Hi guys!
I love Vietnamese food, as much as I love Korean food. Vietnamese food is very special to me, I really believe Vietnamese cuisine is one of the best cuisines in the world! I really don’t know why I fell in love with Vietnamese cuisine but every time I eat their food… I just can’t believe I was missing out my whole entire my life!!!
I think it’s quite similar with Korean cuisine because “How” they eat the food is very familiar with Korean.
Korea, we like to eat everything wrap in lettuce(We call Ssam), Vietnamese does it a lot.
They love noodles as we do(or as all Asian does! lol), also using lots of fish sauce along with soy sauce.
Vietnamese cuisine has lots of French influence, and Banh Mi is one of them
.
Banh mi is Vietnamese sandwich, using baguette and fill up with their own unique ingredients and flavors.
Such as pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, unique flavored meats, fresh chili pepper, cucumber and some seasoned soy sauce(Maggi sauce)
You can find Maggi sauce in Asian store or authentic food aisle of your local grocery store.
If you can’t find it you can use soy sauce/dark soy sauce instead,
but this sauce is the one of ingredients that makes the sandwich very unique.
It’s very addictive flavor and it is the best sandwich I’ve ever had!
Let me tell ya, I’m not a bread person. But I love this sandwich, I can eat it all day!
Our favorite is BBQ Pork Banh Mi and Korean Bulgogi Banh Mi.
But marinate the meat takes overnight or 2 days for the great flavor. So I wanted to take it as fast cooking process but still have same amount of the flavor.
And here you have it! The quick dressing make this sandwich very special with out any Vietnamese cold meat(Takes days to make it) or BBQ meat(Takes a couple days)!
Fried Pork Belly Banh Mi
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons vinegar
- 4 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 cups julienne Korean radish (Moo) or Japanese radish (Daikon) and julienne carrot mixture(half and half).
- Frying oil
- 1 lb. fresh pork belly, cut into 1 X 1 and 1/2 inch thick sizes
- 1 long baguette or 4 individual ones (If you can find Vietnamese baguette, please use that!)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Thai chili, chopped
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 Tablespoons coconut water
- 4 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
- Few drops of Maggi sauce (seasoning sauce)
- 1 mini gourmet cucumber,
- sliced 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional)
- Handful cilantro Chicory (optional)
- Sriracha (optional)
Instructions
- First, to make pickled radish and carrots, combine vinegar, sugar and water and stir until sugar dissolved. Add julienne radish and carrot, cover with vinegar mixture completely. Cover and keep it in refrigerate.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat frying oil over medium, up to 350 degrees. Very carefully add pork belly pieces into hot frying oil, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until it cooked though. Take fried pork belly out and lying on paper towel. Let it cool slightly. We are going to fry the pork belly twice. Reason why doing it is to get rid of extra moister from the pork belly so it will be crispier and have great texture.
- Meanwhile, make dressing and toast bread. Combine fish sauce and next 4 ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until sugar dissolved, set aside. Place baguette into preheated oven; let it just warm up for 2 to 3 minutes (otherwise bread will get too hard), set aside.
- Increase heat to medium high, up to 375 degrees. Then deep fry pork belly one more time, for extra crunch outside but still juicy on the inside! Take fried pork belly out from hot oil, and lying on paper towel to get rid of excess oil. Before it gets cooled down too much, add still hot pork belly into dressing we made earlier. Toss evenly.
- Now, assemble the sandwich!
First, cut bread in halves and spread mayonnaise on both side. Splash a few drops of maggi sauce, then sliced cucumbers. On top of that, lay fried pork belly evenly and don’t forget to pour dressing too. Add pickled radish and carrot, jalapeno, chicory and cilantro as much as you like, but not too much. It’s all about balance the flavor! Add some sriracha if you like, and there you have it!! Fried pork belly banh mi!
Enjoy with ice cold coke or beer!
