Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cooking the Florida Market: Banh Mi Edition

I made two types of banh mi entirely with ingredients available at the Florida Market. For the uninitiated a banh mi is a delicious Vietnamese sandwich served on a French style baguette. Here are the two types that I made:

Chicken Banh Mi:
-boneless skinless chicken breast brined, rubbed with five spice powder, and sautéed in sesame oil
-cucumber
-daikon radish and carrot marinated in white vinegar, sugar and water solution
-green onions
-red onion
-cilantro
-garlic
-mayo
-fish sauce
-baguette (I bought the "French Baguette" from MS3000, but it was a tad too bready, so I fixed this by scooping out some of the bread.)
You can also add chicken liver pate if you wish. Livers are available at the DC farmers market, and various other butchers in the area. Just add some fresh herbs, butter, pepper, and garlic, and you're basically there.

Tofu Banh Mi
-tofu marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, lime juice, fresh lemon grass, ground black pepper. (I pressed and frozen the tofu before hand to change the texture and make it absorb the marinade better).
-cilantro
-Thai basil
-cucumber
-marinated carrots and daikon radish
-mayo
-fish sauce
-garlic
-jalapeno peppers
-green onions
-red onions
-baguette
You can make this sandwich vegan by using Veganaise (not available in the Florida Market), and making your own vegan fish sauce substitute (dark soy sauce, water, garlic, black pepper, dried roasted seaweed).


Where to get it:
Baguette: MS3000 or Litteri's.
Carrots: Sam Wang, Mexican Fruit.
Chicken: US Beef, DC Farmers Market, numerous butchers in the area, including Caribbean Crescent.
Cilantro: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Cucumber: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Dark soy sauce: MS3000.
Daikon Radish: Sam Wang or MS3000.
Fish Sauce: V-9 or MS3000.
Five spice powder: MS3000.
Garlic: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Green onions: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Jalapeno peppers: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Lemon grass: Sam Wang.
Limes: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Mayo: MS3000.
Pepper (whole, black): Mexican Fruit, or Don Pepe's.
Red onion: Sam Wang or Mexican Fruit.
Seaweed: Northeastern Seafood, V-9, MS3000.
Sesame oil: MS3000.
Sugar: MS3000.
Thai Basil: Sam Wang.
Tofu: Sam Wang Tofu (down the street from the main Sam Wang).
White Vinegar: MS3000.

Need guidance on putting it all together? Check out Battle of the Banh Mi.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Cooking the Florida Market: Rice Noodle Rolls Edition

Yesterday I recreated a truly great version of some shrimp rice noodle rolls that I had at dim sum seven years. While that in itself was exciting enough for me, the cool thing is that I did it entirely with ingredients that you can buy at the Florida Market. Actually, I was inspired jointly by a recent dim sum craving, and a trip to the Market that unexpectedly included a stop by the storefront (by which I mean that there literally is no store, just a front) where they make and sell fresh rice noodles by the sheet. 70 cents a sheet, which weighs slightly under a pound. I went with a friend and we each bought two sheets. Steam them, fry them, cut them up into any shape you like.  You get the picture. And seriously...70 cents. Other stuff I put in my shrimp rice roll:
1. shrimp;
2. scallions;
3. ginger;
4. flat leaf parsley;
5. soy sauce;
6. oyster sauce;
7. sweet chili sauce (I was hungry, and thus too lazy to make sweet soy sauce).

Not the most authentic version, but tasty none the less. I also noticed that MS3000 (which is owned by the same parent company as H Mart) sells packs of spring roll/egg roll wraps (300 block of Morse). I'm thinking you could also use them for wontons, or perhaps even some lovely kim chee dumplings. Hmm...