Schwartz Concocts a Bánh Mì Sandwich with our Wild Gulf Shrimp!

When we opened our fish market back in ‘79 our staff was pretty thin. There were just a few of us and a key guy was “Schwartz.”

Mike Schwartz was a U of M student at the time and was working a lot of hours with us, considering he was a student. He had an interest in fish and cooking and already had restaurant experience behind him from his high school years in Livonia. From the start he helped us with recipe ideas for the market and even though Mike went on to become a lawyer and now a teacher, he still pops in to help out, make a prepared dish, or give some recipe ideas.

This past Tuesday Schwartz prepped an amazing lunch special for us. I’ll let him describe it for you along with the recipe. He used our wild gulf shrimp, which we think are the finest out there. The flavor and the firm “snappy” texture is so much better than the soggy, limp farm-raised shrimp that shows up everywhere nowadays. We also like to support the U.S. fishermen and fishing communities.

I have been telling Michael (Monahan) that he needed to have a lunch special that was served cold. Well, the forecast for the Art Fair this week was HOT. So I thought I should try to get him to serve one of the most refreshing sandwiches around, Bánh Mì.  This sandwich usually contains sliced pork or a paté of pork, but I was looking through some of my favorite food blogs and came across Banh Mi burgers on the food blog, Closet Cooking. I remembered that he had a shrimp Bánh Mì sandwich a while back, so I searched the archives and found the recipe.

These fit the bill for a cool and refreshing meal on a hot day. There is some cooking, but that can be done ahead of time so that the stove can stay off in the heat of the afternoon.  The caramelized shrimp will keep for a day or two and the pickled vegetables will keep for a week.

The trick to all of the fresh vegetables is to cut them thin enough. I use a mandoline for the cucumbers and the peppers.  For the carrots and daikon radish I use my Borner 4 sided grater with a julienne side that is just perfect for this cut.  If you use your coarsest setting on your box grater it is a little too large.  I would suggest slicing the carrots and daikon on a mandoline and then cutting the slices into matchsticks.

As for some other variations,  you could substitute red pepper flavored rice vinegar for the white vinegar in the pickling part of the recipe.  You could also use Monahan’s Mustard Mayo dip instead of plain mayonnaise (add the soy sauce to the dip). You could also substitute Monahan’s Salmon Burgers for the Shrimp. I would sauté the salmon burgers for 1-2 minutes each side before adding the liquid in that cooking step.

Mike Schwartz’ Shrimp Bánh Mì is our recipe of the week. Enjoy!