This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

How to Make Banh Mi

I don’t have much to say about banh mi sandwiches … except that these sandwiches rock. Pork meatballs slathered with sriracha mayo and stuffed in a French baguette with pickled vegetables, cilantro, and jalapeno…really, the flavor quotient just doesn’t get any better than this.

Once, a friend brought a whole bunch of them back from Boston and had us over for a banh mi sandwich dinner party (good times) and another time a friend made these banh mi pork meatballs as part of a meal swap. Now THAT was a good day! I was so enamored with her meatballs that I saved the recipe and have since made the meatballs a regular on our dinner table.

This recipe is a bit more involved than my usual recipe—you have to make a sauce, pickle vegetables, fry and bake meatballs, and then assemble it all—but, I promise you, these sandwiches are so delicious, the extra effort will be well worth it! And it can be fun to do with a group of friends or neighbors.

Stephanie Yu Lim is a columnist who lives in Guilford and writes the helloShoreline blog at helloshorelineblog.com.

Here is the recipe (adapted from Bon Appetit’s recipe for Pork Meatball Banh Mi), which I’ve streamlined to make it easier:

Ingredients:

Sauce

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sriracha

1 green onion finely chopped

Juice of 1 lime

Meatballs

1 pound ground pork or chicken

¼ cup chopped cilantro

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 green onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Pickled vegetables

2 cups grated carrots

2 cups grated daikon (or sliced cucumbers)

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Other Fix-in’s

2 long baguettes, cut into 10-in long pieces

Big bunches of cilantro

Jalapeno chiles, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions:

Sauce

1. Mix all the ingredients to make the sauce.

Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 300.

2. Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs until well-incorporated.

3. Form meat mixture into meatballs. (I make my meatballs about 3” in diameter because it makes the frying that much faster with a bigger meatball.)

4. Coat frying pan with oil and then fry each side of the meatballs until browned (about 2 minutes per side). Don’t worry about cooking all the way through because the meat will finish cooking in the oven.

5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until meatballs are thoroughly cooked.

Pickling the vegetables

1. Toss grated vegetables with the salt and set aside in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

2. Mix sugar and vinegar until sugar is dissolved.

3. Pour out excess water from the vegetables and then toss the vegetables in the dressing and allow to marinade for at least an hour.

Assembling the sandwiches

1. Cut the baguettes lengthwise and spread both sides of the bread with the sauce

2. Stuff the sandwich with 1-2 meatballs, a heaping spoonful of the pickled vegetables, several sprigs of cilantro and a couple slices of jalapenos.