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The Fire 50 · cook it at home

Bún chả: Hanoi grilled pork with noodles

1 hr plus 1 hr marinating · 4 people

Hanoi's lunch: little pork patties and slices of pork belly grilled over charcoal, dropped into a warm sweet-sour dipping broth, eaten with rice noodles and a pile of herbs.

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The real one

You need

• 400 g (14 oz) ground pork (20% fat)
• 300 g (10 oz) pork belly, thinly sliced
• For the marinade: 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 shallots, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp caramel sauce or dark soy (for color)
• For the dipping broth: 4 tbsp fish sauce, 4 tbsp sugar, 4 tbsp rice vinegar, 500 ml (2 cups) warm water, 2 garlic cloves minced, 1 chili sliced, a few slices of green papaya or carrot
• To serve: 400 g rice vermicelli, cooked and rinsed; lettuce, mint, perilla, cilantro; lime wedges

How to make it

1. Marinate (15 min, plus 1 hr): Mix the marinade. Divide it between the ground pork and the belly. Shape the ground pork into small flat patties, about 5 cm wide. Refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Make the broth (10 min): Dissolve the sugar in the warm water with the fish sauce and vinegar, then add garlic, chili and papaya. Taste: sweet, sour and salty in balance.
3. Grill (10 to 12 min): Over hot charcoal, grill the patties and belly slices in a hinged grill basket, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until charred at the edges and cooked through. Or use a grill pan on high, or the broiler.
4. Serve (5 min): Put the hot pork straight into bowls of the broth. Serve the noodles and herbs on plates. Dip noodles and herbs in the broth with the pork and eat together.

Tips

• A grill basket keeps the patties from falling apart.
• Add a fried spring roll for the full Hanoi table.
• The smoke matters: grill over charcoal if you can.

Chef Amazing's own home version of bún chả, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.