Bún Thịt Nướng: a little taste of summer

As the weather improved 10 degrees this week, I wanted to bring a little taste of summer into my life. I decided to make Bún Thịt Nướng, a grilled meat, herby noodle salad that has that delicious fresh and zingy quality common to a lot of Vietnamese dishes. I made this recipe up based on my memory of it and my lack of a barbecue and it was every bit as good as any I have ever had. It is also relatively easy and would make a delicious picnic or packed lunch provided you keep the garnish separate (and dry).  

Prep and cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 2

Nước mắm pha (mixed fish sauce)

1 crushed clove of garlic

15g ginger  

Very finely grated zest of ½ a lime

30ml lime juice

30g sugar

30ml fish sauce

Salad

1 small cucumber / ½ a big cucumber

1 medium sized carrot

100g bean sprouts, washed and drained

1/4 iceberg lettuce

150g vermicelli noodles

30g pack of mint

1 spring onion
1 leftover cooked duck breast / meat of your choice

Chilli paste or sauce (optional)

Garnish

1 shallot, sliced into very thin rings

small handful of peanuts

Oil for frying (sunflower / vegetable)

Kitchen roll

First soak the noodles in warm water for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile,if you don't have any leftover meat, here is how to do the duck breast: take it the duck out of the fridge and salt the skin side. Place the fillet skin side down in a cold frying pan, then begin to heat in on the hob with a medium flame. 

After a couple of minutes, pour off the fat that has come off the duck. Then, take a heat proof heavy object (I use a heavy cast iron pan) to compress the duck breasts, being careful not to burn yourself with any spitting oil. 

Keep pouring off the fat when it accumulates - this ensures the skin is beautifully bronzed and crispy. Continue doing this for 7 minutes, checking as you go along that the skin isn't browning too fast or burning. Once the skin is perfect, flip the breast over and cook for one more minute. 

Place on a plate to rest until needed.

Then, prepare the garnish: slice the shallot very finely and pat dry with kitchen roll. Heat up some oil a small pan so that it is 1cm deep. Get it hot but not smoking. Tip the shallot in and watch it carefully until it goes golden. 

Quickly drain through a sieve and tip out on to kitchen roll to dry out. Sprinkle a small pinch of salt over it and leave aside until needed, along with the peanuts.

Now onto the salad. To get those long shreds of carrot, peel it and then tap the knife vertically all along the vegetable so that it is indented all the way along. Finally, peel off the shreds, as you can see in the photos below.

  

Repeat until at the centre of the vegetable, which you can discard when it becomes impossible to cut any more. 

For the cucumber, peel, slice down the middle and de-seed then slice into strands. Slice the spring onion into thin rounds. Place the onion, carrot and cucumber in your serving bowl with the bean sprouts.

Now onto the iceberg lettuce: cut around a quarter of it off and then slice along the semi-circle so you get thin shreds. Then de-leaf and wash the mint (having discarded the stems), roughly chop and add both to the bowl.

Once the noodles are soaked you can boil them until firm but no longer really chewy – I did mine for around 4 minutes.

Meanwhile you can tackle the sauce. Zest your lime, crush your garlic and grate the ginger finely. Place in a bowl or jam jar. This recipe is one part lime juice, 1 part sugar and 1 part fish sauce so the measurement are easy to remember – add 30ml / g of each to the bowl or jar and stir / shake till all combined and the sugar has dissolved.

Once the noodles are done, drain and pour cold water over them. I like to then snip them three times with scissors so that they are slightly more manageable to mix in, serve and eat. Leave the noodles to drain for a few minutes.

Now, slice the duck breast / meat of your choice up into slices and fry it up with some chilli sauce if you like for 2 minutes or so(I have some thai chilli paste that I use). Otherwise just fry it with oil so its warm.

Add to the bowl with the salad ingredients along with the noodles and mix up with the sauce. Serve and sprinkle with the garnish.

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