Steamed French bread

Ooho I did something stupid and now I lost the whole post!! I will try to redo it, but if it looks different then the first time you all know why…

I bought some French bread but didn’t have the time to eat it yet. Well I did have the time, but I didn’t feel like eating it. And it’s been sitting here since Saturday. So you can imagine how hard it is by now. As you all know I am not a big fan of wasting food so I’m glad I remembered this dish I had in Vietnam. It was steamed French bread topped with meat. I though I’d give it a try.

I have a steamer that I rarely use so this was a good opportunity. I sliced the bread in about 3-4 cm pieces and piled them in the steamer. They were in there for about 30 minutes. This gave me enough time to prepare the rest.

I soaked a handful dried mushrooms in hot water and when they were dehydrated I gave them a rough chop.

I had 3 hamburgers and deicide to use them for the stuffing. I started with sautéing one chopped onion and 3 gloves of garlic. When they started to brown I added the hamburgers and I used a spatula to break them up in little pieces.

Then I added some salt, pepper, some dashes of worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and some sweet soy sauce. The mushrooms went in and half a cup of water. Last taste test before I let it cook till the water reduced a bit.

In the meantime I sliced one onion in half rings and fried them in some oil. When they crisped up I drained them in a strainer and reused the oil to sauté some chopped spring onion.

By this time the bread should be done. As I pilled 2 or 3 layers of bread in my steamer the bottom ones came out a bit soggy. Just remove the soggy part and place that piece bottoms down.

I started to put a layer of meat right on the bread. Make sure you get all the sauce on the bread as well. Then it was time for the crispy onions and top it off with some sautéed spring onions.

It tasted great! The bread was soft and went really well with the meat and the onions.

It was a great way of using your 1, 2, 3 days old bread.

Ps: This is the steamer I use. Of course it had a lid so all the steam can come out. I had it sitting in my pantry catching dust. I guess I need to find new ways to use it more often.