Mmm, Sambal Subs
Plus encounters with Paradise
The sun has finally come out, after the greyest May and start to June in memory. You deserve a bright and tasty recipe for the occasion. This week’s Sambal Subs come from Ryan McCann, formerly of Peckham’s first and best taco restaurant, Taco Queen. They combine a few of my favourite things: sambal sauce, pickles and sandwiches. Big thanks to him! Further down I’m reviewing Sri Lankan restaurant Paradise.
The truth is, I don’t eat sandwiches for dinner enough. But there is something so satisfying about a sub, packed full of crunchy, soft, and spicy elements, all moistened by a good swipe of limey mayo. A sandwich can be significant enough to be your main meal, and I think this week’s Sambal Subs from the clever mind of Ryan prove it.
Flavour-wise, we have Indonesia to thank for the spicy, tangy richness of the sambal and acar pickles. And formally, the recipe owes a lot to the crusty joy of a good báhn mì, with its crisp baguette, mayo, and spicy, crunchy, herby filling. It might sound like hard work – making a sambal and acar pickle – but actually doesn’t take much longer than an hour to prepare, and pays you back in more sandwiches and treats at your fingertips for days to come.
Indonesian acar pickles see small chunks of vegetables – here, cucumber, carrot, shallot and chillies – marinated in a sweet and sour solution of sugar and vinegar. They keep in the fridge for a week and are very appealing in their simplicity.
Because I live in a household of two people not four, I tossed our leftover fried tofu in sambal the next day and served over rice with the pickles. It was excellent, I recommend it!
Ryan says…
I’ve been making delicious dishes with Indonesian sambal sauce lately. It’s a real flavour bomb and worth batch making because once you have it you can whip up the most fragrant and satisfying meals in minutes. I’ve used it here for a take on the bánh mì, garnished with Indonesian Acar pickles, which are very similar to Vietnamese bánh mì pickles but much spicier. I think these are perfect with prawns, but they’re also really satisfying with tofu, so here are two routes to explore…
Sambal Subs
For the sambal
3 regular red onions (about 450g), thinly sliced
4 tablespoons cooking oil (about 60ml)
6 cloves of garlic, finely grated
4 red bird’s eye chillies
8 lime leaves
2 star anise
½ tablespoon caraway seed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the acar pickles (makes about 6 sandwiches)
½ cucumber (about 220g), wet middle removed, cut into matchsticks
220g carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
220g shallots, thickly sliced
12 red bird’s eye chillies, left whole (don’t be scared!)
250ml water
75g white sugar
2.5g sea salt
25g white vinegar (distilled white or rice vinegar, not white wine vinegar)
For the subs
1 block firm tofu (or use 300g shelled prawns)
60g cornflour
4 crusty baguette rolls of your choosing (I used the Sainsbury’s bakery white ‘baguettines’)
Coriander stalks and leaves and Thai basil leaves
2 limes
3 tbsp light soy sauce
Mayonnaise
Sriracha
Oil for frying
For the sambal, warm the oil in a frying pan on a medium-low heat and add the sliced onions. Simmer until they begin to caramelise and go sticky - we want them fully browned to bring out their sweetness. Low and slow is the way, it will take 20-30 minutes. Stir often.
Meanwhile, for the pickles, sprinkle the prepared vegetables with the sea salt and leave in a colander for their water to drain for at least 30 mins. Rinse the vegetables and drain. Bring the water, sugar, vinegar and salt to a boil in a small pan, then pour over the vegetables. The pickles are now ready and will keep in jars in the fridge for at least a week.
Back at the sambal, grate your garlic and combine it with 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Leave it to sit in a bowl with all the other ingredients apart from the maple syrup. Ready a jug with 200ml of water.
