Bánh mì is a brilliant example of colliding food cultures. It owes its familiar form of a crusty baguette to the French, yet its palate-tingling array of complex flavours and textures is totally down to the Vietnamese. If you haven’t had a chance to have one yet, I encourage you to try it, it’s bound to make you grin all the way through your lunchtime!
Although the fillings can vary quite a lot most of them follow a similar pattern apart from an ice-cream version, which does what it says on the tin – a baguette filled with ice cream scoops and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. Most bánh mìs owe their satisfying bite to a mixture of something ‘chewy’ (in our case it’s seasoned tofu), something ‘sweet and sour’ (pickled carrot and daikon are most commonly used), something crunchy (cucumber or other raw veggies) and something fresh (plenty of coriander) topped with something ‘spicy’ (spicy chilli sauce or vegan sriracha mayo). It is really hard to describe all these various flavours bouncing off each other in your mouth, so excuse me for a second – I need to take a bite of my Vietnamese sandwich to keep the memory of how good it is alive 🙂 .
2 carrots, ribboned / julienned 3 small turnips or 15 radishes, sliced/julienned ½ cup / 120 ml rice vinegar + ½ cup water ¼ cup brown sugar or maple syrup 15 Szechuan (or black) peppercorns 1 tsp salt 1 garlic clove, crushed with a knife
MARINATED TOFU
400 g firm tofu, pressed* 2 tbsp maple syrup 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 4 tbsp tamari or soy sauce 1-2 tbsp Sriracha 3 tsp toasted sesame oil 2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch (optional) 3 tbsp oil, for frying (optional)
SRIRACHA MAYO
¼ cup / 60 ml aquafaba / chickpea water** 4 tsp / 20 ml lime juice (or lemon juice or vinegar) ¼-½ tsp salt, more to taste ¼ tsp powdered garlic, more to taste approx. 1 cup / 240 ml of mild tasting oil (canola, grapeseed, safflower or light olive oil) 4-5 tsp Sriracha pepper, to taste
My vegan mayo recipe is inspired by this recipe.
