Vietnamese style pork sausage, great for banh mi or lettuce cups. Messy, playful and fun. Great for outdoor eating as the weather gets warmer.
Serves: 4, with leftover pork
Prep time: 30 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling
Cook time: 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
For the pork sausage
1/3 cup potato starch
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup water
1kg pork mince
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp white pepper
Neutral oil, for brushing
For the nuoc cham
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp white sugar
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup boiling water
1 bird's eye chilli, finely sliced (optional, for the M-rated version)
For the pickled carrots
3 carrots, peeled and julienned
1 tsp fine salt
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp white sugar
For the scallion oil
1/4 cup neutral oil
3 spring onions, white parts finely chopped, greens reserved for serving
To serve
1 butter or iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
200g rice vermicelli noodles
Radishes, freshly sliced
Coriander, mint and Thai basil leaves
Reserved spring onion greens, sliced
METHOD
For the nuoc cham, mix the garlic, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice together well, then add the boiling water. Combine and set aside. This is good the longer it gets to sit, so you could make this the day before. For an M-rated version, add the chilli.
For the pickled carrots, toss the carrots in the salt and set aside. In a saucepan, bring the vinegar, water and sugar to the boil. Once it has come to the boil and the sugar has dissolved, rinse the salt off the carrots, place them into a jar or container, pour over the pickling liquid and place in the fridge until ready to use.
For the pork, combine the potato starch, baking powder and water in the large bowl of a stand mixer and mix well. It's a really weird consistency. Throw in the pork, fish sauce, sugar, garlic powder and white pepper. Mix with the flat beater for 4 - 5 minutes, until pale and sticky. You can do this without a stand mixer, but if you have one, it's good.
Place the mixture on some baking paper, then into a container and into the fridge for 2 hours, or overnight if you want.
For the scallion oil, heat the oil in a small saucepan until glistening. Place the spring onion whites in a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot oil. Pouring it over in a bowl means the oil cools down faster than if it stayed in the saucepan.
Cook the vermicelli according to the packet instructions, drain and dress in the scallion oil.
Preheat the barbecue to medium and make sure the grill is cleaned and oiled. On some oiled foil, flatten out the pork mixture to about 1.5 - 2cm thick. If it's very wide, cut it in half, or even into thirds, depending on what size sausage strip you want to end up with. Oil the top, then use the foil to flip the pork onto the grill and oil the other side. Grill for about 6 minutes a side. Because of the bound consistency, it flips really well and doesn't fall apart.
Slice the pork and serve with the lettuce cups, pickled carrots, radish, dressed vermicelli, herbs and spring onion greens. Load up the lettuce cup however you like, drizzle with nuoc cham and munch away.
HINTS
The nuoc cham gets better the longer it sits, so make it the day before. The pickled carrots are fabulous if made a few days in advance.
Use butter or iceberg lettuce for the cups. We used coral and it annoyed the sh*t out of me - too fingery.
Any leftovers can be sliced up and kept for a banh mi or a noodle salad later. I'm sure it'd also be fantastic as a sausage substitute in a breakfast muffin.
NUTRITION (per recipe total - serves 4 - guide only):
Energy: approx. 5,100 kcal (21,300 kJ)
Protein: approx. 210g
Fat: approx. 280g
Carbohydrate: approx. 430g
Sodium: approx. 9,000mg
This nutrition information is a guide only and may vary depending on brands, exact quantities, and ingredient substitutions used.
