Banh Mi Recipe

Bahn Mi literally means biscuit or cake flour in Vietnamese. I first learned about it at a great new restaurant called Pho Lang Thang. It is a sandwich that has both Vietnamese and French influences that can be traced back to the French colonial period in South East Asia. The elements of French Cuisine - baguette, mayonnaise, and pâté meld perfectly with the Vietnamese ingredients of pickled carrots and daikon, along with cucumbers, chilies and cilantro. Banh Mi also usually includes pork, chicken, or even tofu.

Ingredients - marinade:
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 tspn red chili flakes
2 tbspn fresh ginger, diced
4 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp five spices
2 tbsp sugar
Juice of 1 lime
4 green onions, diced

Ingredients – sandwich
pork shoulder – sliced into 1 to 2 inch pieces
1 or 2 baquette of French bread
butter
sea salt
mayonnaise
braunschweiger (or liver pâté)
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
Cilantro
Jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced thin
Soy sauce

Ingredients – pickled vegetables
1 ½ cups daikon, julienned
1 ½ cups carrots, julienned
¾ cup vinegar
¾ cup sugar

Preparation:

1. Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl along with the pieces of pork. Refrigerate overnight.
   
2. Combine all of the pickled vegetable ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.
   
3. In a oiled skillet, cook the pieces of pork and some of the marinade over medium heat for about 5 to 7 minutes.
   
   
   
4. Cut baguette of French bread in half lengthwise. Spread butter and braunschweiger on the bottom piece and mayonnaise on the top piece.
5. On the bottom piece, layer the slices of cucumber and jalapeno pepper.
6. Top this with the pieces of pork, pickled vegetables, salt and soy sauce to taste, and cilantro.

Vietnam

Mayonnaise Recipe

Mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg yolk, oil, and an acidic substance (usually lemon juice or vinegar). Although it is categorized as a French recipe here, it may actually be based on an earlier recipe for salsa mahonesa that originated in Spain.

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tspn. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. wine vinegar
dash of salt
dash of pepper
1 cup olive oil
1 cup canola oil

Preparation:

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients except the olive oil and canola oil.
2. Add the olive and canola oil slowly while whisking the mixture.

France

Mahi Mahi with Spicy Thai Chili Mango Sauce and a Lesson Well Learned

Making this mahi mahi with spicy Thai chili mango sauce recipe didn't have me dreaming of tropical beaches, or some exotic outdoor market in southeast Asia. No, it reminded me of getting yelled at in the back of some dingy prep kitchen, a very long time ago.

I was given a recipe to make by an old French chef for a tomato pasta sauce. The first step was sweating a finely minced mirepoix in some olive oil. Since it was a fairly large batch, I decided to use the food processor to mince the carrots, celery and onions. Le chef was not le happy.

After teaching me a few new, colorful French phrases, he explained that while a mechanically minced mirepoix may look similar to a hand minced one, they were very different. He told me when you use a food processor, the vegetables are torn into tiny pieces, as opposed to being cleanly cut.

There is way more damage done to the cellular structure, and depending on the ingredient, that can create a noticeably different taste and texture than using a sharp knife and a little elbow grease, or as I believe it's called in France, elbow butter.

Anyway, this mango sauce is an example of how much I took that lesson to heart. For all I know that culinary theory has been debunked by Alton Brown, or some other food wonk a long time ago, but I don't care. I'll always believe my spicy mango sauce tastes better because I cut it by hand. Thanks chef! Enjoy.

UPDATE: I just listened to this video recipe again, and am proposing a new drinking game where every time I say "beautiful," you have to do a shot. ;-)

Spicy Thai Chili Mango Sauce Ingredients: (note everything in this is "to taste")

3/4 cup finely minced mango

1/2 small Thai chili, minced very fine

1 teaspoon sambal chili sauce, or other similar chili paste

1 large clove garlic, crushed fine

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

juice from one lime

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Gluten-Free Baked Donuts

Gluten-free cake donuts with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Apparently it is National Donut Day. But don't be grumpy, my celiac lovelies. I've got a gluten-free donut recipe for you, from the friendly archives of Gluten-Free Goddess.

