[Vietnamese Recipes] Bún Nem Nướng - Vietnamese Grilled Pork With Noodles

Bún nem nướng is actually similar to another recipe I shared with you before – bún thịt nướng. They share the same bed of rice noodles, lettuce and herbs, garnish and dipping sauce, with grilled pork as the protein. Some will argue the pork here is the star here, but the supporting cast completes the experience.

The texture of the nem nuong is affected by the fine grind of pork, the potato starch and the baking powder added. For a more predictable, fine-sized grind, you should ask your butcher to put your pork through the grinder four times. If you’re buying pre-packaged stuff you can wing it and use a food processor at home to achieve a finer pork paste.

As for the potato starch, I got the one pictured below from a Vietnamese market, but you can buy any brand and you’ll be fine. For the baking powder, you should use Alsa baking powder.

Unlike most baking powders, this one is single-acting instead of double. If you find another single-acting brand go for it!

Adding Sodium Nitrate?

If you really want to replicate how restaurants and stores make nem nướng, you have to add some sodium nitrate to the pork, which makes the pork more pink and acts as a preservative. There seems conflicting data about the safety of adding sodium nitrate to food.

To me, the tradeoff isn’t worth the unknown risk especially if you have the choice to leave it out.
Different shapes & sizes

Forming these into balls are a lot simpler to do, but if you want to form these into logs for making rolls, you can do that too (another post coming on that!). Basically, you’d want to wrap the pork paste in plastic wrap to hold the log shape while you steam it, to set the shape. Then you can unwrap it to throw on the grill, or into the deep fryer to get some nice caramelization on it


A meat ball shape definiltey make more sense for serving with rice noodles. And you’ll typically see the pork served on skewers from being freshly grilled. Some “musts” for this dish is the topping of scallion in oil and crushed peanuts.

Just looking at this is makes me crave some cheap, ice-cold lager, to pair it with.

Bún Nem Nướng Recipe - Vietnamese Grilled [Ground] Pork With Noodles
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 35 mins

Author: Hungry Huy
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 pound pork (20% fat)
1 pack medium thickness rice noodles
Seasoning
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons potato starch
¼ teaspoon salt
1.5 tsp single-acting Alsa baking powder (about ½ the bag)
1 tablespoon + 1 tsp water
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons chopped garlic, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
Vegetables
green or red leaf lettuce, shredded
mint – (rau thơm)
Vietnamese perilla – (tiá tô)
Vietnamese balm – (kinh giới)
cucumbers, sliced

Garnish
pickled carrots and daikon radish (đồ chua)
wilted scallion in oil (mở hành)
crushed peanuts
Sauce
fish sauce-based dipping sauce (nước chấm)
1.5 lbs pork, sliced
1 package rice vermicelli (small or medium thickness)
4-6 egg rolls if you wish (chả giò)

Instructions

1. Mix all seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix. It will bubble from the baking powder.

2. After everything is dissolved, add the pork and mix well.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night, or freeze for about 1 hour or until slightly firm. The purpose is to thicken it up.

4. Although the butcher ground it 4 times, blend this one final time in a food processor after marinating so it becomes stickier and easier to form shapes with.

5. Form into desired shapes--usually balls or logs.

6. Steam for about 10 minutes so the shape holds

7. Deep fry or grill to add color and finish cooking.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Hungryhuy.com. Thanks so much!