Banh Mi Chay

I think the common perception about vegetarian sandwiches is that you are eating salad on a bun, or that they aren’t filling or satisfying. I am here to tell you are wrong; unless, of course, you agree with me, in which case you are totally right- veggie sandwiches are awesome!

If you are unfamiliar with banh mi, it’s a Veitamese sandwich that has become super popular over that last few months. I found a site called Banh Mi Battle that explains the specifics.Traditionally there are many variations, most of which involve meat however there are also a few variations (tofu or wheat gluten prepared different ways or eggs) that fall under the banh mi chay that are vegetarian.

So what is the good word on this sandwich? Oh banh mi chay how I love thee, let me count the ways. First up you have such a variety of textures, the soft and chewy roll, the meaty tofu with crispy edges, and the crunch of the pickled radish and carrot. In my version I made a spicy mayo so the flavours range from spicy siracha, adding the freshness of the cucumber and cilantro, and sweetness from the grated carrot as well as salty-sour from the pickled radish. There is so much going on but yet it all works together to create a perfect sandwich. So what are you waiting for? Get on this now!

Banh Mi Chay

makes four sandwiches

• 1 package of firm tofu cut into 12 even slices
• 2-4 tbs olive oil
• salt
• 4 sturdy sandwich rolls (I used a kaiser roll but a baguette is more traditional)
• pickled radish
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 12-16 cucumber slices
• 1/2-1 cup loosely packed of cilantro, rinsed and trimmed

sriracha mayo

• 1/4 – 1/3 cup of olive oil mayonnaise or veganaise
• 1-2 tsp of sriracha (as per your taste)

Method

Traditionally, the pickled component is julienned daikon and carrot – quick pickled. I wanted to keep it local and used local radishes and pickled them with onions. For the recipe please see my previous post here. Please do not skip this ingredient, it really rounds out the flavours.

Make the sriracha mayo  by mixing mayo (or veganasie) and sriracha until completely blended and refrigerate until ready to use.

Drain tofu and slice width-wise into 12 equal portions. Pat dry with paper towel on both sides, season with salt and set aside.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Fry tofu in two batches until both sides are golden brown. Remove from the pan and let rest while you prepare the sandwiches.

Wash, peel and grate carrot. Slice cucumber and prepare cilantro.

Cut rolls in half and spread each side with sriracha mayo. Add 3 pieces of fried tofu to each roll, top with grated carrot, sliced cucumber, cilantro and pickled radish.

You could sprinkle with soy sauce, or sesame oil or if you would like extra heat add fresh jalapeno. Or be like me and eat, smile and repeat for breakfast the next day.

Cilantro Avocado Mayo

I made this recipe about 2 months ago, just as it was starting to feel Spring-ish in the air but for some reason didn’t feel urgency to post it immediately. I admit this tastes a lot like super smooth guacamole but the purpose of me making it was to have a mayonnaise substitute.

I used this ‘mayo’ as a dip for oven baked sweet potato fries with Cajun spice and I  wanted to participate in the avocado egg salad craze. If you haven’t seen this trend sprinkled on about every food blog you are about to see it here. This is a super simple recipe, turned into an idea for a quick lunch or dinner.

Cilantro Avocado Mayo

• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 avocado, pitted and removed from skin
• 4 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, washed and patted dry
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeds and pith removed
• 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and trimmed
• sea salt and pepper

Method

Seed and roughly chop the jalapeno, peel and trim the garlic, wash, stem and pat dry the cilantro and blend in a food processor.

Pit and skin and avocado and add to the food processor with the cilantro mixture.

Cover with the olive oil and lemon juice and blend all ingredients until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to a 3 days.

Serve as a dip with raw or cooked veggies, use as a sandwich spread or anywhere you would typically use mayonnaise.

Definitely make this egg salad:

Avocado Egg Salad

• 3 organic free-run eggs, hard boiled and shell removed
• 2-3 tbs of cilantro avocado mayo
• a few sprigs of cilantro, washed and cut into ribbons
• 4-6 green olives with pimento, diced
• 1 tsp minced jalapeno
• garlic salt and pepper to taste

Method

Prepare the eggs. Place three eggs in cool water with a pinch of salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Shut off the heat and let sit for exactly 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Let cool in the fridge, or peel off egg shells and set aside to cool.

Dice the cooled eggs, mince the olives and jalapeno and prepare the cilantro. Place in a medium sized bowl and add 2-3 tablespoons of the cilantro avocado mayo.

Mix with a spoon, taste and season to your liking with garlic salt and pepper.

Spoon egg salad on a slice of soft bread or lightly toasted English muffins.

Mock Tuna Salad

A lot of good happened in my life Monday. I went back to work from some time away and had an awesome day with my co-workers, old and new. I ate well all day, joined a gym and got to work out for the first time in ages and feel really great. When I got home from the gym I had a message letting me know that with my help, four dogs, possibly more if they find more able foster families, will be transported to Nova Scotia from New York in the search of their forever homes. I am still on cloud nine. I was so excited and exhausted I didn’t get a chance to finish this post as soon as I would have liked. 