Once the fried onions are looking golden brown, add in the bowl containing all the other ingredients and simmer until the garlic smells cooked. Feel free to add more oil or a bit of water if it’s sticking to the pan. Once the garlic is cooked, add in the water and simmer for five minutes. Blend the mixture, adding the maple syrup, in a bullet blender, with a stick blender or in a food processor. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed. The sambal is now ready and will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Cut the tofu into rectangles that seem like the best shape for your sandwich. Marinade them in the 3 tbsp soy sauce and 1½ tbsp lime juice for at least half an hour, turning occasionally.
Fill a frying pan with oil to about 1cm deep and get it up to a sizzling temperature. On a plate or tray, toss the marinated tofu in the cornflour until it’s well coated, then fry in the pan until crisp on all sides, turning with tongs and wiggling the pan so they don't stick. Set aside on kitchen paper.
Assemble the subs
Heat your oven to 220 degrees. Slice open your baguette rolls and pinch out some of the bread to create extra room for the sambal filling, then with wet hands moisten the bread inside and out. A lovely task.
Toast the rolls in the hot oven for 4 minutes. Whilst waiting for the bread, cover a frying pan with a little oil, warm it up and then dollop in about 4 large spoonfuls of sambal. Once it’s bubbling, toss in either your tofu or prawns. Remove from the heat.
Make a sriracha lime mayo by mixing together 4 tbsp mayonnaise, 3 tbsp lime juice, and 1 ½ tbsp sriracha. You want it to be on the limey side. Stir well.
When your rolls are ready, fill with the sambal tofu/prawns along with lots of the mayonnaise, acar pickles and the fresh herbs and don’t be scared to add in the pickled bird’s eye chillies – they really open up the palate. Enjoy!
Paradise, Soho
Paradise is a Sri Lankan restaurant from chef Dom Fernando, which opened in late 2019, on Rupert Street in Soho. I last stepped into this small but perfectly formed space in 2011 when it housed Spuntino, Russell Norman’s popular New York diner. I don’t recall much beyond being charmed by popcorn, mac ‘n’ cheese and whisky cocktails. I liked Spuntino, but Paradise is an upgrade of the space on every single level.
The newly revamped version of Dom’s restaurant (Paradise 2.0 is what they’re calling it) was fitted out earlier this spring with a more homey interior, and furnished with a new set menu of exquisite dishes inspired by a recent staff research trip to Sri Lanka.
As regular readers will know, it is my strongly held belief that Sri Lankan is the greatest cuisine in the world. Dom’s food only served to deepen this belief. His 8-course set menu, made with in-season British ingredients, will set you back 59 quid. For the intricacy of technique and breadth of flavour on offer here I think this is excellent value for money.
The first course is a rasam, which Dom described as a broth that your Mum would give you when you were feeling under the weather or, simply, hungry. It was rich with cumin, acidity from lacto-fermented strawberries (which brought umami akin to tomato) and wild garlic oil. Never have I drunk a clear liquid of such complexity.
To follow were snacks: a diddy version of a mas or veg roll (mutton or smoked mushroom) in their distinct crunchy crispy shells, and a kimbula banis – a cubed cheese sandwich of green chilli custard, date chutney and Corra Linn. I would eat this daily. A watalappam was given the savoury treatment and filled with brown crab brightened by sea buckthorn, and my favourite yellow gravy (Kiri-Hodi) was served with a piece of the tenderest Cornish pollock, coconut and cox apple sambol and rice. So far, so electrifying.
A curly puck of buttermilk roti accompanies the lamb saddle main course, along with aubergine moju, dal and a delightful rhubarb chilli chutney. To finish, there are two desserts, the highlight being the mini Alphonso mango magnum below. All I can say is, Paradise is right.
The GOAT of food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, shares recipes from the same week previous years ago at the end of each post, and I LOVE it. Who doesn’t want a few extra seasonal ideas and a reminder of tasty things past? So I’ve decided to do the same for WTYCT. Love you,
.1 year ago… Breakfast Pide
2 years ago… Strawberry Chiffon Cake
Thanks again to Ryan for this week’s splendid recipe!