Laotian-Inspired Sausage Sandwich (Sai Gog Khao Jee)
Serves 4
Adapted from The Hungary Buddha
For Sausage:
1 pound ground pork
¼ cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
¼ cup green onions, thinly sliced
2-3 tablespoons ginger, minced
2 tablespoons lemongrass, white parts only, coarsely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
½ shallot, minced
½ tablespoon chili pepper (or jalapeno), minced
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon salt
For Chili Sauce:
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons ginger, minced
½ tablespoons gochujang
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon gochugaru
2 tablespoons sugar
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
For Sandwich:
2x 12-inch baguettes, cut into 6-inch sections, halved, and toasted (to allow more filling, remove the fluffy dough from the inside parts of the baguette)
½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 large carrot, julienned
½ cup onions, thinly sliced
Mayonnaise
Watercress (or other salad greens)
For Sausage:
In a large bowl, add the ground pork along with all the other ingredients. Wash your hands and using your hands, combine everything well and make sure the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout. Form uniformly sized sausages. In terms of ease of handling, aiming for 3-4 inches in length is a good size.
Heat a skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the sausages and let sear on all sides. Cooked until the sausages are cooked through, about 10 minutes.
For Chili Sauce:
Heat a skillet over medium heat. As the skillet is heating up, add ¼ cup vegetable oil to the skillet. Add the shallot rings and let them fry until golden brown and crispy, about 3-4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to bowl and set aside.
Add the garlic to the oil and fry for 1 minute. Transfer the garlic to the same bowl as the shallots.
Be careful with the garlic, if you let them fry for too long (you’ll know this happened when they go from golden to brown), they will turn bitter. If that happens, redo the garlic.
Add the ginger to the skillet and let them fry until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
Add the gochujang, sweet paprika, paprika, gochugaru, and sugar to the skillet and cook for 30 seconds, stirring continuously.
Pour the contents of the skillet into the bowl with the shallots and garlic. Pour in the fish sauce and mix everything together until well blended.
For Sandwich:
To construct the sandwich, add mayonnaise to the top and bottom half of each baguette section. Add sausage to the baguette half with the deeper interior. Layer with tomatoes, carrots, onions, and watercress. Add the chili sauce on top. Don’t skimp on the chili sauce! It’s delicious and brings the whole dish together!
Enjoy!
