Today is National Grilled Cheese Day! And I have a new grilled cheese to share with you, a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich inspired banh mi melt! This grilled cheese has all of the flavours of a banh mi sandwich except instead of being in a light and flaky baguette it is sandwiched in between two toasted, crispy and buttery pieces of bread along with plenty of melted cheese! This sandwich starts out with with some thinly sliced pork tenderloin that is cooked in a tasty sweet, sour, salty and spicy caramel based sauce and then it moves on to other banh mi ingredients like tangy pickled carrots and daikon radish, juicy cucumber, spicy jalapenos and fresh cilantro. Once you have all of the ingredients you just have to assemle the sandwiches, grill until the cheese melts and the bread is nice and golden brown and then you are in melted cheesy banh mi heaven! What a great grilled cheese to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day!
Banh Mi Grilled Cheese
All of the flavours of a banh mi sandwich in grilled cheese form encased in crispy, buttery golden brown bread and plenty of melted cheese!
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 pound pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 teaspoons sriracha
- 8 slices bread
- 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2 cups havarti or gouda cheese, shredded
- 1/4 pound caramel pork
- 1/2 cup pickled carrots and daikon radish (squeezed of excess liquid)
- 1/2 cup cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup jalapeno, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup cilantro
For the pork:
For the grilled cheese:
directions
- Heat the sugar and water in a pan over medium-high heat until it caramelizes and turns a dark brown before carefully adding the water and heating until the caramel dissolves and setting aside.
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat, add the shallot and garlic and cook until the shallot is tender, about 1-2 minutes, before adding the pork, caramel sauce, fish sauce, lime juice and sriracha and cooking, about 3-5 minutes.
- Butter one side of each slice of bread, sprinkle half of the cheese onto the unbuttered side of one slice of bread followed by the caramelized pork, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, the remaining cheese and finally top with the remaining slice of bread with the buttered side up.
- Grill over medium heat until golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 2-3 minutes per side.
For the pork:
For the grilled cheese:
Option: Use pulled pork.
Vietnamese BBQ Pulled Pork Banh Mi
Banh Mi Chicken Salad
Vietnamese Caramel Shrimp Banh Mi
Spicy Peanut Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich (aka The Chicken Satay Melt)
Sweet Chili Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich
BBQ Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese
Korean Meatloaf Patty Melt
Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi Paratha Tacos
Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi
Um, YUM. I have all of the "food holidays" listed on my calendar, but I'm still terrible at keeping up with them for my blog! This grilled cheese looks so delicious-thanks!
Yes, I will HAVE this! http://relishingthyme.com/
This sandwich is amazing! Grilled cheese is a big yes! Wonderful and yummy!
it was delicious to taste made for the first time on my own.
http://www.sagmart.com/restaurants/Rajasthan/Jaipur
Don't understand one thing…. Do you pre-fry the pork before adding the "sauces" to it? Because only 3-5 min for sautéing the pork in the pan (if it's raw) seems a little too short of time.
Nicky: The pork should be thinly sliced, 1/8 inch or less, and you are cooking it at medium-high heat so 3-5 minutes will be enough time. If you feel that it needs longer, you can cook it longer.
Great post Kevin! I'll be making this soon but with fresh mozzarella.
Kevin, we made this exactly as written. The whole family loved it! We made the pickled carrots and daikon radishes the night before. Fabulous sandwich! All the flavors just really meld together nicely, I did use Havarti jalapeno cheese freshly sliced from the deli. Wonderful spin on grilled cheese. I've slowly been making several of your different grilled cheese sandwiches and they are are good!!! Well done!
We will definitely be making this again. (Oh we did double the recipe for left overs and I'm so glad we did).
Kilyena: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I like the use of the jalapeno havarti!