Ingredients
Scale
- 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!