海角大神

We love border-crossing cooking.聽When ingredients and techniques travel across boundaries and cultures, food gets interesting. Vietnamese cuisine is a perfect example. Not only does it share herbs and spices with its Asian neighbors, but it borrows from its culinary past as a French colony.

A family favorite here at Blue Kitchen is Marion鈥檚聽. The slow cooked, meaty, multi-spiced dish is served with a French baguette instead of rice and eaten with forks and spoons, not chopsticks. Similarly, b谩nh m矛 鈥� in the West, delicious, usually meaty Vietnamese sandwiches 鈥� are served on baguettes. In Vietnam, the term b谩nh m矛 actually means bread or, more specifically, French bread.

B谩nh m矛 鈥� the sandwich 鈥� comes in many forms. The most popular is made with roast pork, but beef, chicken, tofu, and other varieties are generally available in the sandwich shops that have sprung up in cities across the United States. It is virtually always served with pickled carrots and daikon, a mild white radish popular in the cuisines of Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam and India. It鈥檚 often served with sliced peppers too, jalape帽o being a readily available choice, and topped with cilantro sprigs.

We first sampled b谩nh m矛 meatloaf served as the classic sandwich at聽, our favorite Chicago butcher shop. Made with their own ground pork (and perhaps beef鈥擨 don鈥檛 remember), it was delicious. About halfway through, though, we stopped eating it as a sandwich, opening it up and concentrating on the meat and toppings with the occasional bite of bread. And that gave me the idea to dispense with the sandwich altogether and create a mash-up of the Vietnamese favorite and the ultimate American comfort food: b谩nh meatloaf.

B谩nh Meatloaf
Serves 4 to 6

For the pickled carrots and daikon鈥攎akes about 2 cups:
Make this at least three hours ahead of making the meatloaf to let the vegetables marinate. Will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge. See Kitchen Notes for a couple of thoughts on ways to use the jalape帽o pepper.

1/2 cup warm water

4 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup rice vinegar (or distilled vinegar)

1 cup carrot matchsticks (or julienned or coarsely grated鈥攕ee Kitchen Notes)

1 cup daikon matchsticks (see Kitchen Notes)

scant 1/2 cup thin slices of jalape帽o pepper (optional鈥攕ee Kitchen Notes)

Add sugar and salt to warm water and stir to dissolve. Stir in vinegar. Set aside and let cool while you prepare carrots, daikon and jalape帽o pepper. Combine in bowl with vinegar mix. Set aside to let vegetables marinate at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for at least 3 hours. For longer than 3 hours, refrigerate.

For the meatloaf:

1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef (see Kitchen Notes)

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil

3 scallions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fish sauce (see Kitchen Notes)

1 tablespoon hot sauce (such as Sriracha)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

6 tablespoons bread crumbs (I used panko)

cilantro sprigs

baguette slices

A quick note: don鈥檛 overwork the meatloaf mix鈥攊t will become mealy. To help achieve this, only roughly mix the pork and beef together before adding the rest of the ingredients. Mix the basil, scallions and garlic in a small bowl beforehand; do the same with the pepper, salt, sugar and five-spice powder; this will minimize mixing once they鈥檙e added to the meat.

Also, I skipped the loaf pan and baked the meatloaf mixture in a hand formed loaf shape on a flat surface. This allowed it to brown on the sides as well as the top and gave it a pleasing loaf shape. Marion has used this technique in the past; I learned my version of it from聽, executive chef at Portland Penny Diner.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Wrap the top of a wire rack with aluminum foil and set it over a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. With a paring knife, poke slits into the foil on the rack.

Using wet hands, quickly work pork and beef together in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and, using your hands, work everything together until just combined.

Form meatloaf into an oblong loaf and transfer to foil-wrapped rack. Bake in the oven until an instant read thermometer inserted in the center registers 150 鈥� 160 degrees F, about 1 to 1-1/4 hours, rotating once halfway through. Remove from oven, tent with foil and let it rest for five minutes.

Slice crosswise and plate, topping with pickled carrots and daikon and sprigs of cilantro. Serve with slices of a crusty baguette (see Kitchen Notes).

Kitchen Notes

Preparing carrots and daikon.聽It鈥檚 easy (if time consuming) to hand slice them into matchsticks 鈥� a good knife skills exercise too. You can also use a mandolin or coarsely grate them.

About that daikon.聽You can find it in Asian markets. They鈥檙e often huge, far more than you鈥檒l need. But if you鈥檙e lucky you can find smaller sizes. If you can鈥檛 find daikon, you can substitute jicama (if you can find that) or white radishes. Or you can skip the daikon altogether and double the carrots. But do try to find it 鈥� its spicy crunch is delicious.

Jalape帽o options.聽If you鈥檙e totally heat averse, one option is to skip it, or completely remove the heat-bearing seeds and ribs. Adding the jalape帽o slices to the vinegar mix will share their heat with the carrots and daikon, but I like what the vinegar does to the pepper slices, making them seem a little less raw. Another option is to put them in a separate small bowl and drizzle some of the vinegar on them. Then, when you鈥檙e ready to serve, pass the pepper slices at the table, letting those who like spicy foods add them to their plates.

Beefy choices.聽The ground pork I got for this recipe was nicely marbled with fat, so I went with less fatty sirloin for the beef. If the pork looks lean, choose chuck for the beef.

Fish sauce,聽such as nam pla or nuoc nam, is a staple in many Southeast Asian cuisines. It imparts a wonderful umami flavor to dishes. You can find in in Asian markets and many supermarkets. If you can鈥檛 find it 聽鈥� or if any of your diners have seafood allergies 鈥� try using soy sauce and a squeeze of lime juice.

Have a sandwich.聽If you opt for actual b谩nh m矛 sandwiches, try to track down Vietnamese baguettes. The crust is thinner. And tear out some of the bread inside the crust to accommodate the filling. If you go the sandwich route, be sure to add a little mayo鈥攜ou could use the sriracha mayonnaise from聽聽for a little extra kick.