Banh Mi

By Caroline Cummins, from the Culinate Kitchen collection

Introduction

This popular Vietnamese sandwich is a complex blend of common French ingredients (baguettes, mayonnaise, and sometimes pâté) and Asian ones (chiles, cilantro, soy sauce). If you have all the ingredients on hand, they’re a snap to assemble.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Slice the carrot and daikon into 2-inch-long matchsticks. (Do this by hand or, more messily, in a food processor with the medium-size shredding disk.) Place the vegetables in a bowl with the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Marinate for at least 15 minutes, then drain. (Reserve the brine for storing leftover carrots and daikon.)
2. Slice the baguettes sideways and warm them in the oven. When warm, spread one baguette half with mayonnaise and the other with sprinkled soy sauce and the optional fish sauce; repeat until all the halves are prepped. If using the liverwurst or pâté, spread it on the soy-sauced halves.
3. Layer the sandwich halves with the cooked meat or tofu, the carrot-daikon pickle, the optional jalapeño rings and scallions, and the cilantro sprigs. Close the sandwiches and serve immediately.

Notes

If you have a wide variety of ingredients available, lay everything out like a Southeast Asian version of the burrito bar and let diners make their own sandwiches.

Read more about banh mi sandwiches.

This content is from the Culinate Kitchen collection.