Bò bía Recipe
Vietnam · Servings: 9 pcs.

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
- Roast the small dried shrimps without any oil in a pan by stirring constantly on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant.
- 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.
- Crack 2 eggs in a small bowl and beat them until fluffy. Season lightly with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.
- 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.
- Let the omelettes cool completely. Roll them up and cut into half-inch strips.
- In a saucepan, heat up some cooking oil and sauté 1 tbsp of garlic until fragrant.
- 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
- Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small sauce pan on medium-high heat, then fry 1 tbsp minced garlic till golden brown.
- Then add hoisin sauce, pork broth, peanut butter and sugar. Stir well and simmer on low heat for 1-2 minutes until thickened.
- Transfer to condiment bowls and top up with minced fresh chili, pickled carrots and daikon and crushed peanuts.
Assembly
- 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.
- Prepare a small bowl with pickled carrots and daikon.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- To serve, dip the salad roll in the dipping sauce or spoon some of the sauce onto the roll and have a bite.
Adapted from Wikibooks Cookbook · Cookbook:Bò bía, CC BY-SA 3.0.