Spicy Tofu Bánh Mì

Bánh Mì is the Vietnamese word for bread and is generally used to refer to the street-food sandwiches that you can find all over Vietnam (and now the rest of the world). I first developed a love for Vietnamese food (mainly phở ga) when I was living overseas in Asia, but it was not until I returned to the US that I ate Bánh Mì regularly. The suburban greater Seattle-area town that I grew up in had a rather large population of immigrants, mainly Korean and Vietnamese, which meant that there were a plethora of cheap restaurants to peruse (and peruse I did!). Of course I have my favorite family run restaurant and they have the absolute best spicy tofu Bánh Mì. Naturally the bar was set pretty high and this is my attempt to recreate their delicious sandwich.

The bread used to make Bánh Mì is always a french baguette. This is left over from French colonization, and though it is similar to a French style baguette they make them a little differently and usually is a little softer to eat. The Bánh Mì is a cultural fusion of classic french style (baguette, mayonnaise, and traditionally pate) and classic Vietnamese flavors like cilantro, jalapeno, cucumber and pickled carrots and daikon radish. With this formula you can make any kind of Bánh Mì, with almost any kind of meat. The most common meat fillings are sliced beef, pork belly and vietnamese meatballs. Today, I will be making my favorite, spicy tofu Bánh Mì, which is not normally something that you would find on the streets of Vietnam but they do serve them during celebrations at Buddist temples.

Ingredients:

• French Baguette
• 1 package of firm tofu
• a hand full of cilantro
• Sliced cucumber
• Sliced jalapeno
• 1 medium carrot (shredded)
• 1 medium daikon radish (shredded)

For the picked carrot and daikon:

• 1/4 a cup of sugar
• 1 cup of white vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup of warm water

For the spicy sauce:

• 2 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce
• 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp korean gochujang
• 1 tbsp thai sambal sauce
• a tsp of agave or honey

First things first, the tofu! Preheat that oven to 400 degrees and lightly coat a baking tray with oil. Slice the tofu about 1/4 of an inch think and coat them with a little bit of corn starch (this absorbs the moisture and makes them a little crunchier).

You can drench them in sauce and then bake them but I find it doesn’t really add much more flavor in the end and I usually just drench then in sauce after they are done baking. The tofu should bake for 30 minutes and they should be flipped halfway through the baking process. When it is done it will look something like this:

While that is baking, we can start on the picked carrots and daikon. Grate the carrots and daikon by hand or by food processor. Add in the rest of the ingredients (water, vinegar, sugar, salt) and leave it to pickle. You can also do this the night before if you really want to pickle the carrots and daikon, but it still tastes pretty good either way. Let it mellow out while the tofu is baking.

Now for the sauce! Combine all of the ingredients into a small bowl.

All of these sauces can be found at your local asian grocery store, or online. Obviously you can add more spice if that’s what you like, I always like it super spicy.

Slice up the Baguette and toast if desired.

Now it is time to build our sandwich. Generally a Bánh Mì sandwich has mayo in it, but since I hate mayo I just decided to forgo it. If you like mayo there are plenty of mayo sriracha recipes that go great with Bánh Mì online! Slather on some sauce to the bun, then add the tofu when it is ready. Pile on some sliced cucumbers, picked carrot and daikon and stuff in some cilantro and sliced jalapenos (optional).

There is no wrong way to build a sandwich! Sit back with a cold beer (or in my case a glass of red wine) and enjoy.

What is your favorite kind of Bánh Mì?

Adobong Manok (Filipino Chicken Adobo)

         Adobo (and Filipino food in general) is probably one of the things I miss most about living in the Philippines. It is known as the dish of the country because every Filipino loves it, and every Filipino family has their own special way to make it.

The Philippines was colonized by the Spanish (for over 300 years!), the Japanese and the Americans. All of these cultures have influenced Filipino cuisine and caused it to be really versatile. Also due to its geographical proximity to Indonesia and China, it has undergone waves of immigration that also impacts some of the cuisine.

