How to serve Nem Nuong / Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty

My previous post was about how to make Nem Nuong (Vietnamese grilled pork patty). This post is about how to serve and eat Nem Nuong. My favourite ways to eat nem nuong are:

• rice noodles with salad
  
• salad rice paper rolls or
• banh mi (in a baguette or crunchy bread roll)

The following explains how to do it all :)


For the Nem Nuong with Rice Noodles and Salad

Nem Nuong with Rice Noodles and Salad

(for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• about 8 nem nuong patties sliced 2 cm thick
• herbs/ salad (for me I just use mint/coriander/chives etc)
• 4 noodles from an 8 rice noodle pack
  

Instructions:

Firstly cook the noodles according to instructions and drain well with cold water. This is to make sure the noodles do not clump together because of the starch build up. Make sure to wash well under cold water to prevent this. Put aside. Slice the nem nuong into thick slices. Prepare plates with equal amounts of noodles, herbs/salad and nem nuong. Serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce or just plain light soy sauce with chili sauce with granulated peanuts if you like.


For the Nem Nuong with Salad Rice Paper Rolls (for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• about 10 nem nuong patties sliced 2 cm thick
• 20 rice paper sheets
• water
  
• herbs/ salad (for me I just use mint/coriander/chives etc)
• 4 noodles from an 8 rice noodle pack

some of the ingredients

Instructions:

1. Firstly cook the noodles according to instructions and drain well and put aside.
   
2. Cut the nem nuong up into thick slices. Put aside.
3. Have some herbs and other salads ready
   
4. Boil a water enough to fit into a wide bowl so you can just dip the rice paper sheet into.
5. Lay out the ingredients in order so it will be organised and easy to roll (hot water, rice paper sheets, herb/salad, noodles, nem nuong)
6. Okay the fun part! Dip the rice paper sheet into the water (make sure the whole sheet is wet so you won't get any dry bits when rolling (it will break) ) and out straight away. You do not want your rice paper sheet to be soggy and it will be sticky!!
7. Place equal ingredients in order. You don't have to but I prefer to do it that way. It should look like this:

Laying out the ingredients

8. Then neatly fold the bottom edge of the rice paper roll over the filling. Then fold each side of the rice paper inwards (do i make sense lol...i should make a post about this hehe). And then gently roll up the rice paper roll to form a neat roll. Repeat this until you make about 20 rolls or until you have used up all of the ingredients.

9. Now arrange the rice paper rolls neatly on a plate and serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce or just light soy sauce with chilli. However you prefer.

Yeah not neat rolls but you get the picture! lol

For the Nem Nuong in Banh Mi (crunchy bread roll) (for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• 1 crunchy french stick cut into 4 or 4 crunchy long rolls
• 4 nem nuong patties cut into thick slices
  
• salad - mint/coriander/chives....anything you have
• pickled carrots
• cucumber
• chilli and soy sauce

Instructions:

1. First place the bread under the grill or a toaster until the bread goes nice, warm and crunchy
2. Then with a knife cut the bread in the middle and butter each side (this is optional)
3. Lay all the ingredients inside the bread roll
4. Drizzle some chilli and soy sauce (how much you like)
5. And then enjoy!!!!

Nem Nuong in Crunchy Bread Roll

How to make Nem Nuong or Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patties

Hello again. I am so addicted updating my post to make it look pretty lol. This post is going to be on "How to make Nem Nuong or Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patties". Vietnamese people love to eat this. It's usually made for family gatherings, parties and other special events and always always cooked and sold at Vietnamese/Chinese New Year. My mum makes nem nuong heaps and since I have moved out of home I have been asking mum to make it for me too much so I decided to make my own >_<. It can be in a patty form, sliced or in meat balls on a skewer. It's nice in colour, moist and tastes so caramel-y savour-y and delicious! You can have these in banh mi thit, in Vietnamese salads and in salad rice paper rolls which I will be explaining how-to as well in my next post.

I went to friend's dinner party a few weeks back and this was on the menu too! It wasn't bad for her first attempt. Well this was my first attempt and it turned out pretty okay. I used curing powder (omg it has msg in it but thankfully I am not allergic to this stuff - I recommend you not to have this if you are afraid of allergic reactions) - I know it's cheating but next time I will make it the authentic way with fish sauce, salt and sugar like Wandering Chopsticks did. She has so many good posts...I have been going through her posts nearly every day :P. I recommend using her recipe since it's authentic and no short cuts lol.

