BANH MI | In Search Of The World's BEST SANDWICH Ep. 09

In this episode of In Search of the World's Best Sandwich, we're making the banh mi, succulent fatty crispy pork belly, our homemade liver pâté, pickled and fresh veggies, chilies and lots of herbs, all packed into a light crusty sandwich roll. I'm super excited for this one, it's been a long time coming, but first we have some prep to do. I've got my pork belly here and as you can see the skin has already been scored. Now if yours isn't, you can do it yourself, just make sure you don't cut too deep and go into the meat underneath. I'm gonna season both sides with salt generously and I'm also gonna try to get some of the salt inside of the cuts on the skin side. I'm gonna try and pick up most of that loose salt on the bottom of the tray and I'm gonna put it onto a rack so that there's free air circulation when it's in the fridge. You can let it dry brine like this in the fridge for a few hours, but I like to let mine stay in there overnight. Okay, onto the veg, I've got a piece of daikon that I'm just gonna peel, cut one side so it can lay flat on the board, cut it into planks, then stack the planks and cut those into sticks. I'm gonna do the same with the carrots, but then this happened. My heart sank as I thought that I'd finally broken my camera, but my little ZV-E10 proves yet again that it's incredibly robust. So we crack on. Okay, we're done with the veg, this is all much easier if you have a good knife, go get yours from Forged to Table, the discount code is down in the description. We can get these out of the way and we can start mixing our pickling brine, which is super simple. One cup of white sugar, one tablespoon of salt, one cup of white distilled vinegar, and one cup of warm water. Now I'm just gonna whisk that until everything's dissolved. And using warm water makes that much easier. Once everything's dissolved, our veggies can go in. And of course, I'm gonna slice the cut on my finger open, right on the edge of the box. Ow! All right, we're gonna push everything down, make sure it's nice and submerged. And that is it. Just like with the pork belly, these are gonna be ready to use after a few hours, but I like to keep both in the fridge overnight. So I'm gonna see you tomorrow and we're gonna make some banh mis. It's the next day and I don't remember the last time I've been so excited to cook something. After a day of spy in the fridge, our pork belly has firmed up. And as you can see, the salt has drawn out a lot of moisture, which is gonna make the skin that much crispier. Before I throw it in the oven though, I'm just gonna give the skin a spray with some oil, which is also gonna help with crisping it up. And you know what? I think I'm gonna give it one more hit of the sea salt. Then it's going into a preheated oven at 180 Celsius or 375 Fahrenheit. And I'm gonna start checking on it after about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. In the meantime, we can prep a few more things. I'm gonna take a cucumber, cut the ends off, slice it down the middle, then cut the halves into quarters and slice the seeds off because that's the watery part. Then I'm gonna take each quarter and cut it in half length. And then flat side down, I'm just gonna cut it into these little planks. I also have a couple of these bird's eye chilies, which I'm gonna slice at an angle just for aesthetic purposes. And I just realized that I'm out of mayonnaise, so why don't we make some? It's gonna take no more than a minute. I'm gonna crack in one whole egg, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and a big pinch of salt. And one last thing, about a cup of sunflower seed oil. You can use any neutral oil, but I wouldn't recommend using olive oil because that's gonna make the mayo a little bitter. Then I'm gonna get my immersion blender all the way down to the bottom. And once I start, I'm gonna slowly start raising it up to the surface. As I do that, you can see that the oil is slowly starting to emulsify. And just like that, we've got mayonnaise. After about an hour and 20 minutes, our pork belly comes out looking like this. This is looking great. Now, I'm just gonna throw it back in the oven on the broiler setting at 220 degrees Celsius. But keep an eye on it because this happens quick and you can easily burn it if you're not paying attention. That's literally what I was just saying. I almost burned it. Oh, it's fine. Now, while we let this rest, we can take care of the bread. I went out of my way to get this from a Banh Mi sandwich joint, but you don't have to. You can use any type of bread that's gonna have a crispy shattering exterior, maybe a baguette. But here's how we're gonna get that really nice and crispy. Anytime I reheat bread, I run it under the tap and then I throw it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, our pork belly has had time to rest, so it's time to carve. And here's a little tip. It's easier to do that if it's upside down and you're cutting through the meat first instead of the skin. It's still super juicy. The skin is crispy. I mean, look at this. Okay, I think we have all the elements ready. Let's put this Banh Mi together. Let's hear how crispy that roll is. Yep, that's crispy. Our homemade liver pate goes on first. Then I'm gonna spread some of our mayo on the top half of the roll. The crispy pork belly goes on next, followed by our pickled daikons and carrots, then some fresh cucumber and chili. And lastly, a bunch of fresh coriander or cilantro, depending on where you are. Now, we're gonna season this a little bit. I'm gonna drizzle a little bit of Maggi sauce and I'm also gonna hit it with some of the drippings from the pork belly. There's a reason why I was excited. There's so much happening here. We've got the rich mayo, we've got the liver pate, the succulent fatty pork, but then everything is cut by the freshness and the crunchiness and crispy pork skin and then the dressings. The Banh Mi is an absolutely incredible sandwich and I'm gonna give it 9.4. It's absolutely worth the time and effort it takes to prepare. But then again, you're making a big batch of everything. So invite a bunch of friends or just enjoy a bunch of Banh Mis for the next few days. Either way, I promise you, you're not gonna get bored of it. Roll out!