Pulled Pork Bahn Mi

I like Vietnamese food and I like sandwiches, so Bahn Mi should twang my thing. Considering all the Vietnamese places around here, especially Lee's Sandwiches, you'd think I'd have had one of these once before.

Pulled Pork Bahn Mi
adapted from Cooking Club of America
click to print

1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c Asian fish sauce
1/4 c rice vinegar
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 small jalapeño chile, seeded, deveined, minced
4 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4-inch pieces
3/4 c mayonnaise
1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce, or to taste
8 mini baguettes or ciabatta rolls, split, toasted
1 (10-oz.) pkg. julienned carrots
1 medium unpeeled seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 c thinly sliced green onions
1 c coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Okay, so I went cheap with the pork picnic instead of a boneless shoulder. I just removed the skin and extra fat, leaving the bone, and called it good.


Combine brown sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, garlic, and jalapeño in 5- to 6-quart slow cooker.


Place pork in slow cooker; spoon sauce mixture over pork to coat.


Cook, covered, on high 4 to 5 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours or until pork is fork-tender.


Remove pork; skim fat from cooking juices.

There wasn't much in the way of juices so I transferred all of it to to a little jar from which I spooned off the fat.

Shred pork with 2 forks; return to cooking juices in slow cooker. Reduce heat to low to keep warm.

It was late, nearing midnight 9/8/14 when I got to this point. Rather than keep the pork in a slow-cooker overnight, I opted to shred it, add the fatless cooking juices, and toss before storing in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, whisk mayonnaise and hot sauce in small bowl until blended; cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is scaled down to 1/4 c mayo and 1 tsp Sriracha. I figured I'd make it as I ate the sandwiches, increasing the Sriracha as appropriate each time.

Spread bread with mayonnaise mixture; top with pork, carrots, cucumber, green onions and cilantro.


It tasted good, but holy shit is it ever salty. I'm guessing it was all because of the fish sauce, there isn't anything else that is contributing so much sodium. Or because I used a 4.18 lb picnic that included a bone, lessening the total quantity of meat, thus increasing the salt per bite. Seriously, select a bread that will let you really pile the vegetables on. You'll need it. I might buy a bunch of lettuces or mixed greens and eat the rest of this as a salad with ciabatta croutons and Sriracha-mayo "dressing".

Anyway, the sandwich is definitely savory, hot, cool, crispy and crunchy. It's a texture explosion. The salt just kills is though, which is seriously disappointing. I have to try this again and get 4 pound of total meat, no bone, and use my usual fish sauce.

Cost:

• brown sugar: $0.18
• fish sauce: $2
• rice vinegar: $0.29
• garlic cloves: $0.25
• jalapeño chile: $0.09
• pork picnic: $4.14
• mayonnaise: $1.32
• Sriracha hot sauce: $0.06
• ciabatta: $2.99
• julienned carrots: $1.99
• seedless cucumber: $0.99
• green onions: $0.89
• fresh cilantro: $0.59

Total: $15.79 or about $1.97 for each of eight sandwiches.

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