Next up is Spain! I have never been to Spain and I don't know much about the food except everyone always talks about tapas. I decided to use my trusty copy of 30 Minute Vegan Taste of Europe for some inspiration. I landed on Babe's Bocadillos. It is an iconic sandwich made on a baguette that may contain different types of fillings, according to Wikipedia, and for this vegan version, it is filled with tofu ham. There is a recipe included in the book but I had already prepared the night before a batch of Baked Pressed Tofu from Terry Hope Romero's soon to be released cookbook, Vegan Eats World, so I went ahead and used that. I wanted to have lots of paper thin slices of tofu ham and thought about how to make that happen. I landed on using my potato peeler and it worked like a charm. It made the texture much more close to sliced ham. The recipe said to load it up with sliced tomatoes, red onions, vegan cheese and a mix of mayo and mustard. I used the Air Dried Cheddar from Miyoko Schinner's Artisan Vegan Cheese and it really stood out in the sandwich as a rich cheddar with the tofu ham. I also used this tasty mustard that I picked up at Farm Boy recently called Saucy Mama (how could I resist!) Smoky Garlic Mustard. It is soooo tasty and I think it worked really well with the tofu ham.
This sandwich is seriously delicious! I made it on a half baguette and thought I would just eat half but I shamefully admit I ate the whole thing. It was one of those, I'm full but it tastes good kind of moments but after I was done, I wasn't sorry. It is full of flavour and crunch. Ryan was jealous as I was describing it over the phone at lunch time so I guess I will have to make it again soon and maybe I'll share it with him...maybe!
