← Nouns Cooking · Vietnamese

Ingredients

• 20 g dried wood ear mushroom
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 3 Shallot, minced
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 400 g Minced pork
• 1 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Black pepper
• 12 Quail eggs, boiled and peeled (optional)
• 200 g Rice flour
• 100 g Tapioca starch
• 50 g Cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1.2 l cold chicken or pork stock
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 300 g banana leaves, thawed if frozen

Method

1. Soak the wood ear in warm water for 20 min, then drain and chop finely.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the shallots and onion for 2 minutes. Add the pork and cook for 5–6 min, breaking it up, until no longer pink. Stir in the mushroom, fish sauce, sugar and pepper and cook for 2 minutes more.
3. Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch, cornflour and salt into the cold stock until smooth. Cook in a non-stick pot over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 8–10 min until it becomes a thick, glossy paste like soft mashed potato. Stir in the oil.
4. Wipe the leaves and cut into pieces about 25 x 30 cm. Overlap two pieces and fold into a cone. Spoon in 2 tbsp batter, then a spoonful of filling and a quail egg, and top with 2 tbsp more batter.
5. Fold the leaf over the top to make a pyramid and tie with string. Repeat to make about 12.
6. Steam over high heat for 20–25 min, until the batter turns slightly translucent and set. Serve warm with chilli sauce, chả lụa or pickles.

Tips

• Work quickly with the batter while it is warm; it gets harder to spread as it cools.
• If you cannot find banana leaves, line squares of foil with baking paper and shape the parcels the same way.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Hungry Huy Vicky Pham Wok and Kin