Banh mi is a Vietnamese word for bread, baguette to be more exact, but it also carries the meaning of a sandwich made of marinated spicy pork, sauce, pickled vegetables and pate (!). I know the description might raise couple of eye brows, but after the first bite all of your suspicions go away.
The essence of a good banh mi as a baguette made from a mixture of rice and plain flour, marinated pork (whichever part you like, file or loin in some Asian marinade). I used a premade corn baguette and it worked out fine.
Ingredients for 4 sandwiches:
- 1 carrot
- 2 onions
- 1/4 of daikon
- rice vinegar
- sugar
- 200 g chicken liver
- 400 g pork loin, deboned
- lard
- mustard
- 5 spice
- salt
- mayo
- hoisin (thick paste made of soy and sweet potatoes, excellent for meat)
- sriracha
- 4 baguettes
Preparation:
- Smear a talespoon of lard over the pork loin, add a god pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of 5spice and rub it thoroughly in the meat. Put in the oven for 40 minutes on 180 Celsius degrees.
- Meanwhile prep the veg. Slice the carrot and daikon julienne style, cover with 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 1 table spoon of sugar and leave to rest so the veg softens a bit.
- Chop up the onions and sautee for 10 minutes until soft. While the onions are cooking clean the chicken livers, rinse and dry. Add to the onions, sautee for 5 minutes then tip in the food processor. Add a pinch of salt 2 tea spoons of mustard and 1 table spoon of rice vinegar and whizz up.
- Mix together 3 table spoons of mayo with 1 tea spoon of of sriracha and 2 teaspoons of hoisin.
- Take the meat out of the oven and turn it off. Cut the baguettes lengthwise and put in a warm oven for 10 minutes (you can go without this step, but it does make a difference in the end).
- Now that you’re set you can make the sandwiches. Cover one side with mayo sauce and the other side of bread with pate. Place meat on top followed by a handful of veg. Close and slightly squish so the tastes get combined.
- Sprinkle with a little bit of coriander or spring onions and drizzle with sriracha if you care for extra spicy.
Based on this recipe you can create your own layers of flavor, as long as it’s warm, porky and with some sort of a pate.
Enjoy,
T 🙂