This woman uses baking powder. I guess it's to make the meat moist and firm. The video is Vietnamese :P.




I have taken a few photos. Okay, here we go :D

Recipe For NEM NUONG: Makes about 35 patties (approx. 10cms in diameter and 2cm thick)

You will need:

• 2kgs of minced pork
• 1 pack (350g) of curing powder (you can buy this at your Asian Market like Inala lol) (update: i used Tusino Curing Powder and it contains - sugar, salt, palm oil, caramel and dun dun dun MSG 4% >_<)
  
• 1 medium minced onion
• 3 long chillis chopped/minced (use 2 if you don't want it that hot)
  
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 8 cloves of garlic minced

Got my supplies from the Asian Grocer at Inala lol. I like going to the one where the owner is Thai/Viet. I don't know but he is mixed! lol. Um don't use the whole bag of garlic lol. Use one - should be about 8-10 cloves

Method

The method is super easy. Just put everything together and incorporate well with clean hands or with a glove. You can't do this with a big spoon it won't do it properly. Wandering Chopsticks has suggested to take a tiny piece of the mixture and microwave it until it is cooked for tasting. Taste it and adjust if it needs more pepper or salt.

Ingredients

When I mixed it for about 5 minutes (well maybe longer) the colour of the mixture turned pink to red. I think this is from the curing powder.

Mixture will turn this colour after incorporating the ingredients together.

After the mixture has turned to that red colour I recommend to put the mixture into the freezer for about half an hour just to marinade until firm so you can easily roll it into balls or shape them into meat patties. You can leave this in the fridge for a couple of hours so the flavour can develop deeper. The mixture felt nearly mushy when I tried to roll them into balls and when I tried to put them on bamboo skewers. So I was so disappointed. First time...first time! lol. Putting it in the freezer helps it to hold it's shape.

Okay after 30 minutes or so the mixture should be firm and can easily hold shape. I made mine into patties cause it's easier and it doesn't take a lot time to do. I just put the skewers aside for next time (make sure to soak the skewers for half an hour before putting balls on it). My patties were about 2cms thick and 10cms in diameter. You can make bigger ones if you like but it will take a bit longer to cook. No rules! I hate following recipes lol.

My patty shapes. Ugly I know. But hey you gonna eat it after :P.

Now for the fun part! Grilling them!!! Since I did not have a grill I had to fry them on a pan. Works the same way. My mum usually grills nem nuong on the barbeque! Grill for about 3 minutes each side I think? To check cut and look. That's what I do to make sure.

This is what the Nem nuong patties look like after grilling or pan frying it! So caramel-y. So you noticed I got alfoil lined on my stove top? Yeah I am lazy. I hate cleaning the stove top up every time I make a mess.

Now that you are done all you have to do is eat it! I cut mine up into strips and eat it with noodles, with salads or with rice, rice paper rolls and in bread rolls. Versatile it is!

CLICK HERE - I will show you have to serve these yummy patties!

Citrus Coconut Cakes

I felt something really coconut-y last night and I searched through the internet and this little easy number came up. I got this Citrus Coconut Cake recipe from taste.com.au. and I tell you what it tasted so yummy! It was light and fluffly and I loved the aroma of the lemon and orange rind coming out from the oven. It was divine but it sort of lacked sweetness to it. I am pretty much a sweet tooth so next time when I make it I will make with lemon icing on top!

I am not a huge fan of baking since every time I bake it will turn into a big disaster but I love anything that is sweet and baked and bread-y. I can still remember the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg from the bakery I used to work at. I did pick up a few skills here and there but I was not the baker. I was just the girl who sold the bread hehe. I did get free bread rolls, sweet breads and cakes whenever I finished my shift but from time to time I got sick of it......sometimes...lol. I had a good time working there for like 3 years. The baker did not expose any of his recipes. Selfish! Maybe he was scared that one day I will open up a bakery and sell Vietnamese Pork Rolls and sell him out or something lol. Noooo.......lol.

Anyway enough rambling. I kind of altered this recipe a bit because I just did? I am bad like that. I never follow recipes. I am not scared of putting other things in it. I like trial and error. The recipe said to sprinkle the coconut on top but i put some into the mixture too and I made double the batch.

Mixture in the patty cases. I don't have a patty pan so I had to do that

out of the oven. nice and golden. smells delicious.

