Sunday, May 24, 2009

Nem Nuong Cuon (Spring Rolls with Grilled Pork Patties )

nem nuong cuon

Happy Memorial Day weekend! I have a sister now serving in Iraq as well as cousins in the military and I know they miss home made Vietnamese food dearly! We send them pho instant noodles when we can but I know she loves nem nuong cuon so this is a tribute to her and all the men and women in the military service protecting our country and freedom. May God bless and bring them home safely.

Last week, we posted our nem nuong recipe and emphasized its versatility and used it for nem nuong sliders and bun nem nuong and banh mi nem nuong. Our other favorite way to eat nem nuong is nem nuong cuon (spring rolls with grilled pork patties). We defrosted frozen nem nuong the night before in the fridge and just had to get all the fresh veggies and herbs. Now you know why we always have nem nuong in our freezer--delicious and refreshing nem nuong cuon can be made in no time.

Nem Nuong Cuon (Spring Rolls with Grilled Pork Patties)

Printable Recipe

nem nuong cuon


  • Grilled nem nuong patties (recipe below--we like ours sausauge shaped for easy rolling, split in half)
  • 1 package of rice paper wrapper (we love the 3 bamboo brand)
  • Fried chive rolls (optional)
  • Lettuce
  • Cucumbers, thinly sliced rectangles (about 1 x 3 inches)
  • Pickled carrots and daikon
  • Mint (rau thom), Cilantro (ngo), Fresh chives (rau he). Other herbs can be substitued such as basil (rau que), perilla (tia to).
  • Nuoc mam cham (dipping fish sauce)

nem nuong cuon


Fried chive rolls are optional, but often found at many restaurants and add a great crunch. Quarter large egg roll wrappers or use square wonton wrappers. Place several chives onto wrapper, roll once and then fold over ends. Roll tightly and use an egg wash to seal the wrapper. Fry until golden brown, drain and set aside.

nem nuong cuon

Have all your mis en place of veggies and nem nuong ready. Dip rice paper in luke warm water and place on plate. Wait about 10s or until paper softens to start rolling. First place the lettuce, then cucumber, fried chive roll, and pickled carrots and daikon near the edge of the rice paper closest to you. Roll rice paper over veggies and then fold over each end. Then place some fresh chives and nem nuong and roll tightly. Do not overstuff, you're not making a burrito! :) Use nuoc mam pha as a dipping sauce.


Nem Nuong (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patties)
Printable Recipes
  • 2 lbs. ground pork (you may mix ground turkey or chicken to reduce fat)
  • 2 head of garlic (cloves, peeled; we love the intense garlic flavor but use more or less according to taste)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tbs salt
  • 1/2 tbs pepper
  • 4 tsp or 1 small package of Alsa baking powder
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 drop red food coloring or 1 tsp caramel syrup (optional and found in most asian groceries or make your own)
Using food processor, process garlic until fine puree. Combine pork, garlic, salt, pepper and sugar in mixing bowl and mix well. In separate bowl, combine baking powder, water, drop of red food coloring or caramel syrup (this adds a very nice color to the pork when grilled) and stir. Mixture will fluff and foam.

Fold the baking powder into mixture and allow meat to chill for about 30 min to 1 hr or longer--the baking powder adds more firmer, bouncier texture. Now you're ready to form the patties. Keep meat mixture in the fridge for a few hours to let it set and easier to handle when forming patties, balls or what I prefer, mini sausages. I find that it's easier to roll in rice paper this way. Keep a bowl of water handy and your hands wet for easy handling.

I use an indoor grill (such as George Foreman) as it's quick, easy to clean, and makes great grill marks. Grill about 4-5 min per side. If you plan to grill on an outdoor grill, form patties around the skewer like a kebab.

nem nuong cuon

35 comments:

  1. Gorgeous photos and salivating-ly delicious recipe!! Love it and will follow this blog!

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  2. Hong,
    Great post. Just wondering what kind of camera set up you have.
    Koy

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  3. You guys have a lovely blog and I am crazy for Viet food (ask White on Rice Couple - I'm *crazy* about it!). I'm so glad you left a comment on my blog so I could discover you here. Keep up the great work!

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  4. This looks absolutely delicious. Happy Memorial Day! :-)

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  5. What a wonderful tribute to your sister. I can definitely see why this dish would be one of her favs. It looks absolutely delicious! Those pork patties are just divine!

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  6. This recipe looks lovely! great photos. we will give it a try. Thanks, s

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  7. Those are some good looking spring rolls. Mmmm... I could go for some now.

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  8. awesome! i just had these yesterday at a popular restaurant called Brodard. i will definitely have to try making this at home!

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  9. Robert: We'll keep on cookin' if you keep on reading!

    Koy: I'll email you the details so I can write more.

    Jen: Thanks! Your blog is a must read for us. Had a great time recently at beaver creek and can't wait to go back to Colorado. You've definitely found the right spot for Vietnamese food, at least our version!

    Felix: Thanks for stopping by and reading our new blog.

    Elyse: She drooled when she saw this post!

