Bún Bò Huế Consommé Poured Over a Foie Gras Bánh Mì Terrine
The spicy, lemongrass-heavy beef soup of central Vietnam clarified into a crystal consommé and served hot over a cold slice of terrine built from the ingredients of a bánh mì, foie gras included. Colonial history on a plate, deliberately, and delicious.
- For the broth: 1 kg beef shin bones, 500 g pork bones, 4 stalks lemongrass, 1 tablespoon fermented shrimp paste, 2 tablespoons chilli oil, 1 onion, fish sauce, sugar
- For clarifying: 2 egg whites, 100 g minced lean beef
- For the terrine: 400 g coarse pork pâté, 150 g cured foie gras, sliced
- 150 g pickled carrot and daikon
- 4 sheets gelatine
- A handful of coriander
- Half a baguette, thinly sliced
- Lime to finish
- Make the broth: blanch the bones, then simmer with lemongrass, shrimp paste, onion and 3 litres water for 3 hours. Strain, add chilli oil, season with fish sauce and a little sugar. Cool.
- Clarify: whisk the egg whites and minced beef into 1.5 litres of cold broth, bring slowly to a simmer without stirring, let the raft form for 40 minutes, then ladle through muslin. Reserve 300 ml for the aspic.
- Dissolve the gelatine in the warm reserved broth. Line a loaf tin with cling film.
- Layer: pâté pressed flat, then foie gras, then pickles with coriander and half the aspic, then baguette slices dipped in the remaining aspic and pressed. Chill overnight.
- Slice the terrine 2 cm thick into warm bowls. Reheat the consommé, season, add lime, and pour over each slice at the table.
Bún bò Huế is the fiercest of Vietnam's soups: a beef and pork bone broth loaded with lemongrass, fermented shrimp paste and chilli oil, served over thick rice noodles. The bánh mì is a baguette sandwich, a French loaf filled with Vietnamese pâté, pork, pickled carrot, coriander and chilli, the most famous edible result of French colonisation. Our kitchen put the two together in the form of a classic French dinner: a clarified consommé poured at the table over a cold terrine.
The soup is made in full, strained, and clarified with an egg white raft in the old manner until it is transparent, red-gold, and smells of lemongrass and chilli. The terrine is layered in a loaf tin: a base of pork pâté seasoned with fish sauce, a layer of cured foie gras, a layer of pickled carrot and daikon set in a light aspic of the same broth, coriander, and a top of thin baguette slices soaked in the broth and pressed. Chilled overnight, it slices clean. The hot consommé is poured over the cold slice at the table; the aspic melts, the pickles brighten, the foie gras softens, and the bowl becomes a bánh mì you eat with a spoon.
The clarification
Whisk two egg whites and a handful of minced lean beef into the cold strained broth, bring it slowly to a bare simmer without stirring, and let the raft form and rise. Ladle the broth through the raft and a muslin cloth. It takes an hour and turns a cloudy soup into glass. Season it after clarifying, more than you think; a consommé eaten with cold terrine needs salt and a fresh squeeze of lime.
Serve in wide, warm bowls, one slice of terrine, broth poured from a jug in front of the guest. Sriracha on the table for the brave. It is a dish about a difficult history and it tastes, unmistakably, like reconciliation.
