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Bò bía Recipe

Vietnam · Servings: 9 pcs.

Bò bía

Bò bía is the southern Vietnamese variant of popiah, a Fujianese/Teochew-style fresh spring roll filled with an assortment of fresh, dried, and cooked ingredients, eaten during the Qingming Festival and other celebratory occasions.

Ingredients

  • 9 rice paper rounds
  • 3 ea. Chinese sweet sausages (lạp xưởng)
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tbsps dried small shrimps
  • 400 g jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • Lettuce, Thai basil, fresh chili
  • Crushed peanuts, fried shallot
  • Salt, pepper, sugar
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 5 tbsps hoisin sauce
  • 5 tbsps pork broth or water
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • Pickled carrots and daikon

Procedure

Filling

  1. Roast the small dried shrimps without any oil in a pan by stirring constantly on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant.
  2. Clean the pan, fill about half full with water and bring to a boil. Cook 2 Chinese sausages for about 10 minutes to soften and remove some of the fat. Rinse the sausages well, let them cool and slide them thinly on a diagonal.
  3. Crack 2 eggs in a small bowl and beat them until fluffy. Season lightly with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.
  4. In a non-stick pan, add 1 tsp of vegetable oil. When it's hot enough, pour in half of the egg mixture and quickly tilt the pan in a circular motion to spread the egg thinly and evenly. When one side is golden, flip it over and fry the other side for 5 more seconds. Repeat until the egg mixture has been used up.
  5. Let the omelettes cool completely. Roll them up and cut into half-inch strips.
  6. In a saucepan, heat up some cooking oil and sauté 1 tbsp of garlic until fragrant.
  7. Add in the jicama strips and stir-fry with some salt for about 10 to 15 minutes until it turns quite translucent and tastes naturally sweet.

Dipping sauce

  1. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small sauce pan on medium-high heat, then fry 1 tbsp minced garlic till golden brown.
  2. Then add hoisin sauce, pork broth, peanut butter and sugar. Stir well and simmer on low heat for 1-2 minutes until thickened.
  3. Transfer to condiment bowls and top up with minced fresh chili, pickled carrots and daikon and crushed peanuts.

Assembly

  1. Set up a rolling station with the prepared Chinese sausages, stir-fried jicama, omelette strips, fresh greens (e.g. lettuce and Thai basil), roasted small dried shrimps, some crushed peanuts and fried shallots ready on the plates.
  2. Prepare a small bowl with pickled carrots and daikon.
  3. Also prepare a large bowl of lukewarm water to soften rice paper, and a flat work surface (like a cutting board or a large plate) for the rolling job.
  4. To soften the rice paper, quickly dip it into a bowl of warm water (the dipping motion should take no more than 2 seconds). Gently shake off excess water and lay it on the flat surface.
  5. Place a piece of lettuce and a few basil leaves at one end of the paper, then continue to add some of the stir-fried jicama, few slices of the Chinese sausages, few omelette strips, some roasted small dried shrimps, some fried shallots and crushed peanuts.
  6. Starting from the end with vegetables, roll 1-2 rounds first until you reach the center of the rice paper, then fold both sides inwards. Then continue rolling until reaching the other end of the paper.
  7. Roll gently and tight enough, so that the ingredients do not fall out after one's first bite. A nice roll should show up all the colors of the ingredients inside.

Serving

  1. To serve, dip the salad roll in the dipping sauce or spoon some of the sauce onto the roll and have a bite.