Here is the recipe.
Citrus Coconut Cake From Taste.com.au

Chicken Rice

This is suppose to be Hainanese Chicken Rice but it's not since I did not have all the ingredients on hand so unfortunately it's not authentic :( hence the name chicken rice. Well at the end it did taste really lovely. So nice and fluffy and aromatic because of the poached chicken infused with the spices and the soup tasted really really heavenly lol. This recipe is pretty easy to make and really really filling. You would want to have seconds!

Not so Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice

My recipe is as follows - Serves about 3 to 4 people

I don't really measure because I am a trial and error person. I taste for seasoning a long the way of the cooking process. This is an approximate :). Dare to try? lol

You will need

Chicken

• 8 drum sticks or thighs (traditionally you will use a whole chicken which takes ages to cook and too much cutting up. I know I like taking short cuts lol)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 6 pieces of fresh ginger (julienne)
• 2 cloves of garlic whacked and chopped roughly
• 2 shallots cut up into 2cm pieces
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1\2 tsp salt

Chicken Stock

• You will achieve the stock from the boiled chicken (don't use pre made chicken stock!)
• 4-5L water (add more if you want more stock / soup to drink)
  
• 3 pieces of ginger
• 2 shallots
• 1 small or medium onion (whole do not chop)

Chicken Rice

• 3 cups of jasmine rice
• 2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 2cm ginger chopped finely
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped very finely or grated
• pinch of salt (to taste) - you can leave this out
  
• 3 to 1/2 to 4 cups chicken stock according to rice instructions. Depending how you like your rice.

Ginger & Chilli Sauce
I don't really measure when I make the sauce. Here are the approx. ingredients I used.

• 3 fresh red chillies or 1 tsp of minced chilli from jar
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 3 cm fresh ginger minced or grated
• lime juice
• 1 piece of shallot cut in 2cm pieces
• 4-5 tbs of light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp of chilli oil
• 1/2 tsp of sesame oil (not too much just about 3 drops)
  

***If you are lazy (like me) you can buy those minced ginger tubes, garlic tubes and hot chilli sauces. Mix equal quantities up and add some lime juice and a bit of chili and sesame oil. Tastes really good! You don't need all of this. If you like just soy sauce then just eat it with soy. If you want to add other ingredients to it then do so. I know not authentic I know lol.

Chicken Soup

• Chicken stock (from the boiled chicken)
• Chopped shallots and half of Chinese cabbage (wombok)
  

Instructions

Bring water to boil in a big pot. While that is boiling chop up the ginger, garlic and shallots and place the mixture into the water along with the whole peel onion. Turn the heat down to medium high. Then place the chicken drumsticks/thighs into the water. After about 15 to 20 minutes check the chicken to see if it's cooked. Keep on checking by cutting a piece of a chicken with a knife. It's nicely cooked when the meat looks juicy and tender. You do not want it to look dry and worse taste dry. When the texture is right remove the chicken from the pot and run it under cold water. I do this so it will stop the cooking process. Pat dry with paper towel or clean towel. Then rub the chicken with soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of salt and leave aside.

For the chicken stock you can add more flavour by adding more ginger or salt. You do not have to do this!! If you think it's salty enough then don't add anymore. The taste really depends on the chicken. Taste the stock accordingly.

Next for chicken rice - wash the rice and drain. If you still have water in it still that's okay - doesn't matter. In a fry pan add sesame oil, ginger, garlic and shallots and stir fry for at least a minute. Don't let it burn. Then with a ladle add 2 spoonfuls of the chicken stock into the pan and simmer for about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and then gently pour the mixture into the rice pot or electric rice cooker (with the drained rice). Then gently ladle the chicken stock. Follow normal instructions for cooking the rice.

While the rice is cooking add the wombok cabbage into the chicken stock on medium. The cabbage can be cut roughly into small to big pieces. However you like.

Okay next is the chili and ginger sauce. Chop up the chillies, garlic and ginger until roughly minced and then ad a bit of lime juice. Add light soy sauce, sesame oil and chilli oil and mix. Do taste it. I prefer you to have it the way you like according to your taste. Some like it hot and overpowering and some like it not very hot.

For chicken soup, ladle a small amount of hot stock into serving bowls. Add the cooked cabbage and finely chopped shallots.

Finally add the rice to large plates and chicken onto the sides. I added the cabbage on the plate too. You can also add pickled carrots on the side as well.

I hope it's okay lol. Enjoy cause I always do.


Okay if you want the real thing from a chef check out POH's recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice from Masterchef http://www.masterchef.com.au/hainanese-chicken-rice.htm.