While the name of Adobo was given by the Spanish, the cooking method and the dish itself has it’s roots in indigenous tradition. Adobo is the Spanish word for marinade, which is something you definitely have to do in this recipe! Adobo was so popular pre-colonization because the vinegar and soy sauce (or fish sauce known as patis) used in the dish kept the food from spoiling and thus could be kept longer.

Every province makes it a little differently but the basic properties in making it are meat, vinegar and soy sauce. For example, in the south of the Philippines there is a large Muslim population influenced by Indonesia. They tend to add coconut milk and sometimes tumeric to their adobo. I prefer chicken or pork adobo (although not so much pork anymore as I try not to eat red meat), but adobo can be made with any meat or fish.

Lucky for me Adobo is pretty easy to make at home. My biggest qualm is trying to find the right vinegar. I am kind of a stickler about it. Adobo just doesn’t quite taste the same when you don’t use cane vinegar from the Philippines. This can usually be found at any local asian super market. Here is a link to Datu Puti, a famous Philippine vinegar that you are most likely to find in the asian grocery store.

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs of chicken thigh, leg or breast
• 1 white onion, diced
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 c. of cane vinegar (or white distilled vinegar/cider vinegar)
• 1/2 c. of soy sauce
• 1/2 c. of water
• 1 tbsp. of whole peppercorn
• 3 bay leaves
• 1-2 red or green thai chilies (or omit it if you can’t handle it, whatever)

Typically chicken with some bone is best used for this dish. The dark meat and bone seem to add so much more flavor than just using chicken breast. Although I have made it with just chicken breast, it is usually only made when I do not feel like spending a lot of time making dinner.

First things first, slice up an onion any way you typically like it in stews, nice and chunky.

 Then slice up your chili and mince the garlic.

Heat up a stew pot with olive oil. Throw the chicken into a stew pot and brown until the edges are slightly cooked. Add the onions, garlic and chili and stir. You can let it cook for a couple minutes. You should start to smell the wonderful aroma of cooking onions and garlic (it gets me everytime!!).

 Add the cane vinegar, soy sauce, water, bay leaves and peppercorn.

Bring it up to boil and then turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 30 minutes with the lid on or until the meat is nice and fall off the bone tender.

 If you want to thicken the broth uncover the pot and turn up the heat to medium for about 15 minutes.

If the broth is still too runny for your taste, just mix some of the broth with cornstarch or flour and create a rue. Add that back into the pot and it should thicken it up.

When it’s finish just serve over white or brown rice!

 If you want to add more vegetables, it cooks really well with green beans!

I’ve been trying to eat more veggie-friendly, so one of these days I might try and make a tofu adobo. tempeh adobo or adobo seitan. I found this really great tofu adobo recipe here that I might try my hand at! Maybe you will see a post from me in the future 🙂

As always, enjoy and let me know how you like it! Some days I really miss Filipino food, if you have a favorite Filipino recipe let me know!

Moroccan Hirira Ren Lentil Soup (Vegan!)

So I haven’t really spent much time in Africa or the Middle East, except for a short stint in Egypt. This  was not a meal I ever had when I was travelling through Egypt though. This is just something that I used to have at this Mediterranean place by my work that had cheap soup for those lunch breaks when I forgot to bring a meal from home.

I re-discovered it recently when I was catching up with some old friends from high school at a Mediterranean place downtown. It’s a super delicious tomato and lentil soup that is just the right mix of heartiness and lightness, perfect for the change of seasons.

Research has told me that Hirira is quite a common soup as a starter in Morocco, but it also commonly used during the month of Ramadan to break fast. As with many national staples, recipes for Hirira often differ within communities. The recipe that I prefer is a little heartier than some of the lighter versions out there. I like to include chickpeas as well as red lentils. This means it is a super protein packed soup with a little spicy kick to heat up those rainy spring nights!