With heading back to work I needed to think of quick and easy lunches to make, or suppers to prepare because I have a busy and active life. I have a job that I’m on my feet a lot, I have a house to clean and dogs to walk each day, a blog to write, recipes to create and now gym to go to. I squeeze in social time like and shopping at the market on Saturdays, wine nights with friends the occasional movie or dinner out and I think this is an average working life. There seems to be a growing trend of people who have little to no cooking skills combined with a busy life which inevitably leads to bad choices in food for convenience sake. I try hard to understand that and make it work in my life to (hopefully) help you in return.

I’ve seen mock tuna recipes all over the internet for ages, I was hesitant to try it because I thought there was no way it could taste like tuna, I don’t remember loving tuna when I ate it and I never had found out where to buy kelp powder in Halifax. I always have a few cans of chickpeas in my cupboard usually reserved for hummus, curries or salads . With my food processor broken and no extra cash to replace it now I’m having to rethink how I prepare things. No purred soups, smoothies or bean dips, sad I know. It was time.

I was surprised how much I liked this recipe, and bonus, it only takes five minutes to prepare. You can make the whole can of chickpeas or cut this recipe in half. I put it on a tortilla with salad greens one day and then made mock tuna melts the next. Both options were delicious so I took pictures of each. I didn’t use kelp powder, if you have some you can use 1/2 tsp-1 tsp in the recipe to give it a ‘fishy’ flavour. I think finely ground nori or dulse would work just as well. Without the kelp powder this still reminded me of tuna salad both in the texture and in the taste but what made it for me was the addition of celery so I would advise not to leave the celery out of the recipe.

Mock Tuna Salad

makes four sandwiches

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 2 green onions
• 1 small stalk of celery, washed cut in half lengthwise and diced
• 6 black olives, pitted diced
• a few sprigs of cilantro (optional)
• 2-3 tsp grainy mustard
• 1-2 tbs mayonnaise or veganaise
• Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

Method

Rinse and drain the chickpeas and add to a medium sized bowl. Wash and thinly slice the green onion, celery, cilantro and black olives and add to the bowl with the chickpeas.

Roughly mash with a fork until there are no whole chickpeas.

Add in grainy mustard and mayonnaise or veganaise and coat evenly. Taste and season with old bay seasoning, freshly ground pepper and salt to your taste.

Make sandwiches! Above I slathered on a few tablespoons of mock tuna to a whole grain tortilla and added salad greens for a 5 minute lunch.

The next day I turned it into a delicious mock tuna melt. If you are vegan, use the cheddar flavoured daiya. Turn your oven on broil. Use a hearty bread or toast an English muffin and add a few tablespoons of mock tuna to each side.

Place each sandwich half on a  non-stick pan and top with shredded cheese. Melt under the broiler until bubbly.

Remove from the oven and let rest a few minutes to not burn the roof of your mouth, I totally did not learn this from experience.

Serve with dill pickles! Yum!

Coconut Bacon

Now the recipe, I hope, you all have been waiting for. A recipe so good, it needs to come with a warning. Don’t worry it’s not a mean warning, it’s a helpful warning, because it really is, that good.

You are going to want to make this facon, you probably are not going to want to de-construct a coconut right away but think of my writing voice being your future self. Your future self who is standing at the stove stuffed to the gills and still picking away at the cookie sheet. The future self who feels like, ‘why, WHY didn’t I do this sooner?’

Now picture my writing voice as insight for right before you go to the grocery store.  If there was a time that you did eat bacon, and there is some meal or food you miss the taste of, get the ingredients for that. Write them down now, with the ingredients from the recipe below and go shopping immediately.

So if your favorite breakfast was pancakes and maple syrup with a side of bacon, you better be picking up stuff to make pancakes and triple checking you have maple syrup (you need it anyway).

For me that food was a BLT and my favorite way I remember having it was, was made on a bagel with tons of mayonnaise. I traded up my mayo for avocado sandwich spread to keep this indulgence vegan, but the next day I ate it on egg sandwiches, I crumbled it on salads, I snacked on it , cold, right out of a ziploc container. It’s that good.

After eating this facon, you may feel like you have to write fan mail, you may be compelled to comment, or you may decide you have to call in sick today from work. On second thought, maybe plan to make it this weekend.

 Coconut Bacon

• a fresh coconut shelled and cut into thin strips (yields 2-2 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tbs maple syrup
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp smoked/not smoked paprika
• 1/2 dried rosemary
• Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Method

You can get large flaked coconut, I am not sure if you can get it at the bulk barn but you may be able to get it at a health food store and this will do the same thing. Personally and without trying it that way, I still think I would prefer the fresh coconut. Luckily for you I just posted a step by step guide on how to to open one.

