What’s Cooking: February
A bakery favorite vegetarian open face toast that sings of summer – while being loyal to ingredients widely available all winter.
We call these “Bánh Mi Tartine” in the bakery, but read the backstory below for the details
Every Friday for the past fifteen or so years, we’ve shared “Family meal” in the bakery. It immediately became a treasured ritual, a way for us to take a few moments away from the hustle of work and enjoy a thoughtfully prepared plate of food. It also provides whoever makes it – most of the time that’s me, but certainly not always – with the chance to do something we all enjoy: to be creative and whimsical with food, while feeding people we care about.
It was around the time family meal started, that I first had a Banh Mi sandwich. With even a small town like Keene boasting a Banh Mi shop today, the popularity of this Vietnamese delight has exploded in recent years, but it was a revelation when I first tasted the combination of salty, tangy pickle, spicy chili pepper and juicy roasted meat. Enough modification has taken place here to make this a distant relative of the original, (gone is the soft white bread, the pate and the pork belly) but enough of the flavors remain to carry the name.
Despite there being 3 components, they are all very simple so don’t be intimidated, this comes together much more quickly than you might imagine.
Serves 5 – 6
Ingredients
Items with an * are available here at the bakery!
- 1 Loaf of Orchard Hill Country Round* or French Batard*
- The “meat”
- 1 -2 blocks of tofu* cut into slabs (8 – 12 total)
- 1 bunch scallion sliced thin with greens
- 1 Tb grated fresh ginger (optional)
- 2 Tb Sesame oil
- Salt
- Quick Pickle:
- 2 – 3 carrots* peeled
- 1 large watermelon radish* (or daikon) peeled
- 3/4 c rice or cider vinegar*
- 1/4 c water
- 1 Tb sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- Spicy Sauce:
- 2 Jalapeño or other chili pepper
- 2 Tb tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
- Topping
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- Mayonnaise*
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Slice bread into slices. Thick as you prefer (if 1 loaf is going to serve 6 make sure to get at least 8 or 9 slices, some people will want 2!)
- Tofu (Could be chicken too, if you prefer)
- Arrange tofu on a baking sheet, sprinkle sliced scallions and ginger over the tofu, drizzle sesame oil over, lightly salt and place in the oven while you prep the other ingredients. (20 – 30 min)
- Quick Pickle
- Combine vinegar, salt and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil on the stove, stir to dissolve the solids.
- Radish and carrot for quick pickle are best when sliced paper thin. I prefer to use the vegetable peeler and make super thin “coins” but a mandolin or box grater on the slicer side can both also work.
- Once vegetables are cut, pour hot liquid over them an set aside on the counter.
- Spicy Sauce
- Remove stem and pith from peppers and slice very thin or dice
- toss with tamari and optional fish sauce. set aside until assembly.
- Assemble
- Remove tofu from the oven.
- Spread a generous amount of mayonnaise on each slice of bread and arrange on two baking sheets as you go
- Place 2 slabs of tofu on each slice (2 1/2 if it’s an extra large slice)
- Put toasts back into the oven on a lower rack for long enough that the toasts really toast, edges sizzly and bottoms begin to brown.
- Once toasts are ready, remove from the oven, top first with a drizzle of spicy sauce, generously with quick pickle, and finally with cilantro.
- ENJOY!