    S. Stockwell: Do let us know how it goes!

    Jenn: It's too bad the Vietnamese food in LA proper is not very good... that's why we have to make our own or drive at least to San Gabriel.

    Krissy: We've eaten there many times and enjoyed it, although there are cheaper and good options in San Gabriel Valley. We'll post other things on there menu soon and even attempt to make their dipping sauce!

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  10. Oooh, you guys did it the Brodard way! I love the crispy green onion part!

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  11. nutritiontokitchen: whenever you're here in socal let's go to brodards! :)

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  12. I stumbled upon your website and I have to say it's fabulous! I'm Vietnamese myself and I'm always looking for new recipes. This Nem Nuong Cuon has piqued my interest. May I ask what is a "fried chive roll?" and how do you make it?

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  13. Sherry: We hope you continue to stumble by and comment often :) The fried chive rolls are just something alot of the restaurants here in SoCal have added to provide a great crunch to the nem nuong cuon. It's so simple...we detailed it above in the post, all you do is wrap some chives in eggroll wrappers and fry them...it's really that simple!

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  14. I'm trying to find a good recipe on how to make Banh Cuon or Banh Uot. Banh Cuon Nhan Thit w/ Cha Lua. One of my favorite dishes of all time! Any creative way to make this? You must enlighten me with your fabulous pictures. :)

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  15. Sherry: My mom makes it the traditional way, on a fabric strung over a steaming pot of water..but there are ways to make on a nonstick pan. we'll probably make it one of these days... :)

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  16. I absolutely love your addition of the baking powder to make it crunchier and bouncier. Thanks for the great tip. I have modified the recipe by reducing the salt by half and adding 1 tsp of fish sauce instead. 1/4 Tsp cinnamon is also added to give it a more Central taste. A little old lady from Hue did this and her Nem Nuong tasted amazing. She wouldn't give me her family recipe (I would have had to marry her daughter) so I modified yours. It's taste was just as I remembered it. Great job. and keep up the fantastic blog.

    Quoc

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  17. Quoc: Nem nuong recipe for a daughters hand in marraige?? LOL...tough decision!! thank you for sharing your comments and changes to the recipe. We think recipes are more of guidelines (except when baking) and love to experiment. Cha que also contains a bit of cinnamon as well.

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  18. Yum! That looks great. Thanks for the tip. :)

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  19. I did your grilled pork patties yesterday and it was VERY good even without the caramel sauce. My son loves it and it will be part of his school lunch. I had my son mixed and shaped exactly like your patties. He loves Vietnamese food.

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  20. jgleeche: No problem. There's so many brands of rice paper, and we've tried alot of them but the 3 bamboo brand has been the best so far for not cracking.

    Lilly: We love to hear that!! Send us a picture next time and we'll post it. Your son might be an upcoming chef!!

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  21. Hey, I live in SF and just came back from LA with the GF. We had these rolls at "Brodard" and they have to be, hands down, the best spring rolls I've ever had! I love pork and my GF knows that, haha!

    So she was determined to find out the recipe. While searching she stumbled upon your blog. We can't wait to give this a try! Thanks for posting this! =)

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  22. anon-Nem nuong cuon is our favorite type of spring rolls as well--even better then the pork/shrimp kind. Try it with the fried chive rolls for that brodard crunch. The dipping sauce on the otherhand is still a trade secret. Let us know how your nem nuong goes and don't forget to try the nem nuong in banh mi and in bun nem nuong.

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  23. My best friend when I was a teenager was Vietnamese. Her mother made the most delicious Nem for us all the time... Although I don't eat meat anymore, your recipe here made me long for those days!

    I'll just have to try making a veg version of these. Thank you for the inspiration and the great recipe/directions.

    I just love your blog!

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  24. Viviane: We'll love to see you make a veg version! Thanks for sharing your story!

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  25. I wish someone could crack the code on the Brodard's special dipping sauce. My dad tried to be sneaky and ask our waitress what was inside the sauce pretending like he had food allergies. She asked him what he was allergic to...lol yeah that caught him off guard. She knew what my dad was up to and told us that she herself didn't even know exactly what was in the sauce because the owner's keep that a secret even from the staff! She said she did know that there was pork in it.

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  26. they call me linh: that's a hilarious story--we'll have to try it but we'll be ready to name a bunch of ingredients!

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  27. I made your Nem Nuong tonight and it was great. Easy and super tasty!

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  28. Hi,
    Your blog is awesome...may I ask what brand of caramel syrup you can buy at the Asian market? There's a coconut caramel syrup that's dark...will that do? Thanks!

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  29. anonymous: the dark coconut caramel will work just fine! let us know how it goes!

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  30. I know the recipe for their sauce email bodardbistro@hotmail.com

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  31. Also it is green onion not chives in the rolled up fried egg roll wrapper crispy thing. Wei chuen brand best.

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  32. WONDERFUL blog!!! I love Vietnamese food and am so excited to have found this so that now I can start cooking it at home. Thank you!

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  33. I never thought of using baking powder in the nem nuong, great tip and will try it soon!

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  34. To freeze it for later use (weeks), do you grill it before throwing in the freezer? Thanks

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