I was reminded that I've been wanting a bánh mì sandwich last week when I was Southside in Sac going to the Vietnamese market to pick up pork belly to transform into bacon for a friend's birthday last weekend. Instead of going down to Huong Lan, I just bought a bag of bánh mì rolls.
It'd be a long day and a half of translating paperwork from 25 page divorce settlement, so when it came about today that I'd suddenly had nothing to do for a couple hours at midday, I decided to do something with those week old rolls sitting in fridge, which keep quite well. Don't leave them out on the counter--they will mold.
The first step to making this sandwich is making the do chua or rather pickled carrots and daikon, so I went to the link my friend Joe Tyrone sent me. Pretty easy, but instead of doing the prescibed root vegetable massage, I just tossed the matchsticked veg in the salt and sugar and let it sit for 30 minutes before leaving it for an hour in the salt, sugar, water, vinegar brine.
On Sunday while waiting for the greens from the last post to simmer, I went to marinated some lemongrass chicken à la my ma's marinade:
2 stalks lemon grass
4 clv garlic
1/4 c fish sauce
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs black peppercorns
I blended this in my bullet-like mixer and tossed 1 lb of chicken thigh meat in it and let it marinate for a few days.
Once skewered, it got grilled with my toasted bánh mì roll.
I combined it all onto the roll with the fermented/pickled fresno peppers from last autumn that are to this day still edible and a delicious condiment.
I like cilantro when a recipe calls for it, but I really have to have it light on a lot of things other than those that just don't taste right without (e.g., salsa). This is one of those food items that I feel can do without, so I didn't feel the need to go out and buy a bunch on my two hour lunch to garnish this bad boy.
I declare this guy a win that kept me satiated from 130 pm nearly throughout trivia nite tonight, 8 pm.
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