Vietnamese Bahn Mi

 

serves 4, double the meat and bread for more people

Ingredients:

• 400 g meat (I used chicken thigh filets)
• Mayonaise
• Maggi (optional)
• Sriracha (optional)
• Jalapeño, sliced (optional)
• Cucumber
• Coriander (optional)
• 4 breadrolls
• Pickled vegetables

For the picked vegetables:

• 1 large winter carrot, cut in matchsticks and about 7 cm long
• 1 daikon/rettich, cut in matchsticks and about 7 cm long
• 1 - 1/4  (300ml) vinegar
• 1 cup (240ml)  warm water
• 2 teaspoons + 1/2 cup (105g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Pickled vegetables:

Put the already cut daikon and carrot in a seive and cover with the teaspoons salt and sugar. User your hands to massage the vegetables for about 3 minutes, or until everything is coated. A good indication is to try bending the daikon, if it is flexible (both ends can touch eachother) the coating is done.

Now flush under streaming water and drain the liquid well.
Meanwhile add the rest of the ingredients (sugar, water, vinegar) to a bowl and mix until the sugar is dissolved.

When the vegetables are drained add them to the brine and mix well before finally closing the lid.
Keep refrigerated. These pickles you can save up to 1 month.

Sandwich:

Prepare the meat in any way you want to. I always go by some of the recipes in "The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches" by Andrea Nguyen.

Personally I am a fan of chicken, so usually I go with that.

Season the chicken any way you want to (you can find a recipe online f.e.) and fry/grill the chicken until done.

Now cut the bread lenghtwise until the edge, but do not cut through.

Remove some of the inside for the filling to hold better, but it is up to you how much.

Start with adding mayonaise on both sides of the bread, be sure to cover every edge. On top of that a few drops of maggi, if you want Then a bit of sriracha if you like it spicy.

Then add the meat, the pickes, the jalapeño, cucumber and coriander, in this order.
Leave out what you don't like, and close the bread.

Cut in pieces if desired and roll in aluminium foil so the filling doesn't fall out.
Enjoy your sandwich, it sure is one of my favourites!

Mike & Leda