Recipe - Tofu Báhn Mì

My first memory of a Báhn Mì comes from about 5 years ago, and it is one of amazement.  A friend in Atlanta and I were going to a concert and she brought along some Vietnamese sandwiches from a shop near her house.  

I was seriously amazed.  How did I not know this existed?  It’s like the original fusion food, from long before the invention of Korean burritos and Mexican pizzas.

It was another few years before the thought occurred to me to make my own and I have to say that too often I forget about what a wonderful meal Báhn Mì sandwiches make.  Recently I remembered them and made them for dinner and we all enjoyed just how fresh and bursting with flavour they are!

You can make these with meat, tofu, tempeh, eggs, or even just a ton of delicious veggies.  As one blog has pointed out, a good Báhn Mì is the sum of its parts, thus the important thing is to have a nice array of super fresh fillings. 

Summer is the best time for these sandwiches because veggies are at their most abundant and tastiest.  Fresh cilantro, mint, lettuce and other greens, thinly sliced carrots, radishes, and cucumbers, peppers, grilled zucchini and other veggies, there is no limit to what you can put on these guys!  For garnish a bit of mayonnaise and sriracha sauce (Vietnamese sweet hot sauce) is enough, but you can certainly add more.

The marinade for the meat or protein can be a simple mixture of soy sauce, garlic, oil, and lemon balm (if you have it growing rampantly in your yard like we do!).  

This recipe is loosely modeled on The Kitchn’s recipe for Báhn Mì with Lemongrass Tofu, but we added a half pound of bacon for some extra fun and crispiness.  Almost all the ingredients can be sourced through Bailey’s, including the tofu!  Substitute a locally made hot sauce or salsa for the sriracha to keep things really local.  

Tofu Báhn Mì Sandwich

Serves 4-6

Tofu and Marinade:

1 package firm tofu, sliced into 6-8 long slabs

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon local oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

2 handfuls lemon balm, minced (or lemongrass)

1 clove garlic, minced

Veggies (this is flexible so use what you have):

1-2 carrots, julienned (sliced in matchsticks)

1-2 cucumbers, julienned

1 daikon radish, julienned

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Rice wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Cilantro

Mint

Lettuce

Jalapeño peppers, sliced

French bread or ciabatta bread

Mayonnaise

Sriracha sauce

Optional (but definitely voids the vegetarian/vegan aspect!):

Bacon!  

To make the marinated tofu, mix together the soy sauce, oil, lemon balm, and garlic, add the tofu and marinate in the fridge for an hour or more.  

Mix together the julienned veggies, add a few splashes of rice wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Remove long or tough stems from the cilantro and mint.

Fry the marinated tofu in a bit of oil over medium-high heat until it is golden brown on both sides.

Serve by putting all the fillings on the table, slicing open the bread, and let everyone make their own sandwich.

Recipe: Spinach Strata

Spring is finally here!  And while there are still winter storage vegetables left to use there are also new vegetables becoming available weekly.
Spinach is one of this year’s first spring vegetables and we’ve been loving having it.  It’s an easy one to throw into whatever you’re having for dinner, either fresh or cooked.
In this dish it is just one of many flavours present, accompanied by sautéed mushrooms, onions, carrots, and a bit of bacon.  And everything in this dish is available from Baileys! 
A strata is sort of like a frittata combined with French toast.  You chop up stale bread, throw it in a casserole dish with vegetables and some meat (if you like), and cover everything with a mixture of eggs and milk.  Then you refrigerate it for a day or more allowing the stale bread to soak up much of the egg mixture.  When baked it takes on a bread pudding sort of consistency—very custardy—but in this case nothing like a dessert thanks to the savoury vegetables.

Spinach Strata
2-4 slices of bacon (optional, otherwise use oil to fry veggies)
½ onion, sliced thinly
½ lb mushrooms, chopped
½ carrot, sliced into very thin sticks, or grated
Several handfuls of spinach, roughly ¼ - ½ lb (or more!), chopped
Salt and pepper, herbs
½ loaf of stale or several-days-old bread, chopped into 1 inch pieces
8 eggs
2 cups milk (or mixture of milk and cream)
½ cup grated cheese (your choice, but something on the stronger side is nice)
Heat a frying pan or skillet and fry the bacon.  (If omitting the bacon heat oil in the pan).  Once the bacon is finished cooking remove it and chop it up (leaving the bacon grease for frying).  Add the onions, mushrooms, and carrots and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the veggies are nicely caramelized and the mushrooms have released some of their juices.
Add the spinach and salt and pepper and fry for another minute or two, until the spinach is wilted.  Mix together the eggs and milk.  Put the chopped bread into a 9x13 casserole dish, add the cooked veggies and chopped bacon, and pour the egg and milk mixture over everything.  It’s okay if some of the ingredients are not covered completely with the egg mixture.  Top with grated cheese, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. 
Preheat the oven to 350◦F.  Bake the strata uncovered for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  Let the strata sit for about 10 minutes before serving.  Serve with different garnishes to add some more colour and interest, like salsa, hot sauce, sour cream and chives, etc.

Salad Season - Simple Vinaigrette on Bacon & Radish Salad.

My goal these days is to eat as much salad as possible.  That’s mostly because our backyard garden is bursting with lettuce, kale, spinach, and more!  It’s also because I want to stock up on the leafy goodness before the weather gets too hot and they start turning bitter.  Ultimately though it’s mainly because I love salads and never seem to get sick of the endless possibilities and combinations!

Rather than dump store-bought salad dressings on these wonderful local greens, I find it better to create a spontaneous salad dressing for each unique salad.  The easiest way to make a salad dressing is to start with oil and vinegar (both of which can be local too!).  Then I follow with some garlic or herbs, a bit of mustard, honey, sometimes a bit of mayonnaise or yogurt to help make it more creamy, and finally some salt and pepper.  Here’s what a typical dressing recipe looks like:

·        ¼ local oil (sunflower, soy, canola, etc.)

·        2-3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (preferably raw)

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        1 tbsp. homemade mustard

·        1-2 tsp. honey

·        1 tbsp. yogurt

·        salt and pepper

If the salad features lots of heavier greens like kale and mature spinach I like to add some bacon to the mix (there are some health arguments in favour of this*).  My favourite way to do this is to fry 1 or 2 pieces of bacon, chopped up, and then toss the greens in the pan after turning off the heat.  The greens don’t need to cook, they just get quickly coated with the delicious bacon grease and then thrown in to the salad and everything gets tossed together with a bit of cider vinegar.

Recently I took the bacon idea a bit further and fried pieces of stale sourdough bread and thin slices of fresh radishes in the bacon grease.  This salad turned out awesome.  The end result was a salad featuring fresh lettuce, a bit of kale, croutons and radishes.  A nice addition would have been some crumbled goat cheese but alas, I didn’t have any! 

Another great addition to salads is fruit.  When adding fruit—dried or fresh—I usually leave out the sweetener in the dressing because I don’t want the salad to taste too sweet.  Now that strawberry season is here I’m excited for all the new possibilities!  How about you, care to share any favourite salad additions, or family recipe tips?

*http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20040727/fat-helps-vegetables-go-down

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401137/Is-Lard-Healthy.html

http://nourishedkitchen.com/green-beans-bacon-shallots/