Pre- heat oven to 350.

Make the marinade by combining everything but the coconut in a medium bowl. Pour marinade over coconut and let sit for 15-30 minutes, turning every once in a while to make sure it’s evenly coated.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Turn out marinaded coconut onto parchment. Place in oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes overall.

After 10 minutes, remove from oven, salt and flip coconut. Place back in the oven and check on it about every 5 minutes after that turning when the edges seem to brown. The longer you bake it the more you should be checking on it because it will burn quickly once it gets to a certain stage.

Not every little piece is going to brown deeply but that is ok, when I reheated it I always did so in a non-stick skillet and browned it while I heated it through.

I like mine salty and I found adding sea salt during the cooking phase made it taste more authentic. If you are on a low salt diet, skip this step because it is a lot of salt and make sure you use the low salt/ light soy sauce.  Store in the refrigerator, it keeps for a week but it won’t last that long, trust me.

Ok…one more then I’m done.

How to make the Perfect Grilled Cheese

Today is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day (in the USA) and just so you know, I can’t support the facts, only the fever. So to kick off this holiday I’d like to show you how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. I thought long and hard about this post, I wanted to do something crazy, I’m not going to lie, as I am a fancy-pants type of girl. I resisted however, because for something that is so easy and so iconic it’s something that stirs up a tiny bit of competition amoung friends. Yeah I said it, competition. I dare you to go up to any of your close friends and tell them you make the best grilled cheese. As soon as you do you’ll be met with a no-way! I totally make the best one or my Dad/Mom, Sister/Brother, Husband/Wife, Girl/Boyfriend makes the best grilled cheese EVER! What gets me the is what most people argue over. It’s not usually the ingredients as everyone likes different cheeses and textures. They tend to thrown down over the method in which they prepare it. The steps they take so methodically ever time, to get one of the most comforting and loved simple foods you can imagine. So here is my throw down on a classic grilled cheese and yes I have severally specific instructions for you and maybe a few ingredients that seem unconventional but trust me, totally necessary.

How to make the Perfect Grilled Cheese

• Bread (I used store bought multi-grain bread, if you cut it yourself keep the thickness to 3/4 inch or thinner)
• Cheese (use at least two kinds always a strong tasting cheese and a good melting cheese I used old cheddar and pizza mozzarella)
• Sauce (cheese is fatty and really needs an acid to cut the richness, I grew up using mustard so for this I used Dijon but any sauce you love will work, just be light with it to prevent soggy bread)
• Hellmann’s Mayonnaise ( I use the olive oil kind, you cannot sub for miracle whip OR butter because full fat mayo has a higher heat resistance aka melty cheese and crispy bread)
• Seasoning (this is optional, I occasionally add garlic salt, pepper or red pepper flakes to my grilled cheese but it’s not necessary)

Method

Step one – Get all you ingredients out, including a non-stick pan on the stove pre-heating over medium heat.

Step Two – Slice thin pieces of sharp tasting cheese, I used cheddar, and grate the good melting one, I used pizza mozza (about 1/4 cup) which I highly recommend trying. You can add other cheese like asiago, feta, blue cheese but do so sparingly.

Step Three – Spread a small amount of sauce, Dijon, on each slice of bread. Add seasoning if you are down with that today.

Step Four – Top each slice of bread with cheese and close sandwich.

Step Five – Coat the side facing up with a thin layer of mayo.

Step Six – Place sandwich in pan mayo side down and cover. Let cook about 2-5 minutes, until the underside is perfectly brown.

Step Seven – When the sandwich is ready to flip, coat other side with a thin layer of mayo, then flip. Cook uncovered for about 2 additional minutes uncovered so the sandwich remains crispy.

Step Eight – Cut on a diagonal, and serve. Eat up and don’t share, unless it’s the recipe! YUM!

Oh and if you have perfected the classic, why not peruse some fabulous grilled cheese options. Here is my current top ten to try:

1. Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese by Closet Cooking
2. Greek-ish Grilled Feta Sandwich with Sauteed Green Garlic by Pithy and Cleaver
3. Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Brie Grilled Cheese from BS’ in the Kitchen
4. Green Goddess Grilled Cheese Panini by Panini Happy
5. Rosemary Apple Butter Grilled Cheese Sandwich by The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife
6. “Green Bean Casserole” Grilled Cheese by From Away
7. Jarlsberg Grilled Cheese with Arugula and Black Truffle Oil by Keep it Simple Foods
8. Spicy Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwich from The Hungry Birdie
9. Grilled Cheese with Tomato, Pickles and Potato Chips by Care’s Kitchen
10. Parmesan Crusted Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Two Peas & Their Pod

For more about grilling cheese vegan style check out this post from Healthy Happy Life! If you are craving the soup and grilled cheese sandwich combo -together- you have to try Roasted Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons by dinner or dessert.