For those of us born and raised on the East Coast- specifically, near Boston, Massachusetts- a certain coffee BF with a hole in the center is spelled donut. Not doughnut. Why so not-snobby casual, you might wonder? Why switch the ough to o when Boston's rep is more of a Paul Revere and cobblestones conservative town than say, oh I don't know-- maybe, rainbow flag flying West Hollywood? Dunkin Donuts is the culprit, I suspect- that ubiquitous New England coffee and doughnut chain from Quincy, MA, infamous for the tag line, Time to make the donuts! muttered by Fred the Baker in television ads for a good fifteen years.


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Book Review: The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden-Fresh Cookbook

The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden-Fresh Cookbook contains over 340 recipes. These include both new and classic recipes that are well organized by course from breakfast and brunch to entrees, desserts, and beverages. This book also includes extensive selections on specialized gardening techniques including how to grow kitchen herb gardens, vegetable gardens, edible flower gardens, and berry gardens. Finally, in the tradition of the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Garden-Fresh Cookbook also includes a valuable reference section complete with growing season information, nutritional reference material, substitution techniques for common ingredients, and other reference material helpful in the kitchen.

So far, I have tried two recipes from this book. Both were complete, easy to prepare, healthy, and most importantly - delicious. The two recipes that I chose were the German Potato Casserole and the Portuguese Skillet Haddock. I really liked the German Potato Casserole recipe and the combination of potatoes and rutabaga. This was the first time that I had ever used rutabaga and it tasted great with the potatoes. I also liked the Portuguese dish because it is a good base recipe that can be used with many varieties of white fish.

In addition to the recipes, the Garden Fresh Cookbook also provides many helpful hints that you can use in the kitchen. For example, next to the Portuguese Haddock recipe there is a tip for ridding the kitchen of odor after cooking fish by adding whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, allspice, or lemon slices to a pan of water and simmering it.

It is no wonder that the people at the Old Farmer's Almanac have put together such a useful, well organized, collection of recipes and reference materials. They have been publishing almanacs packed with similar, valuable information since 1792!! If you enjoy cooking with natural, healthy ingredients and if you like gardening, this is THE book for you.

German Potato Casserole Recipe

This recipe for German Potato Casserole comes from the Old Farmer's Almanac Garden Fresh Cookbook. It is a tasty and healthy side dish that goes with most entrees. We paired it up with Portuguese Skillet Haddock, (also from the Old Farmer's Almanac Garden Fresh Cookbook) and it turned out to be a great combination. I really liked the potatoes and the rutabaga together and I'm thinking about trying this combo in scalloped potatoes. Overall, this is a very healthy recipe.

Ingredients:
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 small rutabagas, peeled and diced

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk, warmed
1/8 tspn white pepper
1/4 tspn salt
1/8 tspn nutmeg
6 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease a 2-quart casserole.
3. In a stockpot of boiling, salted water, cook the potatoes and rutabagas until tender, but not mushy (they should hold their shape).
4. Drain well and set the vegetables aside in the pot to keep warm.
5. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and stir constantly until bubbly and well blended. Add the warm milk slowly and continue stirring until the sauce comes to a boil. Add the pepper, salt, and nutmeg and stir to blend.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the sauce over the potatoes and rutabagas.
7. Transfer the mixture into the prepared casserole.
8. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon on top and cover.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for 15 minutes more, or until golden.

Makes 8 servings.

Recipe courtesy of The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden-Fresh Cookbook.

Germany

Coming Soon: Grilled Mahi Mahi with Spicy Thai Chili Mango Sauce

I will explain all this later. Thank you. Come again. UPDATE: This was edited and posted during my IACP session (which explains the brief and cryptic first sentence), that I blogged about yesterday. It went very well! I'll be back in San Francisco tomorrow, and will upload the full video then. Thanks!

UPDATE to the UPDATE: I'm back in San Francisco, but will not be able to upload the video today...unless you want it without any narration. :-) Stay tuned!