With its fresh herbs, fatty meat balls, acidic pickles, spicy sauce, and crunchy bread, this bánh mì variation may just be the ultimate sandwich.
Oh god. I’ve been eating bread with butter and a slice of cheese all my life, like some sucker.
A Patron
Remember that time when Vietnam showed a Western colonial power how it’s done? That’s right, I’m talking of course about how they took the baguette and made it the best god damn sandwich it could ever aspire to be.
Everything sandwich
There are many, many variations of bánh mì out there, and I’ve tried quite a few both at home and eating out. This is one of my absolute favorites, although I should say that it’s not exactly the most classic version. That would probably be pork cuts, pork sausage as a spread underneath, fresh cucumbers, and sprinkles of Maggi Würze (which is seemingly as popular in Vietnam as it is in my German home state!?). The pickles, cilantro, chili, and of course baguette tend to be on most variations out there. The ingredients for this on look like a lot, but you likely have most of them at home already. More on them below.
Slice up the work
This is not the most low-maintenance recipe, but you can split up the work by making the pickled vegetables, sauce, and meatballs up to a day in advance. Just cover everything with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge, of course. Plus, you can make a larger batch if you don’t mind eating it a few days in a row. Bánh mì is great at every time of day, at home, on the go, as a packed lunch, wherever and whenever.
About the ingredients
The baguettes can be fresh from the bakery, but I’ve had great results with the parbaked bake-at-home kind as well. Of course, you can also make them from scratch, but it’s not worth the effort in my opinion, having done it a few times myself. I definitely recommend grilling the baguettes in the oven for a few minutes right before assembling the bánh mì to get a crunchy crust.
When it comes to the size, you can cut up the original French kind (~60cm, two servings), get the half-sized ones (~30cm, one serving each), or even bread rolls (half a serving each) as long as the dough is the same (light flour, water, yeast, salt, that’s it).
Regarding the cilantro: I spent more time than I’d like to admit plucking the leaves from the stem until I realized one day that the whole thing is completely fine to eat. Just wash and roughly chop the cilantro, stem included, and enjoy. If you have the gene that makes cilantro gross (first of all, condolences), you should skip rather than substitute it.
The sauce is a little spicy, so you can skip the Sriracha (and chili) if you’re sensitive. I definitely prefer Kewpie mayo from Japan, but any type of mayonnaise works.
Meatball Bánh Mì
Ingredients
- 2 baguettes (50-60cm each) or twice the amount, half the size
For the pickled veggies
- 1 medium carrot
- 120 g Daikon radish or any large white radish
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
For the meatballs
- 500 g ground pork
- 10 g fresh cilantro
- 1 scallion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
- 2 tsp sugar
- 0.5 tsp fine salt
- 0.25 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
Sauce & toppings
- 20 g fresh cilantro
- 125 ml mayonnaise ideally Kewpie
- 4 tsp Sriracha
- 1 spicy red chili
Instructions
Chop, chop
- Wash and roughly chop the cilantro for the meatballs and the topping. You don't need to pluck the leaves, the stems are okay to eat.
- Finely chop the chili. Deseed it first to decrease spiciness if desired.
- Peel and julienne the carrot and radish.
Pickle the veggies
- Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a mid-sized bowl and stir well.
- Add the julienned carrot and radish. Marinade for at least one hour.
Make the meatballs
- In a large bowl, mix all the meatball ingredients and knead until well-integrated. (Make sure reserve enough cilantro for the topping later.)
- Form about 20 meat balls on a plate or baking sheet that will fit into your fridge or freezer.
- If making the meatballs in advance, store in the freezer for up to a few hours. To fast-track it, place them in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Heat up some neutral oil in a medium-sized pan over medium high heat.
- Fry the meatballs until cooked through and nicely browned, then side aside.
Make the sandwiches
- Combine the mayonnaise and Sriracha and stir until fully integrated.
- Optional but recommended: Preheat the oven to 230° C on grill setting and toast the baguettes for ~5 minutes until crunchy on the outside (but not dried out!).
- Cut the baguettes in half and slice them open, but not all the way through on one side.
- Spread the Sriracha mayonnaise on the bottom side.
- Cut the meatballs in half and distribute on the baguettes.
- Add pickled veggies, then cilantro and chopped chili.
