Isn’t it great to have neighbors? I have a neighborhood with tons of kids and really wonderful moms who have become great friends. When I was practicing for my finals at culinary school I ran out of eggs. With a crazy amount of dishes to make, there was no time to squeeze in a run to the market. My wonderful neighbor arrived at my rescue with a full dozen. Love her. I mention this because this same neighbor inspired my meal for tonight. I got a quick text from her asking to borrow a cup of soy sauce. Hmmm, soy sauce, bok choy in the fridge…..see where I’m going with this? Asian influenced dinner tonight.
Asian flavors are so fun, I love them. I put together my own version of an Asian sandwich for dinner. I made it with marinaded shaved steak, quick pickled veggies, and a ginger sesame mayo.
I started marinating my steak at about noon, giving it a good 5 hours to soak up the goods.
I mixed together 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons of rice vinegar, 2 minced cloves of Springdell garlic, 3 Tablespoons of local honey (which I purchased at the farm stand this summer), 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger. I put the shaved steak in there and popped it in the fridge til ready to cook.
I also wanted to give my mayo a chance to get those flavors melding together so I prepped that next. I took about a half a cup of mayo, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, a splash of lime juice, and more fresh ginger through a microplane (a great tool to very finely grate ingredients). I didn’t put the sesame seeds in until the time I started to cook, I was afraid they would get soft. So in this goes to the fridge as well. Here is what the final mayo looks like, after you mix the sesame seeds in just before you serve it, and the veggies in the pickling liquid.
The other item to be prepped, the quick pickle veggies. I shaved 2 carrots and sliced up the leafy greens of the bok choy. You could also add cucumber or sprouts if you had them. I chose the carrots as a nice color to the sandwich and the beautiful Springdell bok choy. Since I was only using the leafy greens I used the bok choy stems in my smoothie at lunchtime.
The quick pickle takes about 20 minutes so you can toss the veggies in the pickling liquid when you start to cook the sandwiches, that’s plenty of time. You want the veggies with a pickled flavor but still a crunch to them. The pickling liquid was just 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. Mix this well to dissolve and toss those veggies in.
I toasted the rolls under the broiler while I cooked the shaved steak on the stovetop. Slather the crispy bread with the mayo, layer on the shaved steak and pickled veggies and enjoy this amazing sandwich, if I may say so myself. Enjoy!
