Nem Nuong (Grilled Pork Patty)

Something about Vietnamese-style meat appeals to me, and this is one of my faves. I suspect it's the sweetness. When you go out to eat, these are sometimes listed as "pork hash", and are most noticeable as the hot-pink slabs of apparently ground meat. Sounds suspect, looks weird, but tastes great. Wandering Chopsticks has a great blog, and here's the recipe.

Ingredients (makes a lot):
3 lbs lean ground pork
1 medium onion, pureed, but not liquefied
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced.
3 tbs sugar
3 tbs nuoc mam (fish sauce)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper.


Method:
Mix the ingredients together.
Take a tiny piece and cook it in the microwave for a taste test. Add seasonings accordingly.
Take a handful of the mixture, between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball and roll it into a ball.
Toss it back and forth between your hands to force out air pockets.
Flatten into a patty and set aside.
This should make 12-14 patties.
Grill on both sides until cooked.



Comments:
If you use regular ground pork, you can probably forgo the onion. It is used for moisture, which keeps the end product from becoming too tough. I personally like the added flavour.

Honey makes a nice substitute for the sugar, lending a different taste.

I found it easier to stack the patties on top of each other with saran wrap to separate the layers.

You could make the patties any size. I was just too lazy to make them smaller.

I wasn't sure how long it would take to cook, but the barbeque was around 175C. I put the patties on the grill, closed the lid, turned the heat down to medium-high and checked periodically. When it looked like half of it was cooked (judging by a side profile), I flipped them over and cooked for roughly the same amount of time.

The picture was taken as I was packing away leftovers. We had sliced them, and it served 2 purposes: to check that they were all cooked properly, and to make it easier to eat. (We were wrapping them up in rice paper)

I probably used more sugar, but use the taste test.


Verdict:
Yum!