Stuffed Ground Pork Rice Paper Roll (Banh Cuon)

A very simple recipe to make although it does look very complicated. The prep time to make the mixture for the rice paper was really easy. Making this recipe to me is a pain in the neck, you sweat and your hands get very oily just standing infront of the stove for long periods of time. I was craving for this recipe and haven't had it for almost a year so I decided to cook it right after work. I started around 5pm and finished as you see in the picture right around 7:30pm. The two most important thing about this recipe is #1. to have a very good non-stick frying pan #2. the fish sauce has to be tasteful which means you would have to get the ratio of fish sauce, water and sugar right. That is 1fs:1s:2w (in cups). If one of these three things is not correct, plan on having a very unsucessful dinner and take out is probably the only resort after you have struggled.

Everything you see in this picture was made from scratch, which means I went to 99 Ranch Market and gathered the ingredients. They consist of cucumbers, bean sprouts, cilantro, green onions, Vietnamese pork sausage, and ground pork. This is a very traditional dish from northern Vietnam. It is a crepe-like roll made from a thin, wide sheet of rice flour filled with ground pork and minced wood ear mushroom. There are many different variations of this dish with many different ingredients used as stuffing or just plain. I've always liked mine with the ground pork, minced ear wood mushroom and chopped onions filling. Here in california, the best place to have "banh cuon" is at a restaurant in Garden Grove " Banh Cuon Tay Ho". They are actually well known not just here in California but all over the country. A lof of their pork sausages like the one I bought are at your local asian grocery stores such as 99 Ranch Market. This has to be my 4th time making this dish, the first time was horrific as I was making it for a VSA (Vietnamese Students Association) Thanksgiving potluck. Couldn't quite figure out how to make the thin rice roll, but after several attempts I was able to get it to work. Normally I would blog about how to prepare a recipe but with this one, I would have to hold off on that because it's just too long. Just comment me and ask. Cheers and good eating!