Ingredients:

• 1 large white onion
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• A heafty handful of Kale, chopped
• EVOO
• 1/3 of a cup of parsley leaves and stems
• 1/2 cup of cilantro leaves and stems
• 2 tbsp. of minced garlic
• 2 tbsp of minced ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp of Turmeric
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. of Hungarian paprika (at least, I usually put in 2 tbsp. because I love spice)
• 1 tbsp. of dried chili flakes (optional)
• 1 cup of dried red lentils
• 1 can of chick peas
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (I used a can of tomato sauce and that was good too)
• 1 box of vegetable stock (although for the recipe on the pictures I used chicken stalk, it was what I had in the fridge at the time, but use vegetable if you want it vegan).
• Some chopped cilantro to garnish
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Coat a soup pot with a decent amount of Olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, kale, ginger, garlic and a little salt and pepper and saute until the onions start to brown. Now its time to add the spices; add the turmeric, cumin, paprika, cinnamon and chili flakes and saute for another couple of minutes. Heating the spices up is the best way to release their flavors.

Add the red lentils and cook for a few minutes to let them soften. After, add the chick peas (with the canning juice), tomato sauce and vegetable broth. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let cook semi-lidded for about 30 minutes.

Add more broth or water if you want the soup to be more runny (I like it thick ;p)

I heated up some naan bread as an accompaniment. Serve and sprinkle some cilantro on top!

Traditionally I think they nix the naan and serve this with lemon, dates, philo dough and Aleppo chilies.

Enjoy!

Let me know what you think!

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

So, as I have stated in some previous posts, I used to live in the wonderful country of Sri Lanka. Besides all of the friendly people, tropical rain-forests and beautiful beaches, Sri Lanka has some of the best food I have encountered. My family only spent about two years there, but we tried to eat as much of the local food as we could. Our helper and cook wrote down some of our favorite dinner dishes and I treasure these recipes.

Today I am going to show you how to make some delicious Sri Lankan coconut chicken curry. In Sri Lanka, they often like to make curry dishes with coconut milk, instead of cow milk or tomato based curried that are popular up north in India. Many of the dishes are similar to the ones from Southern India, but Sri Lanka definitely has a distinct cuisine that should not be confused with Indian cuisine.

This particular curry we like to enjoy with Sri Lankan Daal, deviled potatoes and green beans (recipe coming soon), Coconut Sambol and Basmati rice.

Lets get started!

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of chicken (2-3 breasts, 4 small wings or drumsticks)
• 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 Tbsp Roasted Curry Powder
• 1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Fenugreek Seeds
• 2 Onions (chopped)
• 4 Garlic cloves (minced)
• A square inch of fresh ginger (minced)
• 2-3 Cinnamon sticks (in 1 inch pieces)
• 1/2 cup Curry leaves
• 3 Tbsp oil (preferably Grapeseed oil, but olive oil will do)
• 1 cup coconut cream (or the top creamy layer in a can of coconut milk plus some of the juice). Most of the time I just use a whole can, because I like it extra coconut-y.
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Many of these ingredients you might have to search for in an Indian or Asian food market. If nothing like that exists in your neighborhood the internet is a beautiful place and you can get almost anything through amazon.

Cut the chicken into 2.5 cm sized bites. Place the chicken in a bowl and mix with the chili, curry powder, turmeric and salt and pepper to create a dry rub marinade. You can do this the night before if you want to add extra flavor. I generally just marinate it for about 20 mins before I cook it and there is still plenty of flavor to go around. You should definitely do the dry run though because this seriously how you lock in the amazing flavor. I have found it’s so much more effective then adding the spices into the chicken after you have browned it.

Heat the oil in a sauce pan and fry the onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves and cinnamon sticks until the onions start to look slightly cooked and translucent. Add in marinated chicken and cook until the chicken is browned. When you think the chicken is decently cooked through add the coconut cream and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve it over some Basmati rice and Enjoy!

(More pictures to come!)

To all the Sri Lankan viewers out there, how do you do your chicken curry?

