH PERMISSION OF VORACIOUS, AN IMPRINT OF LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. NEW YORK, NY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Vietnamese-Style Meatball Lettuce Wraps

Start to finish: 35 minutes
Servings: 4

Vietnamese meatballs are often skewered and grilled, but for a quick weeknight meal, a skillet does a fine job. You could serve these over steamed rice or rice vermicelli, but we liked them with herbs and lettuce leaves for wrapping, along with a lime juice and fish sauce mixture for drizzling. They’re also a great filling for Vietnamese báhn mì sandwiches.

3 teaspoons grapeseed or other neutral oil, divided
1 pound ground pork
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus cilantro sprigs, to serve
Ground black pepper
6 scallions, white and light green parts minced, dark green parts thinly sliced, reserved separately
5 Tablespoons fish sauce, divided
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons white sugar, divided
½ cup lime juice
1 or 2 serrano chilies, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
Lettuce leaves, to serve

Coat a large plate with 1 teaspoon of the oil; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the pork, 3 Tablespoons water, cilantro, ½ teaspoon pepper, minced scallions, 2 Tablespoons of the fish sauce and the 2 teaspoons sugar. Mix vigorously with a silicone spatula until thoroughly combined, 20 to 30 seconds. The mixture will be soft and sticky. With lightly moistened hands, form into 20 balls and place on the prepared plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, the 3 remaining Tablespoons fish sauce, the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar and the chilies until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Line another plate with paper towels. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil until barely smoking. Add the meatballs and cook undisturbed til the bottoms are golden brown, 1-2 minutes. Using a spatula, turn each meatball and continue to cook, adjusting the heat as needed and occasionally turning the meatballs, until golden brown all over, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to the prepared plate, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, toss the carrots with 2 Tablespoons of the lime juice sauce. Serve the meatballs with the carrots, cilantro sprigs, sliced scallions and lettuce leaves for wrapping. The remaining sauce can be spooned onto the wraps.

Now let me tell you about the dishes we tried in that book….

Eggplant and Tahini Dip p. 596 with the Tomato, Cucumber and Green Chili Salad topping variation. Outstanding! We loved the fresh, spicy, crispy zing the salad provided, rounding out the smoky, nutty earthy flavors of the eggplant dip. I made this with the Greek Yogurt and Olive Oil Flatbreads p. 523, and the table was humming with everyone making yummy sounds. The texture of the flatbreads was amazing – fluffy with that perfect resistance in the tear. The brush of za’atar oil puts them over the top. Just an amazing dinner!

Avocado, Pineapple and Arugula Salad with Fresh Chili and Lime p. 19. Love this salad so much. Fresh, rich, spicy, and sweet with acidic pops. It is perfectly balanced. I’ve got the book it was inspired by. We were lucky enough to go to her restaurant in Hoboken, NJ before it closed. Absolute gem.

Greek Egg-Lemon Soup p. 110. This is just the best egg-lemon soup. The flavors and textures are perfection. So much lemon flavor and the egg yolks make it wonderfully rich.

Vietnamese-Style Meatball Lettuce Wraps p. 466. Oh my yum!!! Outstanding. All of the flavor. All of it. They are even more delicious than they are cute. Love delicious, healthy, easy, pocket-friendly dinners and this ticks all of the boxes! The fish sauce really makes the drizzle sauce craveable.

Neapolitan Meatballs with Ragu p. 470. Loved these. I was surprised by how high the ratio of panko bread crumbs was to the meat, but they resulted in an ultra tender meatball. I love that they’re baked off in the oven and finished in the sauce so you don’t have to fuss over them at all.

Thai Cashew Chicken p. 266. Outstanding dinner. The Thai chili paste flavors the chicken beautifully, but also makes the dish quite a looker. It’s spicy, sweet, nutty, and just a flavor explosion. There are three chili elements and two different onions at play.

Mexican Shrimp in Garlic Sauce p. 382 with Black Bean-Bell Pepper Salad with Coconut and Lime p. 138. This was an amazing dinner. The shrimp were just delicious and so easy. It’s such a quick one that I think it would be great for entertaining. I think this one would grill really well on those days you don’t want to come in from the sunshine. The black bean salad is wonderful. I love that they have you heat the beans so that they just inhale all the lime zest and juice flavor. Fabulous tropical summer salad.

Chicken Tagine with Artichokes, Olives, and Lemon p. 339. This chicken stew is wonderfully briny, salty, with acidic pops and warm spices. It’s wonderful.

Crispy Dijon Cutlets with Cucumber Dill Salad p. 434. Really simple with balanced flavors. Mustard in the chicken against light, refreshing cucumbers, lemon, and dill.

Steak Salad with Walnuts, Pomegranate Molasses, and Blue Cheese p. 480. Great salad. The pomegranate molasses is lovely against the rich tangy blue cheese. Pretty too. I just finished the plate off with strawberries.

Garlic Rosemary Burgers with Taleggio Sauce p. 543. These burgers were fabulous with the gooey, funky Taleggio cheese sauce. Fresh garlic and piney rosemary complemented it perfectly.

Tacos al Pastor p. 570. These are fantastic! Tacos al Pastor in an hour with all the flavor! They really showcase Milk Street’s signature minimalist effort with big flavor.

No-Fry Neapolitan Eggplant Parmesan p. 56. Thank you! I never bread or fry eggplant either. The smoked provolone was an unexpected and fun variation on a classic. Much lighter, too! This is very little hands-on time for eggplant parmesan with all of the yum!

Brazilian-Style Pizza with Ricotta, Za’atar and Arugula p. 510. The dough takes only about 15 minutes to pull together, then after a 2 hour rise, it rests in the fridge for 24 – 72 hours, so it’s waiting when you’re ready. I went the 72 hour route to let all the flavor develop. Fabulous pizza!

Tomato-Olive focaccia p. 531. Total wow. The flavors are fantastic and the texture is wonderful. This is super fluffy focaccia that’s chewy with a sexy fried exterior.

Jerusalem-Style Mixed-Grill Chicken p. 418. Great! I love the multi-treatment of onions to layer on the flavors. The tahini dressing is so rich and nutty against the chicken and the quick-pickled onions. I just made peppers and zucchini to go with it. I want to make it again on skewers on the wood grill.

Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Red Peppers p. 217. Great tortilla. Loved the additions of roasted peppers and paprika.

Hungarian Goulash p. 357. Yum! Great goulash that gets some time-saving help from the pantry. Really rich paprika based flavor like usual, but with some unexpected vegetables that add wonderful nuances to the flavor, so sweet and earthy.

There are over 600 recipes in the book. I added so many little flags to try that it actually distorted its shape. 🙂 Yeah. I think everyone needs this one.

#MilkStreet #177MilkStreet @177MilkStreet #MilkStreet365 #ChristopherKimball #JenniferGuerrero #TheNotSoStarvingArtist @StarvingArtistEats

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Need that book? Milk Street 365 (Amazon affiliate link)