Saturday, July 23, 2011

Banh Mi

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I live in a smallish city and the traditional vietnamese sandwich, Banh Mi, has been something I haven't been able to enjoy in a long time.  Last year, when CG went to NYC for a week on business, he brought home a couple of them for me.  Imagine my joy when I saw a recipe for them in Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, My Father's Daughter.  Now her version is a prawn sandwich, but that's not how I eat them so I used chicken in mine.

This is my adapted version of her vietnamese prawn sandwich recipe.  The night before I planned on making these sandwiches, I prepared the pickled carrots and sauce, and marinated the chicken.  She says to make these at least an hour ahead, but I find it easy to prep items just before bed and my final kitchen cleanup plus I wanted the chicken to sit in the marinade for a long time.

For the pickled carrots, I shredded 3 small carrots, and added them to 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp granulated sugar.  She used rice wine vinegar, but seasoned rice vinegar was what I had.  I liked it this way.

GP used vegenaise, but we're not vegans, so I used mayo.  For the sauce I whisked together 1/2 cup mayo, the juice of 1 lime and 1 1/2 tsps sriracha.  I like things zippy, you could use less sriracha.  Speaking of sriracha, GP has a recipe for homemade sriracha, but I just used the bottle in my frig.  When I run out, I plan on giving her recipe a try.

In a ziplock baggie, I placed 1 split chicken breast, 2 tbsps GF soy sauce, 2 tbsps toasted sesame oil, and 1 tsp fresh grated ginger(not ground ginger.)

All of this went in the frig overnight.  When you're ready for lunch, grill your chicken.  While the chicken is cooking, julienne a half an english cucumber,

and grab some basil and cilantro from the garden.

Banh mi is made with baguettes.  I made my own rolls for this to keep them gluten-free, but buying baguettes would be way easier.
Split your bread lengthwise with a bread knife.

Grill the rolls on both sides, while you shred the chicken.

To assemble the sandwiches, I spread the sauce on both halves of the roll.  Placed a layer of pickled carrots followed by a layer of  julienned cucumbers.  Next layer on the herbs followed by the chicken.

These sandwiches are like a taste of childhood for me.  Whirling Dervish loved his, so it looks like these will go on the lunch rotation.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.


10 comments:

  1. Marcia,
    What is sriracha?
    I have never heard of it?
    I am sure I would love this. I love marinated and pickled vegetables!

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  2. These look well tasty, and I'm a zippy freak too. Sirracha is one of my favorites!
    Thanks for sharing.....

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  3. My sister raves about these sandwiches, and I've never even had a sample! Thanks for sharing your recipe...it sounds amazing!

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  4. Thank you! I love these sandwiches but have never ventured out to make them. I will have to try now. :)

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  5. What a yummy sandwich...I need to get this cookbook and I love sriracha.

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  6. Yummy! I've never had this sandwich before but it looks absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe! I will put it on my 'to-eat' list :)

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  7. Isn't it funny how certain foods and smells from our childhood stay with us? Whenever I smell bread baking it reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom would have loaves of bread lined up on the counter. Oh and I'm impressed that you have a meal rotation! I guess you don't fly by the seat of your pants like I do. :o)

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  8. Never heard of sirracha, but who cares, it looks yummy!! I think I'm going to make this sandwich tonight for dinner...that's it! I have some foods that remind me, as soon as I smell them of my mil who died 2 yrs. ago and was a great cook...and mother of course, it's funny, ha?! Thanks for sharing, sweetie, I will let you know how it went. Lots of hugs, FABBY

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  9. Oh my heck!! That looks delicious!!! I am so happy for you! Thanks for sharing!
    xxDaniella

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  10. This really looks delicious! Of course I'm going to have to figure out what sriracha is and I can't get cilantro to grow for me. Thanks for sharing

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