VIETNAMESE BEEF AND LEMONGRASS ROLLS WITH FISH SAUCE

I saw this dish on Tastespotting and did a bit of searching on it as it looked so good. I found a recipe from Luke Nguyen (an Australian chef) and thought I’d give it a try.

We have a market here called T&T and its got just about every Asian good you could possibly need. The problem is things aren’t always named the same. The original recipe calls for betel leaves and the only leaf that I could find that was similar was called “pepper leaf.” At the very least, they smelled good and looked similar and about the same size as the one in the linked video, so gave them a try.

The leaves turned out to work just fine and the little rolls were super tasty. We ate the entire batch of them for supper. Just rolls and the fish sauce for dipping.

(I have to say the only change I made was putting in half a red onion instead of green onions as I didn’t have any in the house and didn’t want to make a special trip out. I just did them up on my indoor griddle and they cooked up great. No falling apart either.)

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Bo La Lot

Beef and lemongrass rolls

Author Luke Nguyen

Ingredients

• 1 kg ground beef
• 3 lemongrass stems white part only, finely chopped
• 8 spring onions white part only, finely chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro stems no leaves, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons fine white pepper
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• Pepper leaves

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients except for the leaves in a bowl.
• Lay 2 leaves shiny side down, on a board with the stem of the leaf pointing towards you.
• Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the beef mixture onto the bottom half of the leaf.
• Work it into a sausage shape, then roll the leaf from bottom to top and place the seam flat on your bench to stop the leaf unrolling, or secure it with a toothpick.
• Repeat this process until you have used all of the beef.
• Cook the rolls on the barbecue over medium heat, turning to cook, for about 5 minutes, or until done.

Notes

Watch the video link in the preceeding blurbage, great instructions on how to form and roll them!