Inspiration
Reading Time: 6 minutes
How about a Vietnamese-French-Mexican knockout? What I love about cooking is that I can experiment and create different fusions from different countries. Granted, the Vietnamese-French fusion that created the Banh Mi wasn’t mine to take credit for at all.
During the 19th century as Vietnam was colonized by the French, the Banh Mi was born. The French being French obviously needed baguettes for their typical French breakfast with ham or pate or both. So, the Vietnamese thought, why don’t we add some veggies and cilantro? As a result, the Banh Mi was born. Today, it is an extremely popular street dish all over the world, where many have customized their own version to fit their culture. I was no exception today, and decided to add some Mexicanity to this delicious dish by throwing some guac in there, plus jalapenos for some more spice (because Mexicans can’t have enough spice in their lives) with a sriracha mayonnaise.
I was quite nervous about making this, being a pork amateur before today. But the fam liked it and they are a tough crowd to please (nah just kidding, however they are not shy about their feedback at all). I decided to go for a sous-vide pork belly and it turned out right-on point. Together with my mom’s advice and some intuition on handling the final sear it resulted in a very tasty Mexican Pork belly Banh Mi.
Creation
The bread can be toasted or not. I decided to toast, but I think leaving it as is would be a better option if you prefer softness. In addition, using freshly baked bread makes a huge difference.
I like challenging myself so I opted for a 19 hour cooked pork as protein, but chicken or steak can also result in an amazing Bahn Mi.
As for the veggies, you can choose to add: carrots, onion, cucumber and daikon radish for the classic version. I replaced these with pickled onions, avocado and jalapeno to give it a Mexican twist.
For the sauce, regular mayonnaise can be used or it can be spiked by adding Sriracha or chipotle to add more spice.
Finally, don’t forget the big player- cilantro, it gives the Bahn Mi its distinctive flavor that it is known for.
Recipe
Pork Belly Banh Mi (Sous vide)
Equipment
- Sous vide Machine
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 1 Piece Pork belly with rind We used a piece 8.3x11.7 inches (A4 paper size)
- Fine Kosher Salt
- Black Pepper
- Pork Rub See Pork Rub section
- 1 tbsp Honey
Pork Rub
- ½ cup Brown sugar
- ½ cup White sugar
- ½ cup Paprika
- ¼ cup Garlic powder
- ½ cup Tajin Chili Seasoning or normal chili powder
- 2 tbsp Ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp Ground ginger
- 2 tbsp Dried Rosemary
Sriracha Mayonnaise
- 1 clove Garlic
- 1 cup Mayonnaise
- 3 tbsp Sriracha
- 2 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
- Kosher Salt
Pickled Onions
- 1 Red onion
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 handful Whole black peppers
- 1 tsp Salt
Banh Mi
- 2 Avocados cut in thin slices
- 1½ cups Cilantro
- Freshly cut jalapenos previously soaked in olive oil, lemon juice and salt Add as few or as many as you like
- Sriracha Mayonnaise see Sriracha Mayonnaise section
- 8 Fresh baguettes
Instructions
Pork Belly Sous vide
- Set Sous vide Cooker to 167° Farenheit / 76° Celcius
- Mix the ingredients for the Pork rub together in a small bowl
- Season the meat side of the pork belly with the rub
- Season skin side of the belly with salt
- Place the seasoned belly in a vacuum bag and seal. You can also use the zip-lock back and use the immersion method.
- Place the sealed pork belly in the water bath and cook for 19.5 hours
- Without losing the juices, remove the pork belly from the vacuum/zip-lock bag and let rest and cool
Pork Belly Glaze
- Pour the juices from the vacuum bag into to a pot on the stove with the honey and turn the heat to high
- Bring to a boil, and simmer aggressively until the liquid is reduced by half
Pork Belly Crackling
- Heat your oven to high broil
- With a sharp knife cut slits through the skin half-way through the fat, try not to reach the meat of the belly.
- Place the belly skin side up in a baking pan
- Carefully spread the glaze over the skin side using a brush
- Broil the belly for 5-8 minutes, or until skin side looks golden-brown and the skin has a crispy, crackling top
- Let rest for 10 minutes then cut into small squares
Sriracha Mayonnaise
- Stir garlic, mayonnaise, Sriracha and lemon juice in a small bowl to combine
- Season with salt and set aside
Pickled Onions
- Thinly slice the onion
- Bring some water to the boil in a small pot
- Add olive oil, apple cider vinegar, peppercorns and salt to the boiling water, finally add the onions
- Turn the heat to low and leave for 2-3 minutes
- Turn the heat off, put a lid on and leave to rest for 30-40 minutes, the onion should turn purple
- Drain, remove black peppers and set aside
Banh Mi
- You can either choose to leave baguettes as is or toast them, it is just a matter of preference
- Cut baguettes in three pieces each
- Spread the Sriracha Mayonnaise on each side
- Place Pork Belly pieces on top of one side
- Continue by placing the rest of items on top on this order: red onion, avocado slices, cilantro and jalapenos
- Finally, close your baguette with the other piece of bread and voila Mexican Bahn Mi
Banh Mi Cheat Version
Ingredients
Pickled Vegetables
- 1 cup Rice vinegar
- ½ cup Water
- ½ cup White sugar
- ½ cup Carrots cut into matchsticks
- ½ cup White daikon radish cut into matchsticks
- ½ cup White onion sliced
Chicken
- 2 Skinless boneless half chicken breasts
- 1 tsp Garlic salt
- Pinch Ground black pepper
Banh Mi
- 2 12 inch French baguettes
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ½ cup Cucumber thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp Fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 Jalapeno peppers cut into matchsticks
- 4 wedges Fresh lime
Instructions
Pickled Vegetables
- Place rice vinegar, water, and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil, and stir until the sugar has dissolved, about 1 minute. Allow the mixture to cool
- Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the carrot, radish, and onion in a bowl, and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes. Drain off the excess vinegar mixture after the vegetables have marinated
Chicken
- While the vegetables are marinating, preheat the oven's broiler, and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source. Lightly oil a slotted broiler pan
- Sprinkle the chicken breast with garlic salt and pepper, and broil on slotted broiler pan, turning once, until the center of the chicken breast is no longer pink and the surface has browned, about 6 minutes per side
- Remove the broiled chicken, and slice into bite-size pieces
Assembling the Banh Mi
- Slice the baguette in half lengthwise, and pull the center of the bread out of the baguette halves, leaving a cavity for the filling. Place the baguette halves under the broiler to lightly toast, 2 to 3 minutes
- To assemble the bahn mi sandwich, spread each half of the toasted baguette with mayonnaise, and fill the cavity of the bottom half of the bread with broiled chicken, cucumber slices, pickled carrot, onion, and radish, cilantro leaves, and jalapeno pepper
- Squeeze a wedge of lime over the filling, and top with the other half of the baguette, enjoy!