Mami’s Food truck inspired "Banh Mi" Vietnamese sandwich

Mami’s Pork Banh Mi

Growing up in Lowell, there is a plethora of Asian sandwich shops where one can pick up a quick lunch for under $3.00.

The popular Vietnamese baguette sandwiches comes in a variety of meat including BBQ beef, shredded chicken, roasted pork or even the traditional “meat combo” which is also referred to as “mystery meat” but is actually sliced head cheese (not actually cheese), bbq pork belly fat and “Cha Lua”, Vietnamese pork sausage.

After a recent visit to Boston with some friends and the +Mo Neak and trying out different food trucks at the Food Truck Throw Down, New York vs. Boston at the Rose Kennedy Greenway at Dewey Square, I was inspired to create my own slow roasted pork sandwich.

Bon Mi’s Vietnamese Sandwich

Ingredients

• Baguettes
• Slow cooked Pork shoulder
• Pickled carrots and papaya or 
• other pickled vegetables
• Cilantro
• Red Onion
• Salt and Pepper
• Cucumber sticks
• Pate (Optional)
• Jalapeno (Optional)
• Sriracha (Optional)
• “Vietnamese mayonnaise”
• Soybean sauce (Optional) looks similar to soy sauce but less salty and a bit sweet

To prepare the pork, I removed the cryovac
wrapping and cut slits into the pork shoulder.  I marinated an 8 pound pork shoulder with salt, brown sugar, whole star anise,  black pepper and minced garlic overnight in the fridge.

After letting it sit at room temperature, I cooked it for 6 hours at 275 degrees covered in the oven.  I created a mixture using melted butter and additional brown sugar and brushed it on the thick layer of fat and set the oven to 500 degrees for 15 minutes.

While the pork was in the oven cooking, my mother and I made the picked vegetables using carrots, papaya, vinegar and seasoning.  I cut up red onion, jalapenos and scallions and set them aside.

I have to admit, I didn’t make the Vietnamese mayo from scratch. We bought a small tub at the local Vietnamese shop since no one seems to give up their recipe and every time I try to make it, it doesn’t taste right. I found a few recipes online but none match the tasty spread found in the mom and pop’s shops.

To assemble the sandwich, slice the bread horizontally and lightly toast it in the oven for
3 or 4 minutes at 300 degrees. We prefer our bread more soft that crunchy as it can get pretty messy and in some cases, scrape the roof of your mouth.

Brush the “Vietnamese mayonnaise” and spread the optional pate.  Layer the cucumbers, red onions, optional jalapeno and tender pork chunks.  I would recommend adding the optional sriracha hot sauce, salt, pepper and optional soybean sauce now.  Garnish with pickled vegetables and cilantro.  (My favorite part of the sandwich is actually the cilantro and pickled veggies so I actually LOAD it on), cut in half and serve.

If you want to go the extra step, wrap the sandwich in wax paper using a rubber band and throw it in a brown bag for the true fast food Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich experience.

*** Updated 1/5/2013***

I was at Target the other day and found a individually wrapped Demi French baguette that was really soft. I thought was would be a really good alternative to the crusty hard bread from the Asian store.

I made my own terriyaki sauce using fresh minced ginger, soy sauce, garlic, water, and brown sugar.

Remove minced ginger pieces

Add the roasted pork to the terriyaki sauce.  Assemble the sandwich per the above instructions and serve.

"Lee Ma’s" Root Beer Pulled Pork Recipe

Pulled Pork Slider with melted provolone cheese and coleslaw

Besides having fresh shucked oysters courtesy of Sin and Vey, the most delicious dish served at last year’s disappointing Superbowl game was Lemar’s pulled pork.  Lemar (Phonetically pronounced “Lee-Ma” and not “La Marre”) treated the crowd to a sweet and spicy pulled pork dish to die for.   I vaguely remember her mentioning that it was a recipe that her and her college friend used to make.

Along with the slow cooked pork served hot from the crockpot, she brought rolls and provolone cheese.

After the Pats lost and everyone went home upset, the Mo and I ate leftovers for days after the game.  For months, I meant to ask her for the recipe. After almost a year went by, I thought New Years eve would be a great time to serve the meaty dish.  She recommended the tasty bites be served with provolone cheese and coleslaw for an even tastier delight.

Her recipe is as follows: (word for word)

Toss in slow cooker, the following:

Pork shoulder

2liter bottle-Root beer soda (u can try diet soda, not sure if it’ll change the taste…maybe do half diet and half regular?)

4 Garlic cloves, crushed

2-3 Thyme sprigs or 1tsp

2 Bay leaves

1-2 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (depending how hot you want it)

1tsp Black pepper

1 tsp Salt

Those are estimate measures because I eyeball it

Make sure liquid covers pork, you can add chicken broth or water

Cook for about 4hrs or til pork falls apart with a fork. 

Remove pork from liquid

Pull pork apart and top with your favorite BBQ sauce

Enjoy!

Ingredients for slow cooked pulled pork

 

I gathered all the ingredients and tossed it all in the slow cooker per the instructions with the exception of leaving the pork to cook an extra hour longer ( I think I bought an extra large piece of meat that need additional time to tenderize).

I even followed her recommendations and made a coleslaw from pre-bagged ingredients in the produce section and mayo, salt, pepper and vinegar.  

The sandwiches came out perfect and everyone loved them!  I’m even going to start my diet a few days later so I can eat the leftovers without feeling guilty.

