Hue Lemongrass Skewers
During a stop in Hue, Vietnam, on a food tour with Chef Luke Nguyen, we visited a local restaurant called Tai Phu (2 Dien Bien Phu), which serves authentic Hue cuisine. One of the two dishes we ate was nem lui, a local specialty.
It’s a sausage of minced beef and pork, threaded onto a stick of fragrant lemongrass, grilled, and served with dipping sauce. We ate it right off the stick, but you can also put it into a Vietnamese baguette.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons45ml hoisin sauce
- 66 warm, crisp Vietnamese baguettes, split in half lengthways
- 66 coriander stalks
- 22 bird’s eye chilies, sliced
- 66 lemongrass stalks, trimmed
Sausage Mixture
- 3.5 oz100g minced beef
- 7 oz200g minced pork
- ½ oz15g pork fat, minced
- 1 tablespoon15ml garlic, finely diced
- 33 spring onions, finely diced, white part only
- 2 teaspoons8g sugar
- 1 teaspoon5ml freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon15g fish sauce
Preparation
Combine the sausage ingredients in a mixing bowl. Knead for 5 minutes, or until all the ingredients have combined well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to allow the flavors to develop.
With wet hands, divide the meat mixture into 12 portions, then roll each portion into a sausage shape.
Thread each sausage onto a lemongrass stem and brush with a little oil. Heat a barbecue grill or chargrill pan to medium–high. Cook the skewers for about 6 minutes, turning every few minutes, until cooked through.
To serve, slide the sausage off the lemongrass stick, then tuck it into a split baguette with a little hoisin sauce, a coriander stalk, and a few slices of chili.