← Nouns Cooking · Vietnamese

Ingredients

• 600 g fatty pork mince (about 20% fat), well chilled
• 4 cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 Shallot, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp Fish sauce
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 2 tsp cornflour or potato starch
• 1½ tsp Baking powder
• 4 ice cubes
• 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp honey, for glazing (optional)
• 12 sheets rice paper wrappers (or rice vermicelli)
• 1 Lettuce, leaves separated
• 1 bunch mint, perilla and Thai basil
• 1 Cucumber, cut into sticks
• nước chấm and pickled carrot and daikon, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Put the pork, garlic, shallot, sugar, fish sauce, pepper, cornflour, baking powder and ice in a food processor. Blitz for 2–3 minutes, scraping down once, until you have a smooth, sticky, pale paste. The ice keeps it cold so it turns springy rather than greasy.
2. Cover and chill the paste for 1 hour. Meanwhile, soak 12 bamboo skewers in water.
3. With oiled hands, mould about 3 tbsp of paste around each skewer into a 10 cm sausage.
4. Grill over medium-high heat for 10–12 min, turning often, until charred in spots and cooked through (71°C / 160°F). Mix the honey with the oil and brush it on in the last 2 min for a shiny glaze.
5. Slide the sausages off the skewers. Dip rice paper in water, add lettuce, herbs, cucumber, pickles and a sausage, roll up and dunk in nước chấm.

Tips

• You can also bake them on a rack at 220°C (425°F) for 15 min, turning once.
• The honey glaze is optional; skip it for a non-sweet finish.

Sources

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

Hungry Huy Wok and Kin Vicky Pham