I had a Vietnamese Sandwich the other day and was blown away. It was spicy and had a crazy combination of flavors and a ton of vegetables and weirdly served on a french baguette, which kind of blew my mind. East meets West.
And we got a Daikon Radishes in our veggie share, I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. Until I remembered they were on my Banh Mi Sandwich.
So I got online and found this site, it takes you through how to make them, and they're really, really, really good.
Battle of the Banh Mi
It takes a little planning to do, because you actually pickle the carrots and radishes. Which takes a couple days. It's actually pretty easy and very worth it in the end.
Pickling Carrots and Daikon
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. carrots
1/2 lb. daikon radish
3 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons distilled or rice vinegar
2-3 tablespoons sugar, depending on how sweet you want your pickles
2 tablespoons salt
Cut your carrots and Radishes into matchsticks.
Put everything in a sealed container.
Put it in the fridge for 3 days.
Done.
Making the Sandwich
Ingredients:
For the meat
1 pound of pork chops, shoulder or loin.
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 table spoons of fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons of finely chopped shallots or onion
1/4 cup vegetable or grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil
For the sandwich
1 Cucumber
Cilantro
Mayo
French Baguette
Chili Garlic Sauce
Slice the pork as thinly as you can. Put it in and let it marinade in the garlic, fish sauce, sugar, onion, vegetable oil, and sesame seed oil. Add some black pepper too. Give it an hour or two. I tried the same marinade with chicken as well. It was good, but pork tastes better.
Heat up a pan. Get it nice and hot. Lay in your pork. I like to pour the marinade over it as well. You can if you'd like. Cook until cooked.
Then make your sandwich.
Chop the cucumber in thin slices. Chop the cilantro.
Set out your baguette. Spread on some Mayo. Put a little Chili Garlic Sauce. Line the sandwich with the pickeled radishes and carrots, the cilantro, and the cucumbers. Add the meat. Salt.
Eat it and enjoy the irony of a Vietnamese Sandwich on French (who were in Vietnam before us) bread.
