A Vietnamese Sandwich, (aka Bahn mi), is usually a toasted French roll that's piled with Vietnamese flavored goodies like pickled (or fresh) carrots, onions, cilantro, jalapeno, a Vietnamese mayo, and grilled meats or tofu. There's a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese cafe in San Francisco that serves the best Vietnamese sandwiches I've had. Unfortunately, I'm sworn to secrecy, and I could tell you, but then I'll have to kill you - you know how that works!
The next best thing that I can do is share with you how I made my Vietnamese-style sandwich with tofu (a veggie bonvivant, after all!) , which turned out quite tasty, if I may say so myself! The name of the game is understand the essence, and play with the ingredients to suit your taste and mood!
I didn't have any french rolls, so feel free to pick up your favorite loaf. I've tried it with honey-wheat bread, and also a cracked wheat bun. I'm not sure how it'll taste with say, something like Pita, but knock yourself out!
Here's what I used:
Bread - toast it
Spreads - mayo and horseradish (YUM!) , and Sambal Olek (YUM again!!)
Leftover cashew tofu from Dusita Thai (in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara) (YUM yet again!!!)
Veggies
Some julienned carrots
Some onion (cut into strips)
Basil and cilantro (from my own garden! :-) )
Julienned jalapenos (ok, I actually used Serrano, as that's all I had on me). Remember to take the seeds out first, and the membranes - these are the spiciest parts of the pepper.
Directions:
Toast the bread.
Spread a mix of mayo and horseradish on either side.
Take a few pieces of tofu and some veggies from leftover dish, microwave them.
Cut them up and pile them on one side.
On the other side, add the julienned carrots, jalapenos, onions, basil and cilantro.
Sprinkle a generous portion (ok, just kidding, be careful and add to suit your taste (whimp levels)) of Sambal Olek.
Close the sandwich.
Enjoy!
To make the meal more interesting, I also boiled some corn-on-the-cob. I rubbed it with butter, sprinkled some sea salt (thanks, Archana! :-) ), and some paprika. Nice side. A dash of lemon/lime juice would do nicely too!
Let me know what you think!
Also, if you played around with the recipe, and liked the outcome, I'd be interested in that too!
Cheers,
Sridhar
