Seasonal Recipe of the Week
These Vietnamese sandwiches are the perfect fusion of French and Asian cuisines. Bánh mì are usually very inexpensive and come with many different types of fillings. Originally done with ground pork, I love the idea of using pork tenderloin.
Ingredients
1- to 1.5-pound pork tenderloin
3 tablespoons Fish sauce
2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 slice ginger, minced
1 green onion, sliced thinly
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 loaf sweet French baguette (thin) or french bread sandwich rolls. Try to get the kind of French bread with a crisp crust and tender light center.
red leaf lettuce
pickled carrot and radishes
sliced jalapeno chili peppers
cilantro
mayonnaise
Procedure
Cut tenderloin across the grain of the meat into ½ inch pieces. Flatten each piece to an even ¼ inch between two pieces of saran wrap using a meat pounder, rolling pin, or large bottle.
Mix ingredients from fish sauce to black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning – it should be sweet and savory so add more soy, salt, or sesame oil as you like. Add marinade to the meat and use your hands or large spoon to make sure all pieces of meat are coated in marinade. Marinate for 10-30 minutes. You can cook the pork on the grill outdoors (best) or indoors using a grill pan or cast iron pan, something that you can get very hot. Add vegetable oil to meat and stir to coat. Sear first side of meat until very dark brown on one side, then flip and sear on the second side. Be careful not to overcook it. The meat is thin so it cooks quickly, one or two minutes on each side. To assemble sandwiches, slice baguette and spread mayonnaise on one side, Add lettuce, meat, pickled vegetables, cilantro and peppers. Dig in!Some people add a slice of Pate to this sandwich, feel free, it's superb.
