Pork bánh mì rice bowls
All the bánh mì furniture, none of the bread, and a pickle that takes ten minutes.
At a Glance
Story
Rinse the rice until the water stops going cloudy. What comes off is loose surface starch, and left on it glues the grains together into a single agreeable mass, which is fine under a stew and wrong under a bowl like this one, where you want the grains to stay separate enough to take up the pork juices and the pickle liquid.
Ingredients
- 10 oz ground pork
- ½ cup long grain white rice
- 1 carrotshredded
- 1 Persian cucumberhalved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp hoisin
- 2 scallionsthinly sliced, whites and greens kept apart
- 3 tbsp full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 limequartered
- cilantro and mint leavestorn, to finish
- neutral oilsalt, pepper
Method
The pickle and the rice want starting first. Everything after that takes about eight minutes.
- Rinse the rice until it runs clear, drain, then into a pot with 1 cup water and a big pinch of salt. Boil, cover, drop to low, 13 to 15 minutes. Off the heat, fluff.
- Cucumber and carrots with the sugar and the juice of two lime wedges, seasoned. Stir and leave to marinate.
- Stir the yogurt with as much sambal as you want. Season.
- Medium nonstick pan, oil, medium-high. Pork in, broken up with a spoon, then left alone 3 to 4 minutes. Season, add the scallion whites, 3 to 4 minutes more, stirring.
- Hoisin in, 1 to 2 minutes, until the pork is glossy and cooked through.
- Rice into bowls, then pork, the pickle lifted out of its liquid, the spicy yogurt, and a great deal of torn mint and cilantro. Scallion greens and the last lime wedges.
A swap worth knowing: the original tosses the spicy sauce with mayonnaise. Full-fat Greek yogurt does the same job here because it is a cold sauce spooned over at the end, not a coating cooked onto anything.
More to cook
Crisp rice cakes and sausage in a ketchup glaze
Rice cakes fried until they crackle, then lacquered in ketchup and miso with the sausage.
A full course of Italian penicillin
Chicken soup's glamorous Italian cousin, with a spicy crumb and a cold lemon dollop.
Harissa shrimp broiled over a tray of greens
The greens go in first with half a cup of water, and the shrimp only arrive once the broiler takes over.
Salt and pepper dumplings straight from the freezer
Frozen potstickers and green beans, tossed at the last second in salt, sugar and more black pepper than seems wise.
Garlic noodles the way San Francisco does them
Two heads of garlic, plenty of butter and three bottles from the cupboard, done in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Shrimp over creamed corn, and rather a lot of feta
Corn simmered soft in cream and butter, then blitzed until chunky and used the way you would use grits.
Creamy lemon spaghetti with a Sichuan pepper buzz
Crème fraîche, miso and lemon make the sauce, and toasted Sichuan peppercorns go in twice so your lips hum.
Chicken sausage and lemon, baked as a lasagna
A lasagna that went on holiday and came back with a tan and a lemon habit.
Pumpkin pasta with sausage and crisp sage
Tinned pumpkin, Gruyère and a sheet pan to crisp the lot.
Sausage lasagna spread thin for the crust
Lasagna with no layers, baked flat on a sheet pan, and an insult to nonnas everywhere.
Vodka rigatoni, baked till the tops crackle
Vodka sauce given a sheet pan, a jar of Calabrian chilis and a honey drizzle it did nothing to deserve.
Charred corn and halloumi panzanella with chili crisp
One bowl, mostly made in the morning, so the cook can sit down with the guests.
Chicken and zucchini meatballs under a feta sauce
Half the meatball is grated zucchini, which is the only reason a chicken meatball has any business being this juicy.
Dan dan noodles, served cold on purpose
The sesame and chile sauce is bossy enough to work as a dressing, so the noodles never need to be hot.
Zucchini parmesan, roasted not fried
All the comfort of the fried original, a fraction of the oil, and no pan spitting at you.