Banh Mi Board
I got invited to a “board party”. If you have never heard of this, its a party where you create some type or “charcuterie board” and bring it as a potluck style shareable. Its actually been such a trend on social media and I got SUPER excited when I got this invite.
Banh Mi is actually one of my ALL TIME favorite road trip sandwiches. its a Vietnamese style sandwich served with cured meats and fresh vegetables on a toasted French baguette. I knew I had to make this into a board .*This is not an authentic board by any means, feel free to customize your board to your liking!
I found all of the cured meats at my local asian market in the the refrigerated section. I would love to add a thick cut pork belly next time or even marinated shrimp !
Pork Loaf - my favorite. Its like a savory soy sauce flavored ham
Cured Pork Roll- Its similar to the pork loaf, but fattier. Think of bacon.
Cured pork sausage with ear & snouts- This is like head cheese. Super savory, and almost melts in your mouth. Don’t let the name get to you, its bomb.
Pork liver pate- this is a must. This gives it that signature banh mi flavor. All you need is a little!
There is not really a recipe on how to make this; More of like a list. I always feel like the less I think about placement, the better my boards turn out!
I just started off by cutting the meats into 1/4in rounds, and then in half to create “moons” or half circles.
I then started layering the meats on opposite ends of my board, kind of overlapping them.
From there, I like to fill in the “gaps” and just go with the flow . I used some traditional banh mi Ingredients like:
-Cucumbers: cut into thin slices
-Cilantro: I left them whole for presentation
-Jalapenos: sliced thin
-Long French baguette: toasted and sliced into 1in rounds
-Pickled carrots/daikon: I TOTATLLY forgot about these because I had them pickling from the night before !!
I also used non traditional ingredients because I wanted some extra pops of color and textures:
-Kimchi: storebought
-Frozen Dumplings: I prepared these just by boiling
-Sweet bell peppers: I sliced them in half and deseeded.
From there, I add my liver pate and japanese mayo right in the middle! I like to use room temp foods so that way there’s no need to heat up at the party.
To enjoy, I like grabbing a baguette round, spread some pate, followed by some japanese mayo. Then grab a meat, followed by a cucumber, pickled veggies, cilantro, and jalapeno… THIS IS THE PERFECT BITE.
When I was at the party, I also saw my low carb friends enjoy my board with the cucumber and sweet bell peppers as the “bread”; That was a hit too.
The dumplings and kimchi were picked on throughout the night and added a nice change of texture.
Overall, I definitely will be making this again in the future!!!