Sri Lankan Coconut Sambol (Pol Sambol)

Coconut Sambol is typically a side dish you would serve with Sri Lankan curry. There are many different types of Sambol, the ones I liked the most were the coconut Sambol and Seeni Sambol, which consists of mainly chili, maldive fish and onions. Sambol in general is a chili based condiment; just about every country in Asia has a version of Sambol/Sambal. Coconut Sambol was especially delicious with curry because the freshness of the coconut almost cleanses the palate from the spicy curry dishes. In just about any restaurant or street vendor you go to in Sri Lanka that sells curry it will come with some kind of Sambol on the side. Some people argue that the coconut Sambol is the most popular “dish” in Sri Lanka because it is served with pretty much everything. I think it is a deliciously underrated element in Sri Lankan cuisine.

One of the ingredients in the Sambol is Maldive fish, which can be pretty hard to come by outside of Sri Lanka. Maldive fish is dried and cured tuna made in the Maldives and is a stable to Maldivian cuisine as well as Sri Lankan. It is often pounded into splinter pieces and sold in packets as a flavoring to dishes. In this recipe I was lucky enough to still have some Maldive fish packets from when I used to live in Sri Lanka. If you can find any you can easily replace it with another high quality dried fish flake or shrimp paste, or you can just go without it, but it wont taste exactly the same.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. Seeni Sambol mix (cloves, chili, maldive fish, curry leaf, screw pine, cardamom, cinnamon)
• The flesh of one fresh coconut or a half packet of unsweetened coconut flakes
• One lime
• One purple onion diced
• One small jalapeno diced

I know the Seeni Sambol mix might be super hard to come by. Here is a link to the website of the stuff I got in Sri Lanka, maybe you can find something similar in your local Indian market. I got really excited in the super market about the fresh coconut but shelling and grating fresh coconut is no easy task and I think from now on ill just try to find unsweetened shredded coconut instead.

Okay so firstly, if you are feeling adventurous and want to try shelling the flesh of a fresh coconut you have to first drain it of its juice. I like to save the juice, strain it and make a cocktail out of it with pomegranate juice and vodka, but that’s just me being an alcoholic who doesn’t like to throw good food away.

Cracking the coconut in half also proved difficult, I ended up just throwing it on my concrete patio in the backyard.

Once you get them halved you can use a knife to pry out all of the flesh. In Sri Lanka they had these nifty coconut shredders that would do all of the work for you. Sadly white people don’t know shit about coconuts.

Alrighty, so once you have de-fleshed the coconuts add the flesh to a food processor with the diced jalapeno.

Grind those baby’s to pulp! Well not quite… but get them pretty well chopped. Once thats done get those diced onions on a frying pan with some EVOO on a high heat and cook until they start to get a little translucent. Add in the Seeni Sambol mix and cook to release the flavors.

Add in the coconut and jalapeno mix and stir until well mix and heated. Cook for another few minutes to make sure all of the flavors are really melting together. Place is a bowl to cool before serving.

Add a few spoonfuls to any curry dish to add an intense amount of delicious flavor. I usually make this as a companion to my Sri Lankan Coconut Curry (recipe coming soon) and Sri Lankan Daal.

Definitely explore more Sri Lankan food if you haven’t before, its really good stuff and can be very different than Indian food.

I can eat these left overs for like a week after I made a whole Sri Lankan meal.

Let me know if you guys have any questions or submit your own version of these meals!

Enjoy 🙂

Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)

Thai green papaya salad is one of those appetizers that really has everything you are looking for. The sweet tart of the papaya with the saltiness of the fish sauce and the fiery after-burn of the chilies pack so much flavor into such a simple meal.

I’ve been to Thailand quite a few times, and I eat at Thai food places as often as I can afford here in the PNW. This is one Thai meal that I can reproduce well enough to make frequently (I still haven’t mastered the green curry so If anyone has any great pointers let me know!). This is usually served as a side or an appetizer but I love it so much I can eat a whole bowlful as my meal. Make sure you are grabbing a green (as in not ripe or somewhat sour tasting) papaya and not a rip one (which is usually an orange color). Ripe papaya should have a greenish orange skin and the best place to usually get them is at an asian market.

