Around this weekend every year since 2012, I host a “Maryland Spring Breakfast” where some friends and I enjoy shad roe while it’s in season and (for me at least) get into the spring spirit. Winter has been lingering here but it feels like it “broke” this past week and we’re all ready to swap coats for jackets, boots for shoes, and hot coffee for iced.
Despite my obsession with Maryland food, one of my favorite cookbook authors specializes in Vietnamese food. Through her writing and videos, Andrea Nguyen has helped me along as a cook, providing skills, ideas and ingredients that carry with me when I cook Maryland food.
When she authored a book that was dedicated to banh mi this past year I pre-ordered it, eagerly awaited it and used it as inspiration for delicious sandwich creation all summer long.
As she is known to fearlessly experiment with American and Vietnamese food herself, I felt inspired to try a little fusing. After three years of cooking shad roe with bacon I feel ready to branch out, and besides that a few of my friends don’t eat meat.
Shad roe has a love-it-or-hate-it funk to it that gave me the idea to use it as a liver pâté substitute. I simmered minced shallot, five-spice powder, fish sauce and the roe in a generous amount of butter. I then broke up the roe sacs and added cognac and mixed it all up. I stored it lined with bay leaves overnight. I had hoped that the extra butter would make it a little more spreadable but it turned out a little dry and crumbly.
As I’d made other fillings and condiments from her book, the roe is seen here with edamame pâté (along with some homemade spicy sesame-lime mayo & some Maggi).
“The Banh Mi Handbook“ features a recipe for enhancing canned sardines that come in tomato sauce. I bought a can of tomato sauce and used this basic concept for the shad. Shad is a terribly bony fish but when you steam shad for five hours you can eat the bones. So I did that to make them sandwich ready. I added the can of tomato sauce during the last hour. That was the day before. Day of, I sauteed some shallots, added the pan liquid and then warmed up the shad in that liquid. The result was a good but not overpowering sandwich filler. It could have been more flavorful or perhaps some Vietnamese sausage would make a nice addition. We had some fried tofu and eggplant options as well. (I stuck with a pescetarian friendly menu.)
Along with the usual suspects: cucumber, jalapeños, do chua, sriracha, cilantro.. we had some very tasty little sandwiches.
I made a version of Maryland White Potato Pie using condensed milk, honey, seasoned with citrus & nutmeg and using some extra egg whites leftover from the mayonnaise, beaten and folded in. The result was perhaps the most moist version of this pie I have made.
That stray piece of cilantro is driving me nuts but I wasn’t focused on food styling today, I was focused on delicious food, making traditions, and the company of friends.