Bánh mì er mixture of Southeast Asian cuisine and the influence of French cuisine from when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. So you get soy-marinated pork, mayonnaise, and crispy baguette. This is my recipe for banh mi.
In the last couple of years, bánh mí has been taking Copenhagen by storm. If you are ever visiting I will highly recommend going to the absolutely wonderful District Tonkin in Dronningens Tværgade. It’s very easy to make banh mi at home, though.
What’s important in a bánh mì sandwich?
One of the most important things for a fantastíc banh mi experience is fresh ingredients. Freshly baked baguettes and vegetables fresh off the fields.
For the best experience, you should bake the baguettes yourself, or you can buy some super crispy ones from your favorite bakery. They have to be crispy though.
There’s a recipe for the best baguettes you will ever make at the bottom of this article.
If you prefer you can also make my sourdough baguettes that are deliciously crispy as well.
One of the stables of a bánh mì is pickled carrots and daikon called đô chua in Vietnamese. It gives a good bite and a sweet/sour taste that takes this sandwich to the next level. It only takes a few minutes to make.
What other things can I put in my banh mi?
Other things you can put in your bánh mì could be: sardines in tomato sauce, low-and-slow ribs with crispy crackling, grilled chicken, pâté, rillette, tofu, or small soft meatballs.
If you were to get a bánh mì on the streets of Vietnam you could absolutely get one with La vache qui rit (The laughing cow cheese wedge) and chili sauce.
Don’t we just live in a fabulous world?
Bánh mì experiment time!
As with many other things, I don’t think authenticity is a goal in itself.
The most important thing is that it tastes great. So try combinations of what you have in your fridge or whatever you think sounds good.
Bánh mì experiment time!
Please share this banh mi recipe on social media
This is my recipe for a Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich. If you like the recipe please consider sharing it with like-minded food lovers on social media.
If you make it and post it on Instagram, please tag me as @foodgeek.dk so I can see it. That would make me very happy.
You can find the recipe for the crispy baguettes
underneath the one for the bánh mì!
It will probably move to its own article at some
point, but I forgot to take pictures when I
them for the bánh mì recipe.
Bánh mì – A wonderful Vietnamese sandwich
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce
- ½ small red onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- salt
- pepper
Vietnamese pickle
- 200 g daikon, in matchsticks
- 200 g carrots, in matchsticks
- 2 dl vinegar
- 2 dl sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Spicy mayonnaise
- 100 g mayonnaise
- 1 spring onion, finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- sriracha
Sandwich
- 500 g pork tenderloin
- 1 bunch fresh coriander/cilantro
- mixed fresh chilies
- cucumber
- 5 crispy baguettes
Instructions
Marinade the meat
- Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces
- Combine all ingredients in a ziplock bag. Put the meat into the bag. Seal the bag and distribute the marinade well.
- Put into the fridge for at least an hour, but overnight is better.
Make pickled veg
- Put vinegar, sugar, and salt into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the sugar and salt have been dissolved. Take off the heat.
- Cut daikon and carrots into matchsticks. I used a mandoline.
- Put the vegetables in a mason jar and pour over the vinegar mixture.
- Put it in the fridge until you need it. At least an hour, but it's better the next day.
Make the spicy mayo
- Put mayonnaise, hoisin and spring onions in a small bowl and mix it.
- Season to taste with Sriracha and put it in the fridge until you need it.
Gør klar til sandwichen
- Heat your oven to 200°C/400°F.
- While the oven is heating, fry up the meat on a skillet set to medium heat until it's cooked through.
Assemble the sandwich
- Warm the baguettes in the oven for 5 minutes.
- Cut all the baguettes almost in half and open them. You may want to remove some of the crumb in the top half so this is more room for fillings.
- Smear on a good layer of spicy mayo on both the top and bottom half of the baguettes.
- Put a layer of cucumber slices on the bottom.
- Then a layer of fried meat.
- Put some Vietnamese pickle on top, and then as many fresh chilies as you dare.
- Top that with a good handful of fresh cilantro. In a bánh mì, cilantro is not an herb; it's a salad.
- Serve while they are still warm.
Video
French baguettes
Ingredients
Dough
- 600 g bread flour
- 309 g water
- 6.5 g instant yeast
- 13 g salt
- 13 g sugar
- 40 g butter, salted
- 1 egg
Egg wash
- 1 egg wash
- 2 tablespoon water
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Make dough
- To a bowl add: 309 grams of water, 6.5 grams of instant yeast, 13 grams of salt, 13 grams of sugar and 1 whole egg.
- Mix it up
- Add 40 grams of melted, salted butter, slightly cooled and mix it in.
- Then add 600 grams of bread flour.
- Mix everything together. You may have to knead it to incorporate all the flour.
- Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
Agitate the dough
- When the 15 minutes are up, do 5 “pull and rolls”.
- To do a pull and roll grab the dough and pull it to a long log and then roll it up.
- Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
- When the 15 minutes are up, flatten the dough. Then fold the sides in towards the middle, and roll up the dough.
- Then shape the dough into a smooth ball.
- Leave the dough to ferment for 50 minutes or until about doubled.
Divide and pre-shape
- Then divide the dough into 5 equally sized pieces.
- Pre-shape each piece into a ball.
- Cover them and let them rest for 10 minutes.
Final shape the baguettes
- Then final-shape them into baguettes this way:
- Grab a ball and roll it out into a long oval. Roll it up very tightly and seal the seams.
- Give it a roll and then go over the seams again.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Shape the rest of the baguettes the same way.
- Let them ferment, covered, for an hour.
Bake the baguettes
- Heat your oven to 220°C/430°Ft with a baking steel and a pan for steaming inside.
- When the baguettes have fermented, boil a kettle of water and glaze the baguettes with egg wash.
- Score each baguette with a long decisive slash.
- Then add the baguettes to the oven and turn it down to 210°C/410°F. Pour boiling water into the pan.
- Close the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the baguettes have risen like crazy and are a gorgeous golden brown.
- Let them cool on a wire rack until needed. They should be eaten as soon as possible.
What is spsk? 🙂
Those are tablespoons in Danish. I fixed it 🙂
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Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.my family loved it.will be sharing this recipe with my friends.they will like it.