Ingredients:

• One medium green papaya, shredded
• 1 cup of chopped roasted peanuts
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 1 cup blanched green beans cut into 2 inch strips
• 3 green onion pieces diced
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 red chili diced (remove the seeds if you are not so into spicy food)
• 1 tsp shrimp paste (or substitute for 1 tsp fish sauce or soy sauce if unavailable)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 limes
• 1/2 tbsp agave (or honey)

Alrighty, so firstly if you have a mortar and pestle bust that baby out and prepare yourself for some serious arm action. Put the garlic cloves and chili into the mortal and crush into they look pretty mushed. Add the shrimp paste (I used dried shrimps in this example which I found at the local asian super market.)

Grind those up until they are pastey. Squeeze the juice of the limes, oil, vinegar, fish sauce and agave in and add the blanched green beans and grind some more until it is well mixed. In a separate bowl add the shredded papaya, peanuts, tomatoes green onions and basil. Combine the wet ingredients with the papaya and stir until well mixed. Add more oil, vinegar, fish sauce or dried chilies if desired.

If you don’t have a mortal and pestle just mince all the ingredients finely and add them together, I guarantee it will still taste delicious. Serve yourself a bowl of this delicious salad and enjoy!

Let me know if anything was unclear! Thinking about this salad is making me super hungry and I can’t think properly.

Sri Lankan Daal

My family moved to Sri Lanka when I was fifteen. We spent two years there and it was the most interesting experience of my life! While I lived in the Philippines for about 12 years and would spend my Summers in Washington, this was the first time I moved somewhere culturally different.

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, with gorgeous beaches and luscious rain forests. My favorite thing about Sri Lanka, though, had to be the delicious food. We were lucky enough to have a house cleaner/cook who would make our dinners during the week. She would make us the most amazing dinners, of all kinds, but my favorites were always her Sri Lankan meals. When we left the country, she offered to write down her recipes. Although I have tried many many times to recreate the wonderful flavors of her meals, there always seems to be something missing. Ashoka, this one is for you.

Today I want to share her Daal recipe with you all. Daal is a lentil, and a staple in most of South East Asia. (Can be spelled as Dahl, Dal, Dhal). Some of the ingredients are hard to come by, depending on where you live. Here in Washington we have a huge immigrant population and you can find almost anything in the small specialty stores. It you can’t find it, Amazon.com can usually mail some ingredients to you. Sri Lankan Daal is generally made with coconut milk, so it is slightly different than how it is prepared in the Indian subcontinent.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of Daal (lentils)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 tbsp Curry powder
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric
• 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 2 Cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 small red onions (or 2 large ones) chopped
• 2 Green chilies (less if you are not a spicy food person)
• 2 Cinnamon sticks (in 1 inch pieces)
• 1/4 cup of Curry leaves
• 1 tsp salt

Okay, so first thing, if you are using dried lentils, you want to make sure the lentils have been soaking for at least 4 hours. I like to soak them overnight, or in the morning before work.

When you are ready to cook, drain the lentils then add them into a medium sized sauce pan. Add the water. Separate the coconut cream (the thick top layer) from the coconut juice in the can. Add the coconut juice. Add in all of the spices and onions and cook daal until soft, should be about 30 mins, or until most of the liquid has cooked and the lentils have thickened.

Don’t worry if you can’t find the cinnamon sticks, curry leaves or fenugreek seeds, it takes just as good without them. You can just use ground cinnamon (1 tsp) and more curry powder.

Add more water if needed. When the daal is soft add the remaining coconut cream and cook uncovered for about 2 mins. Eat with some Basmati Rice!

I usually make daal as a side dish with my Sri Lankan coconut curry and coconut Sambal. These recipes are coming soon!

Enjoy 🙂

Let me know what you guys think? How do you make your lentils?