Bánh mì with authentic chả lụa!



Matt was able to buy me enough free time yesterday that I was able to start prep-work on Raveneous Couple's recipe for chả lụa. The only exception I made was to use Bob's Red Mill's Baking Powder rather than Alsa baking powder (which I'd never even heard of before researching chả lụa, never mind seen). T&T Supermarket at The Promenade Shopping Centre proved fruitful in the search for banana leaves — all I had to do was check the freezer cases in the Filipino food section.

Today I steamed the chả lụa in four banana leaf packets for a little over a ½ hour, then pan-fried thin slices to place on my second go-around at bánh mì! As before, the bread is an ACE Bakery demi-baguette with kewpie (Q.P.) mayonnaise and a canola oil/light soy sauce/fish sauce blend. I used fresh cilantro as before. This time, I omitted the vegan margarine, actually used the medium shredding disk on my food processor (rather than my vegetable peeler) for the daikon and carrot slaw, and Commensal Veggie Paté in place of the liver spread.

I'm glad to say that this attempt at the sandwich was definitely more authentic than my previous attempt. I was able to find a small portion of foie gras the farmer's market earlier this week, but I wanted to have truly fresh bread to spread that on, rather than the day-old baguette I had this time. I'm thinking I might have the quintessential homemade bánh mì next weekend.

It's not all sunshine and roses, you know

Sometimes, being a mom really sucks. I'm finding that the sleep issue is a massive hurdle which just refuses to be overcome. Kara's taken well to solids, but even during a day like yesterday, in which she ate heartily at all three meals (dinner was something like 8 tablespoons of solid food), she woke less than 3 hours after having fallen asleep for a feeding. Of course, the insomnia I've been getting just makes it so that I can't get back to sleep no matter how much I may want or need to. Tonight, rather than lie in bed awake, wondering when I'll finally be able to get to sleep, I decided to (quite literally) "cool off" in the office until I'm feeling wiped enough to get back to bed.

I actually got to cook something new!



It took splitting tasks up into 3-day chunks to do it in, but I was able to make Japanese-style curry at home! On Sunday, I chopped carrots into "coins"; on Monday, I pan-fried steak; yesterday, I chopped and assembled everything else that went into the curry. The ingredients I used are:

• S&B Foods Golden Curry Sauce Mix Mild in the Jumbo size
  (and half the package of curry mix)
• one clove of minced organic garlic
• one chopped organic yellow onion
• chopped steak
• one finely chopped, peeled potato
• the aforementioned carrots
• sliced organic (whatever that means in this case) mushrooms
• frozen organic peas
• one seeded, chopped sweet bell pepper

It was served over organic brown basmati rice. I'm pleased to say that I found it less sweet than the Japanese curry I've had in Toronto's equivalent of a Japanese homestyle eatery. I'd gladly make this again; this is good, because I've still got a half-package of curry mix left.

On disciplining a baby

When one's baby is prone to skipping naps — getting increasingly cranky during the course of the day — sometimes all you can do is place her in her crib to tell her that she's going to be pleasant while she's around, or she will nap until she's pleasant.

Fingers crossed

Kara went 5 hours between feedings last night. The only time she's ever done that in the past is when she was a newborn and still seemed to need hardcore sleeps. Here's to hoping that this isn't a sign of an impending growth spurt, and is instead an indication that she's going to start sleeping longer.