Banh Mi
4 small baguettes
1 medium size block of extra firm tofu
1 cup of favorite barbecue sauce (preferably a "spare ribs" type sauce)
2 large carrots
1 big daikon, or a jar of pickle daikon
big handful of fresh watercress
big handful of fresh cilantro
2 cucumbers
Maggi sauce
soy sauce
Sri Racha
tamarind sauce
sour bean sauce
Split the baguettes.
Cut tofu into strips and place into a bowl with barbecue sauce to soak while you prep other ingredients.
Cut carrots into thick matchsticks, cucumbers and daikon (if using fresh) into large thick rectangles, and tear up watercress and cilantro. Arrange in any order you like on baguettes.
Fry tofu slices till crispy. It is not necessary to put them into barbecue sauce, just fry them and they will be more like "egg" in "Banh Mi Trung". The barbecued version will be more like "Banh Mi Thit Nuong".
Arrange tofu on top of vegetables. Now the fun part! Douse inside of baguette with sauce of your choice. Maggi Sauce is like.... sweet thick extra salty soy sauce, common on these sandwich. Sri Racha is very hot garlic sauce.
You could potentially put all sorts of things on this sandwich, just make sure to leave interesting and distinct texture between ingredients.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Oh my goodness. I haven't tried this particular recipe, but I absolutely L-O-O-O-V-E Banh Mi. :D It's so delicious. Banh Mi is usually made with French baguettes, pickled carrots, pickled daikon, pate (French meat paste thing), cilantro, onions, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and meat. Butter or mayonnaise is sometimes used instead of pate. You could probably use vegan pate/butter/mayo. I usually have them just leave the meat off, but tofu sounds interesting. Fresh carrots/daikon need to be soaked in a mixture (I don't know what my dad uses...) overnight, but I'm sure they sell pickled carrots/daikon in stores. Banh Mi is so good and so simple to make. Everyone has to try it. Lee's Sandwiches makes some good ones. Just make sure to ask them to leave off the meat, pate, anything not vegan... and be careful before biting into your sandwich. They usually put hot peppers in the sandwiches, and they're really, really hot. Some pictures of Lee's Sandwiches (sorry for the meat...): http://www.leesandwiches.com/stores/menu.cfm . Yum. Thanks for posting this recipe. I'll try it ASAP.