Nem Lụi Huế: Hue Grilled Minced Pork on Lemongrass Skewer

Nem Lụi Huế or Hue Grilled Minced Pork on Lemongrass Skewer is one of the most popular dishes in Hue. The ingredients for making Hue Springrolls (Nem Lụi Huế - Hue Grilled Minced Pork on Lemongrass Skewer) are quite simple (same like Nem Nuong in Nha Trang) from pounded pork, thinly sliced skin like vermicelli, diced pork fat, very marinated with salt, pepper, and sugar, depending on each person's taste and then mixed well. After that, people mold this mixture into long shapes a little bigger than a finger, then skewer them into each small bamboo chopsticks and bake on a charcoal stove until cooked. According to Hue dialect, the act of skewering spring rolls into bamboo chopsticks is called lui, that's why this dish is called spring rolls.

Nem Lụi Huế

In other places, spring rolls are dipped with sweet and sour fish sauce, while Hue people dip them with "leo" sauce. This sauce is viscous, rich in taste, delicious, if you want it spicy, add a little chili. The dipping sauce is the soul of the dish, so it is made quite sophisticatedly, including pureed peanuts, adding fish sauce, pork liver, minced pork and then boiling on the stove until it becomes a paste like soy sauce.

Hue Springrolls

Fresh spring rolls and delicious dipping sauce are not enough, but you have to eat them properly to feel the full taste and essence of the dish. When eating spring rolls, people often eat them with rice paper, herbs, raw vegetables, cucumbers, .... Roll with dipping sauce and enjoy.

Recipe to make Hue spring rolls, you need to prepare:

300g raw ham
200g lean shoulder meat
150g pork liver
100g nape fat
30 lemongrass plants
Purple onion
Minced garlic
100g roasted peanuts
50g roasted white sesame
100ml fresh milk without sugar
3 tablespoons of rice flour
Rice paper rolls with spring rolls
Raw vegetables: lettuce, herbs, green mango, cucumber, basil, green banana...
Spices: soup powder, pepper, fish sauce, main noodles, sugar, oyster sauce, cashew oil...

Best Hue Food

After you have prepared all the necessary ingredients, proceed to make spring rolls according to the specific instructions as follows:

1. How to make spring rolls in Hue:

Step 1: Lean pork shoulder and neck fat are washed, finely chopped, then finely chopped.
Step 2: Mix fatty meat and raw pork, season with 1 tablespoon of soup powder, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of main noodles, minced onion and garlic, 3 tablespoons of cashew oil, 2 spoon of oyster sauce.
Step 3: Mix all the ingredients and spices until they are soft, then store in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
Step 4: Take out the ingredients, wrap them around the lemongrass stem. Pay attention to lightly pounding the head of lemongrass so that the lemongrass flavor penetrates the spring rolls.
Step 5: Bake spring rolls on charcoal stove. During the baking process, it is necessary to turn them over so that the spring rolls are evenly cooked without drying.

2. How to make Hue spring rolls dipping sauce:

The success of Hue spring rolls depends a lot on the bowl of dipping sauce. You can refer to the recipe of making sauce of Hue people as follows:

Step 1: Wash the liver, cut into small pieces, soak in fresh milk for 30 minutes to remove the fishy smell.
Step 2: Rinse the liver with clean water and then boil it in boiling water. Remove the liver, drain the water, cut the pomegranate and chop finely.
Step 3: Crush peanuts and white sesame.
Step 4: Put the saucepan on the stove, add 2 tablespoons of chopped onion and garlic, 2 tablespoons of cashew oil until fragrant, then add the liver and stir well. Adjust seasoning to taste.
Step 5: Dissolve the tapioca starch, pour it into the liver pan and cook until it boils. Wait a few more minutes, then add peanuts, white sesame and stir for about 3 minutes, then turn off the heat.

Local Food Hue

Pour the bowl of dipping sauce into a small bowl, put spring rolls on a plate with raw vegetables, you have a delicious Hue spring rolls in the right way.

Some Local Restaurants with Authentic Local Flavour Hue Springrolls:

1. Hue Tai Phu spring rolls restaurant