Take a freshly baked French baguette and sprinkle with a spicy paté, then add a light mayonnaise and top up the other half of the French bread bar. If you add some sausage or short grilled, it sounds like a very delicate French “petit dejeuner”, or lunch snack.
That’s quite right, wouldn’t it be the fact that this variation of a sandwich comes from Vietnam and is called Banh Mi. If you are right to wonder how the baguette managed to cross the world’s oceans to make a career in Vietnam, I answer: “Just like that!” The baguette was introduced by the French in Indochina during the colonial period and has been able to assert itself to this day.
French crafts in the Far East
But the Frenchman would not be the Frenchman if he only brought a simple bread recipe. This would undermine the noble and distinctive cuisine of our neighbours a little. The paté , on the other hand, has the kitchen-technical potential to leave a culinary monument on this earth and so already in the early centuries approaches about the method of preparation and the western cooking craft in the Far East were left behind.
Amazing when you think about how early the globalization of cuisine took place and how it could manifest itself over decades in the stories and cookbooks of cultures. If one were to look for a book title to express where these dishes originated, it would surely be called “The History of Fusion Kitchen”.
My first Banh Mi
My first Banh Mi triggered an enlightening “Aha” effect. In the early days of my cooking, I was still a “culinary greenhorn”, but at that time my enthusiasm for Asian cuisine was already aroused. Everything that tasted like soy, glutamate and pronounced spices was found to be “delicious” and sanded off on my “To eat” list.
That’s why I was quite disappointed at first when I got a “sandwich” pressed into my hand by a colleague during an exploration tour at an Asian market. “We’re at an Asian market and you’re bringing me a baguette?” I got a slight sweat because I feared that after this baguette I would have no place in my stomach to instill the “real shit” (as I would have said at the time). Already halfway through my first Banh Mi I realized that I was holding the “real shit” in my hand and when I was informed that it was the finest street food from Vietnam, my culinary soul was back in the purest.
For the recipe: yes, you can also buy the individual components but as a hobby chef and friend of self-making, I have summarized here again the individual preparation steps.
Banh Mì Ingredients:
Ingredients for 4 people | |
For the baguettes: | |
400g | Flour |
1 1/2 tsp | Salt |
1 tsp. | Sugar |
270 ml | Water |
1/2 cube | Yeast |
For the Paté: | |
200g | Chicken liver |
1 piece | piece red onion |
1 clove | Garlic |
50g | Butter |
1 tsp. | Salt |
1 tsp. | Sugar |
1 tbls. | Vinegar |
50ml | Red wine |
100 ml | Chicken broth |
Pepper and salt | |
For the chicken: | |
1 double | Chicken breast |
2 tbsp | Honey |
2 tbsp | Soy sauce |
1 clove | Garlic |
1 thumb-sized piece | Ginger |
2 tbsp | Ketchup |
1 tsp. | 5 Spices Powder* |
2 tbsp | roasted sesame oil |
For the mayonnaise | |
2 pieces | Egg yolks |
100 ml | Oil |
1 tsp. | 1tsp. Mustard |
Juice of one | Lime |
1/2 tsp. salt | Salt |
For the pickled vegetables: | |
1 large | Carrot |
5 cloves | Radishes |
4 tbsp. | Vinegar |
1 tsp. | Salt |
1 tsp. | Sugar |
Others: | |
One hand | fine salad leaves |
A covenant | Coriander |
Here’s how it’s done:
- For the baguette, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water. Mix flour and salt. Gradually add the yeast water to the flour. Knead very thoroughly. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and leave to rest in a warm place for 2 hours.
- For the paté, peel the onions and garlic and cut them into small pieces. Heat a pan with a little oil and sweat the onions and garlic in it. After about 5 minutes, add the chicken liver and sweat with it. If the liver has taken on a nice color and is brown, wipe off with vinegar and wine. Reduce for a minute, then add the broth, salt, sugar, butter and pepper. Cook everything together until the liquid has almost evaporated. Then allow to cool slightly and crush to a fine paté with a blender. Maybe to seasoning a little more.
- For the chicken breast, cut the chicken diagonally into slices. These slightly flat knock. Put the ingredients for the marinade in a container and crush with a blender. Marinate the chicken with the paste and set it cold.
- For the vegetables, peel the carrot and cut into fine slices with the radishes. Marinate with two tbsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar and set aside.
- For the mayonnaise, mix the egg yolk with the mustard and place in a bowl, add the oil to a mayonnaise. Season with lime juice and salt.
- Now divide the baguette dough into four portions. Preheat the oven to 220°. Squeeze the portions flat with each hand and roll them up into an elongated snail. Place them on the sheet again and let them rise again, under a damp cloth for 20 minutes. Then carefully cut with a knife and slide into the oven. Also take a bowl of 300ml of water and place it under the sheet metal in the oven. After 10 minutes, remove the water, set the temperature down to 200° and bake the baguettes for another 10 minutes.
- For the chicken, heat a pan with a little oil and fry the pieces golden brown.
- To prepare, you cut open a baguette. Swipe the paté on the bottom and the mayonnaise on top. Then place the pickled vegetables on the bottom and cover them with the chicken. Finally, the fine lettuce leaves and the coriander come on. You can add a splash of lime juice here. Fold and enjoy.