MULTIPURPOSE MEAT PASTE

Steps:

• Slice each breast and thigh across the grain into 1/4-inch-thick strips. When cutting the breast tenders, remove and discard the silvery strip of tendon. Keep any visible fat for richness, but trim away any cartilage or sinewy bits, as they won't grind well.
• To make the marinade, in a bowl large enough to fit the chicken, whisk together the baking powder, tapioca starch, sugar, fish sauce, and oil. Add the chicken and use a rubber spatula to mix well. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to overnight. The chicken will stiffen as it sits.
• Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and use a spoon to break it apart. Working in batches, grind the chicken in a food processor until a smooth, stiff, light pink paste forms. (This step takes several minutes and the machine will get a good workout.) Stop the machine occasionally to scrape down the sides. When you are finished, there should be no visible bits of chicken and the paste should have a slight sheen. Using the rubber spatula, transfer each batch to another bowl, taking care to clean well under the blade.
• The paste is ready to use, or it can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. For long-term keeping, divide it into 1/2- and 1-pound portions (a scant 1 cup paste weighs 1/2 pound), wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap, and freeze for up to 2 months.
• To make giò the old-fashioned way, you must first hand pound the meat and then add the marinade ingredients. Use a large Thai stone mortar and pestle, which can be found reasonably priced at Asian restaurant-supply and housewares shops. My 9-inch-wide mortar has a 5-cup capacity bowl that is 6 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The 8-inch-long pestle is about 2 inches wide at the base. Select a pestle that fits your hand comfortably. (Stone pestles, heavier than the wooden one mentioned in the chapter introduction, make pounding easier.)
• To minimize physical strain, I sit on a low kitchen stool and put the mortar on a solid table or box, with the rim of the mortar slightly below my knee. You may also sit on the floor with the mortar between your legs. Place a thick towel under the mortar to protect the work surface. Regardless of your setup, you want to sit astride the mortar and efficiently use your upper body strength to work the pestle. It takes about 35 minutes to produce a full batch of paste, so you may want to halve the recipe. To yield giò that is close to the traditional version, pound pork (see Note, above), which works better than chicken. The beef mixture used for making Beef, Dill, and Peppercorn Sausage (page 161) is also a good candidate for hand pounding.
• Cut the meat into 1/4-inch-thick strips as instructed in the recipe. Blot the meat dry with paper towels to prevent it from sliding around the mortar.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients. Set aside near the pounding station. (Hand-pounded giò doesn't traditionally call for leavener and starch, but I find that they guarantee a silkier result that is neither too dense nor too firm.)
• Put about 1/2 pound of the meat (or a quantity you find manageable) in the mortar and start pounding with a steady rhythm, pausing only to remove any gristly bits that come loose. After about 4 minutes, the meat should have gathered into a mass and, perhaps, even stuck to the pestle, allowing you to use the pestle to lift the meat from the mortar and pound it down again. Keep pounding for another 2 minutes to make the meat cohere into a smooth mass that resembles a ball of dough. Use a rubber spatula or plastic dough scraper to transfer the meat to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining meat.
• Add all the marinade ingredients to the meat, stirring with a fork until the marinade is no longer visible. In batches, pound the meat for about 3 minutes longer to combine all the ingredients well. You should hear a suction noise as air is mixed in. The finished paste will feel firm and look ragged, and small nuggets of meat will be suspended in the paste. Transfer the paste to a clean bowl and repeat with the remaining meat.