At first glance, the Vietnamese banh mi might look like an ordinary baguette, but don't be fooled. Unlike a French baguette, which has a tough crust and a chewier interior, banh mi has a thin and crispy crust and is soft and airy inside.

"If you visit Vietnam, you will notice that banh mi sandwiches are one of the most popular street foods there...," said Chef Trang Hoang, a Dubai-based Vietnamese expatriate who works as the Head Chef at Banh Mi and More, a restaurant serving Vietnamese fast food, in Dubai Hills Mall.

She shared a step-by-step video guide to making a Vietnamese-style crispy cream dory fish banh mi sandwich.

How to make Banh Mi bread

Ingredients:

1 kg Bread flour

½ tbsp yeast

450 ml Water

1 tablet Vitamin C

3 tbsp sugar

2½ tbsp salt

50 gms unsalted butter

2 eggs

Method:

1. Prepare the dough starter a day before. For this, mix a quarter teaspoon of yeast with a cup of bread flour and a cup of water. Then let it sit out overnight until it gets bubbly and start smelling fruity. That's it, the yeast is in action — you've got the dough starter.

2. On the following day, mix all the ingredients for the bread along with the dough starter and knead slightly.

3. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Knead it again and let it rest for 20 minutes more. Place the dough in the chiller section of your refridgerator, overnight.

4. Now, remove the dough from the chiller and shape it.

5. Set aside to proof in a warm area for two hours (preferably in a room without any air conditioning).

6. After the dough rises and the surface of the dough feels dry, shape the bread like a baguette.

7. Preheat the oven to 210°C.

8. Now, bake at 170°C for 12 minutes with steam (spray water in the oven).

9. Now bake it again for 10 minutes without steam.

Crispy cream dory fish - Banh Mi sandwich

To make the cream Dory Fish

Ingredients:

1 cream dory fish fillet

1 tspn chili powder

1 tspn garlic powder

1 tspn salt

1 tspn pepper powder

1 tspn chicken stock powder.

1 egg

Corn flour to coat the fish

Bread crumbs to coat the fish

Method:

Marinate the filleted fish with 1 teaspoon each of chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chicken stock powder.

Set aside in a chiller for at least 30 minutes.

Remove and coat with corn flour, eggs and bread crumbs.

Deep fry twice for three minutes each time till it becomes crunchy and golden.

To make the pesto sauce, blend the following ingredients together:

Basil leaves (handful)

Mint leaves (handful)

Coriander (handful)

3 - 4 Lime leaves

2 - 3 garlic cloves

1 green chili (increase as per taste)

100 ml water

10 ml fish sauce

2 tspn sugar

2 tspn salt

1 tspn Miso powder, made from fermented soybean with strong umami flavour

Now, let's make Vietnamese-style mayonnaise egg sauce.

For this, whisk together the yolk of an egg with a pinch of salt, while very slowly adding a thin stream of a light-flavoured oil (like olive oil). Continue whisking till you reach a creamy consistency. You can use home blenders that allow you to add while blending.

For the sandwich filling, julienne some radish, some carrot pickle, half a cucumber.

Toast the banh mi bread and slice it lengthwise to place the the fried crispy dory, drizzle a good amount of the pesto sauce and mayonnaise, and place the julienned radish, carrot pickle and cucumber on top. Don't forget to add some fresh coriander leaves.

Time to bite into your banh mi sandwich!

Tell us if you liked this recipe on food@gulfnews.com and if you try it, don't forget to tag us on your Instagram post @gulfnews.

Chef Trang Hoang, Special to Gulf News

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Video guide for crispy cream dory fish Banh Mi