About this recipe
A Hanoi lunch dish, and a particular structure rather than a noodle salad: grilled pork patties and grilled pork belly sit in a bowl of warm, diluted, sweet-sour fish sauce with pickled vegetable, and the diner dips cold rice vermicelli and herbs into it, mouthful by mouthful. It is worth being clear that this is not bún thịt nướng, the southern bowl in which the noodles are dressed and eaten together.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 30 minutes (plus 1 hour marinating)
- Cook
- 25 minutes
- Total
- 115 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Mild (chilli at the table)
Allergens Contains pork and fish (fish sauce). Gluten-free if the fish sauce and seasonings are gluten-free.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The pork
- 12 oz (340 g) ground pork, not too lean
- 12 oz (340 g) pork belly, skin removed, sliced 1/4 in (5 mm) thick
- 3 shallots, finely minced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) fish sauce
- 1 tbsp (15 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- 1 tsp (2 g) freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp (5 ml) caramel sauce or dark soy sauce, for colour
The dipping broth
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) fish sauce
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) rice vinegar or fresh lime juice
- 3 cups (700 ml) warm water
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 fresh red chillies, sliced
- 1 cup (about 150 g) đồ chua or thinly sliced green papaya and carrot
To serve
- 14 oz (400 g) dried rice vermicelli (bún)
- 1 large platter of soft lettuce, perilla (tía tô), mint and cilantro
Equipment
- Charcoal grill, grill pan or broiler
- Mixing bowls
- Small saucepan
Method
- Combine the shallots, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, oil, pepper and caramel sauce in a bowl. Divide between two bowls.
- Mix half the marinade thoroughly into the ground pork; mix the other half through the sliced pork belly. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Shape the ground pork into 12 small patties about 2 in (5 cm) across and 1/2 in (1 cm) thick.
- Make the dipping broth: warm the water in a saucepan, stir in the sugar until dissolved, then remove from the heat and stir in the fish sauce and vinegar. Taste — it should be lightly sweet, lightly sour and clearly salty, but drinkable. Add the garlic and chilli, then the đồ chua. Set aside at warm room temperature.
- Cook the vermicelli according to the package, 3–5 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water, drain very well and loosen into small nests on a platter.
- Grill the pork belly slices over medium-high heat, 3–4 minutes a side, until the edges are charred and the fat has rendered.
- Grill the patties 4–5 minutes a side, until well browned outside and cooked through.
- Divide the warm dipping broth between four wide bowls. Drop the hot grilled pork and patties straight into the broth.
- Serve each diner a bowl of pork and broth, a plate of noodles and a share of the herb platter. Diners lift noodles and herbs into the broth as they eat.
Uses from this chapter
- Đồ Chua (Pickled Carrot & Daikon) (Foundations — Condiments) — Steeped in the dipping broth
- Nước Chấm (Dipping Sauce) (Recipe #26) — The broth here is a warmer, more dilute relative
The Complete Edition
Bún Chả sits in the Vietnam chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Vietnam chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.