Cooking, recipes, how to

benazir's blog

Bahn Mi Sandwiches Done My way

I remember looking up some recipies to pin and try and these are one of the gems. It can be made many different ways and we are going to tackle all of them in one single post and this is an extremely easy and straight forward sandwich and we are going to start with the bread which you will need between 2 or more depending on how many people you are feeding. It has to be either French or Italian bread only. Turano and Gonella are very popular here in Chicago and many submarine sandwich restaurants here in Chicago use them. They are traditionally eaten on a baguette because in Vietnam where this delicious sandwich came from was colonized by the French.

This was even before the Vietnam War It was called French Indochina at one time. I Googled and went on to wiki just now that it was also spelled French Indo-China. Here is one thing about the colonizers, once they have control over another country that they do not want to let go so readily. I will tell you why it is because of the wealth of certain spieces, rubber and tea which was there main number one cash crops. Then boom here comes Hò Chi Minh and a lot of other Vietamese wanted the French colonizers to leave and not come back. Another thing I had just glanced at from wiki that the Japanese overtherew the French from the area and then there were uprisings by the local people from there that Hò Chi Minh had declaired Vietnam independant in 1949 with the help of the former emporor Báo Dai according also to wiki.

It also mentioned that according to the Geneva Accord of 1954 that the French had to withdraw from Vietnam on which they did. This is pretty odd especially during World War II when the Japanese was occupying a lot of those South East Asian countries, I think that is why a lot of people started loving the taste of sushi because of the Japanese influence. The bahn mi sandwiches are a hybrid of French and Vietnamese because of the type of bread that is used.

First cut in to long thin strips 1 of each a large carrot washed and peeled, cucumber and daikon radish washed very well as well. Add these to a bowl and make sure they are very long and thin so it can fit in to the sandwiches. Add 1 pinch of kosher salt and 2 tbs of either cane, lychee or rice vinegar. These are then set aside.

Now to make a sauce and it is a lot of condiments. Add 3 tbs each of mayonnaise, siracha, 1 capful of either rice, lychee or cane vinegar, 1 tsp of fish sauce or 1 dab of shrimp paste or crab paste, 3 dashes of either soy sauce, tamari or panzu sauce, 3 dashes of either maggi or knorr aroma, 1 pinch of either turbidano or coconut sugar, 1 packet of stevia, 1 drop of either sugar free syrup, rice syrup, or agave nectar, 1 pinch of pink salt. and stir to blend.

Now the protien choices are the zabiha halal coldcuts like salami, balongna, 1 can of zabhiha halal lunch meat sliced thinly which can eather be used as as is or simply fried in 1 tsp peanut oil and set to the side. Also you can fry or grill any type of fish fillets only. You can either boil 3 chicken eggs or fry them by using cooking spray then set aside. If boiling eggs it is 10 minutes by using the either the steam or sautè function in the instant pot for 10 minutes by placing them on a trivet. Smoked salmon is an excelent choice, so is 1 lb or kg of mince of chicken, beef, lamb, goat, turkey or chicken rinsed and drained then using rice flour as a binder, 4 green onions, 3 Thai chilies either red or green, 2 cloves of garlic chopped, adding peanut sauce or stirfry sauce for cooked items only, formed in to patties, fried in to a wok in peanut oil or by using a pot in pot method on a trivet by either baking, broiling, air frying or roasting for 10 minutes, Or take 1 can of any type of crumbling fish such as mackerel, salmon, tuna, sardines, sprats and crabmeat in either oil or brine drained plus 1 can of quail eggs if using. Also the patties, chicken, beef slices and lunchmeats can be grilled on the grill too. Just place the foil on the grill and turn it on to 3 and spray the foil with cooking spray and grill for between 5 to 10 minutes.

If you are using the coldcuts, smoked salmon, zabiha halal lunchmeat slices, the chicken or beef slices or the patties or even fried eggs, just open the bread and add the mayonnaise and siracha mixture and add either the patties, chicken, smoked salmon, grilled or fried fish fillets which can either be salmon, sole, swai, tilapia, cod or tuna to the bread. If you want to go ahead and make egg salad what you need to do is take a potato masher and mash the eggs. This will work great for quail and chicken eggs. The mashed eggs can also be combined with canned fish then the mayonnaise siracha mix plus the green onion and the Thai chilies because I love my food really spicy. This would go in to the bread also and to add to them all is the daikon radish, cucumber and carrot that are soaking in kosher salt and vinegar are added to the sandwiches to complete this recipe.

I am an honest person. I am really honestly and seriously. I love to make meals like this and this is a very simple and tasty meal even on a very hot day and it can be eaten on a go too. There are also a lot of ways to do it too. I would most likely say a nice cup of iced coffee is perfect with this dish most definely.