Thanks Lemar!

**Updated: January 5th 2013**

After cooking an 8-10 lbs pork shoulder, we still have massive amounts of leftover slow cooked pork (that’s even after making sliders and giving some away). We never like to waste food in this household so I decided to get creative and try to make new recipes with the leftover meat.

For dinner one night, I made a pulled and pork mac and cheese.  I prepared Kraft’s Homestyle Mac and Cheese per the directions on their box and set it aside.  I took one cut of the pulled pork and added habanero BBQ sauce to give it a little spice.  I mixed the mac and cheese and added another 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to make it a bit more cheesier since we’ve added additional ingredients.

Pulled pork mac and cheese

I poured the mixture into a small casserole dish and sprinkled additional shredded cheese and the crumb topping from the Kraft’s Mac and cheese bag.  After 15 minutes at 375 degrees temperature, BBQ pulled pork mac and cheese was complete and ready to be served.  BTW.. we still had LEFTOVERS that I brought to lunch.  Serve with Tabasco sauce for an additional kick.

**Updated: January 6th 2013**

This morning I woke to a fridge full of leftovers that I had to do something about since I usually go food shopping on Sundays.  I decided to make one last dish with the leftover pulled pork. Since we would be out and about all day, the best option for me the cook the leftover pork would be for breakfast. 

The Mo loves omelettes so I checked to see if I had all the ingredients to build him one.  I didn’t have any white mushrooms but I figured I could do without.

BBQ Pulled Pork Omelette

Makes one omelette

• 1/4 cup of leftover BBQ pulled pork
• 1/4 onions
• optional 1 jalapeno
• 2-3 whole large eggs
• 2 tablespoons of milk or cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional Tabasco sauce 
• 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil or cooking spray
• 2 slices of provolone cheese

Cut up the onions and jalapenos in small slices.  Heat skillet to medium to high temperature and add in one teaspoon of oil or cooking spray. Add onions and jalapenos to the skillet and stir occasionally until golden brown.  Add in leftover BBQ pulled pork until mixture is hot.  Set filling aside.

Beat the eggs, milk salt and pepper for about 2 minutes by hand or mixer to get it as “airy” as possible.  Heat medium skillet to medium temperature.  This is very important as you do not want to rush the heating process by putting it on “high” temperature and risk overheating the skillet. That will burn your egg.  

Once the skillet is warm, spray the pan or add the vegetable oil. Give it another minute to warm up the oil.  Beat your eggs a few more strokes before pouring the egg mixture into the skillet.  Pick up the handle and rotate the mixture so that it evenly coats the pan.

Cover the omelette and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes.  As soon as you see the sides harden up, use a large spatchula to flip the eggs.  If you are savvy, you can flip the egg without a spatchula   (I’m not that savvy.)

Add the meat and vegetable mixture to the bottom half of the fried egg. It’s OK if the middle is still a bit runny.  Add the provolone cheese and flip the top half of the egg to meet the bottom half of the egg creating a moon shape.  Cover the skillet and let it sit for another 2 minutes to thoroughly cook the eggs and melt the cheese.

Slide the egg gently onto a plate and serve with optional Tabasco sauce.

Pulled Pork Omelette with buttered rolls

Momofuku Pork Shoulder

Nat’s Momofuku Pork

After a great meal consisting of a 6 hour slow cooked Korean pork shoulder and 2 glasses of Cupcake Pino Grigio wine, my friend Nat urged to me start a food and travel blog.

I insisted “the Mo” aka the “hubby”, to end his game of C.O.D.- Black Ops so we could come home to start my first blog.  Here I am 15 minutes later, typing up my first blog with Desperate Housewives on in the background, our usual Sunday night event.

Food is not a new thing to me. I’ve always had an interest in cooking since my sister and I were in our preteens. The first recipe that I remember making with her was Asian seasoned fries.  She handcut the potatoes, deep fried it, and tossed it with the seasoning packet from Asian ramen noodles.  I observed and ate.  Throughout the years, I observed my mom and sister cook and caught on to their Cambodian recipes.

At the age of 19, I got a waitressing job at Southeast Asian Restaurant in Lowell where I learned how to prepare authentic Thai and Laotion dishes.

I’m now 26 and constantly cooking for the Mo and I as well as family, friends and events. I never like to go to a party empty handed so I always try to bring a dish. For most events, the dish is usually fried eggrolls, a favorite among my college roomates, coworkers, and “non Asian” friends.  Since most Asian people are used to the eggrolls, I try to bring something different or easier to make, it always changes.

This is the dish that my Nat friend slow cooked for hours! It was delicious. She got the recipe from a cookbook that she bought called, “Momofuku” by David Chang and Peter Meehan. “Momofuku” means “lucky peach”.  Momofuku is a successful restaurant group in New York with 5 establishments. Although Nat and her husband has ventured out to NY to try it, the Mo and I have yet to try it.. but I hope we will someday! This dish is called bo ssam.  It is a common dish in Korea.

Tonight’s dish that I brought over to Nat’s house was chicken sate with peanut sauce.  I’ve never made it before but it seemed easy enough. I bought the sate seasoning packet from a local Cambodian store and marinated the chicken thighs per the instructions on the back (Coconut milk instead of water).  For the sauce, I used the 2nd packet and added some more coconut milk and kind of changed it up a bit by adding hoisen sauce and chili oil.

 

Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce