Vietnamese Grilled Pork Ball Rice Paper Rolls

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Ball Rice Paper Rolls
Home Cooking


I hate pre-made rice paper rolls but love the DIY versions you can order in Vietnamese eateries. Unfortunately there is a pronounced price gap between the two, with pre-made rolls being approximately $2 per roll and the DIY rolls are $14ish.

I don't like pre-made rolls because they put mint/lemongrass/rice noodle etc. Probably all very authentic but I just don't like it.

When I thought about making my own at home, the most important component to get right was the meat. Vietnamese grilled pork is super yummy so I set about doing that to wrap in my rolls.



After a few days of contemplation and online research, I opted for meatballs instead... why is because I had mince and didn't have pork chops. Simple.

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Ball Rice Paper Rolls
Makes approx 12 rolls

Ingredients:

• 250g pork mince
• 1/2 cup minced scallions (the white of shallots)
• 3 cloves minced garlic cloves
• 1 tsp palm sugar
• 2-3 tbsp fish sauce (depends on strength of sauce and how you like it)
• salt to season
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• to serve: iceberg lettuce, rice paper, rice noodles, sauces

Procedure:

1. Mix together pork mince, scallions and garlic.
2. Add sugar, fish sauce and salt. Add cornstarch to bind.
3. Fry a tiny bit of mince and taste. Adjust seasoning if required.
4. Roll mince into small meatballs (I kept them very small so that it was easy to cook and easy to roll).5. Get everything ready to serve! Your rice paper and rice noodles may need hot water to soften. Soften the noodles first and have them ready to go. Soften your rice paper as you eat. I used a peanut dipping sauce and a pre-bought rice paper roll sauce. Garnish with fried onion!



I'm really happy and proud of the final result. It was a bit of a dash getting everything sorted and ready to go at the end (for DIY rolling at the table) and there are also lots of dishes to be done after... aside from that, the meat balls were super tasty and were perfectly suited for rolling.