Monday, January 9, 2012

Veg News Bahn Mi Recipe

Bahn Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on French Bread.  VegNews just published a recipe from Robin Robertson.  I've had really good results from her books and recipes and here are the steps in living color.  

The recommendation is to freeze, thaw, and then press the tofu.  I don't have time for such nonsense.  (Well, ok, there is a rock solid frozen tub of tofu defrosting in my fridge right now but I really really am motivated to just pick up a recipe and cook.  I hate when the first thing a recipe says is, "Three days ago you should have started to ... "

The only thing I didn't have in my pantry, (as it were), was a Daikon radish.  No problem, 4 blocks away is Fairway market.  They had it.  Hey, this is New York.  I could probably buy a howitzer if I wanted ... at 3 in the morning, so picking up a radish is really no sweat.

As in anything you pickle or marinate it should be done in advance.  I gave it about an hour, mixing the carrot and radish, after julienning on a mandolin, about an hour.  It was good enough.

Here's the pressed, (unfrozen) tofu just sautéing in peanut oil.  (Dr. Fuhrman, avert your eyes).  It crisps up slightly to a light light brown.


You sauté the tofu and while this is sizzling away I mixed up the sauce.

Basic asian sauce: soy, hoisin, and sriracha.

Adding the sauce to the tofu.  The tofu was cooked in 2 batches.

Now to build the sandwich.  Vegan mayo, tofu, scallions, (my touch), and sriracha on the top half of the bread.

Keep building by adding the carrot/daikon layer and throw on some jalapeños for laughs.  Actually, these were Roland brand and weren't all that hot.

The finished sandwich.  It had to really be held together to keep everything from squirting out.  I have to work on the bread resistance factor to the interior smash ration but the taste was phenomenal, sweet, tangy, spicy heat, and fat from the mayo.  As you can see I'm terrible with recipes sometimes.  I added mayo to both halves and added the forgotten cilantro to the second half of the sandwich.  Even better.


Thanks Robin.

Second half with mayo under the sriracha and cilantro.

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