CHEF and blogger Paul James writes for our paper.
Traditional Vietnamese cooking has often been associated with using fresh ingredients and not using much dairy or oil, having interesting textures, and making use of herbs and vegetables.
Vietnamese cuisine also features a combination of five important tastes, sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy.
So therefore many of the dishes in Vietnamese cuisine are usually represented with ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, mint, coriander, cinnamon, bird’s eye chilli, lime, and basil leaves (Thai)
I’ve used a few of these ingredients and combined them alongside a barbecue style sauce to make my version of Xiu Mai or Vietnamese Meatballs.
This kind of Vietnamese dish is usually prepared by coating the meatballs with a caramel sauce, but instead of this I’ve created a sweet oniony barbecue style sauce that will marry well with the hot and fiery Xiu Mai.
Usually eaten at breakfast time, in a roll or baguette I’ve adapted the recipe so it can be enjoyed at lunchtime or an evening time meal.
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Hot and fiery Vietnamese Meatballs (Xiu Mai)
Ingredients for meatballs
500g minced pork
1 red onion finely grated
1 thumb sized piece of garlic, skin removed and grated
2tsp fish sauce
1tsp sesame oil
2 bird’s eye chillis finely grated (wear gloves, if you are not already doing so)
Handful of fresh coriander leaves finely chopped
Handful of fresh mint leaves finely chopped
Squeeze of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley for decoration
Ingredients for the sauce
2 large white onions finely sliced
1tsp of sunflower cooking oil
85g demerara sugar
50ml water
400g of good quality chopped tomatoes (I’ve used Mutti)
1tsp of minced garlic
2tbsp malt vinegar
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1tbsp tomato puree
Handful of fresh cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
Salt and pepper to taste (if required)
Method
1. Heat oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Cook over a gentle heat until softened.
2. Then add the garlic, water and sugar, stir gently and cook on a low heat for four to five minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
3. Then add the tinned tomatoes, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree. Mix well.
4. Bring to the boil, cover and gently simmer away, stirring occasionally, while you prepare your Vietnamese meatballs.
5. In a large bowl add all of the ingredients and mix really well.
6. Take a small piece of the mixture, flatten it out and in a frying pan heat some oil and cook the flattened meat mixture. This will allow you to sample the flavours that are going on, you will then know how to adjust to your own taste buds. Add seasoning if required.
7. Now roll into small meatball type balls. Place them on a flat tray that you have lightly floured and gently roll them around until covered.
8. Wipe your frying pan, then heat some more oil, gently fry the meatballs in batches until you get a nice golden appearance all over, this usually takes about four to six minutes.
9. Once you have fried them add them onto some absorbent kitchen paper.
10. Now to combine and finish the dish off.
11. Add your Vietnamese meatballs to the sauce, along with the cherry tomatoes and gently stir then leave to simmer for about ten minutes until the meatballs are cooked through thoroughly.
12. Serve on a warm plate or bowl, garnish with some parsley and a squeeze of lime juice and enjoy with some crusty bread or alternatively, fill a baguette with the Xiu Mai and garnish with cucumber and lettuce.
