Bahn mi roll

Vietnamese”ish” Pickles

Vietnamese'ish pickles

I have been muttering about Bahn Mi Rolls at work for a long time – trying to find a space in the work cabinet to fit these tasty Vietnamese/french rolls.  Counter intuitively it would seem, I didn’t make them when I had a Vietnamese chef working with me – mainly because I suspected – probably rightly – that he would be appalled at the cafe twists I had in mind for them.  I think, for me it is the idea of adding these simple pickles to brighten up a sandwich, wrap, or roll that is the genius of the Bahn Mi Roll.

Keeping it simple, healthy and affordable I am using them to add some bright notes to my

  • Salads
  • Lettuce wraps
  • Bau buns
  • Wraps
  • Lunch rolls
  • Tacos
  • Nachos
  • Roti roll

I’m was planning to use tofu for the protein component today but have leftover chicken from last night so for the first photo thats what I am using.     I will come back to the tofu though as tofu is an ingredient that hasn’t always been in my repetoire but with increasing numbers of reliably produced brands, and as always with a desire to mix up the variety of foods we eat I am having some fun experimenting  and definitely enjoying the results.  Jack fruit is another simple affordable and under used ingredient that works well in this format.

After a little experimentation I have come to this interpretation which can be eaten within fifteen minutes of putting together but will last up to a month in the refrigerator.  Rice wine vinegar is a bit expensive but an ingredient I really like, if you don’t want to go out and purchase another ingredient you could replace this with white vinegar, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.

VIETNAMESE’ISH PICKLES

Ingredients

  • PICKLE
  • 1 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup  hot water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • VEGETABLES
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 small Daikon radish

Place all  pickling ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine and dissolve.

While this is happening finely shred your carrot and daikkon radish – you want approximately equal portions of these.

I have used a mandoline to julienne mine you can also buy handheld devices that look like a vegetable peeler or finely chop them with a knife.

Pack the vegetables into a clean jar (I quickly sterilised the jar with boiling water).

By the time you have shredded the vegetables the pickling liquid should have dissolved together and you can pour this liquid on to your carrot and Daikon.

This needs to sit for approximately half an hour for the flavours to take hold and will improve over the next day.

Now you are ready to build the sandwich of your dreams, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

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