Fast food of magical Vietnam, which is practically dietary, thanks to the properties of rice, and healthy in all respects for the richness of fillings suitable for the wrapper - Vietnamese pancakes, this is a combination of Asian and European cuisines. Their recipe is quite simple - they are prepared from rice paper; today you can buy it in the countries of the former Soviet Union in any grocery hypermarket. The point is in the way rice paper is handled - this is on the packages. And in the fillings: from the simplest recipes - whatever your heart desires, everything that we wrap in stuffed pancakes according to traditional Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian recipes, but to truly get closer to Asia and the East, you need to know a few simple fillings: secret – authenticity, combination of products. You can only taste authentic cuisine in Vietnam and from famous chefs, but the dish will be no different if everything is prepared correctly at home.

Peculiarity

Vietnamese pancakes are also called nem pancakes. This is influenced by French and Chinese cuisines. In Vietnamese, what distinguishes it from European and cuisines of Asian and South Eastern countries is the naturalness of taste: as few sauces as possible and a lot of fresh herbs. The main principle of making nems is the main ingredient of the filling. It could be:

• chicken meat;
• oyster mushrooms – they are traditional in Vietnamese cuisine;
• lean fish meat;
• daikon;
• fresh cucumbers;
• spicy or stewed carrots.

Filling with seafood

The Vietnamese's favorite: seafood.

Mussels and shrimp - fresh or quickly frozen - fry in vegetable oil for 3 minutes, pour in a little hot water, just enough to cover, and simmer over low heat for about 2 minutes, then chop finely, add fresh chopped herbs and wrap in rice paper. Fry the pancakes for 1 minute on each side in a hot frying pan with vegetable oil.

Serve with broth or as a separate dish. Combined with rice paper, the seafood filling is a true gourmet meal.

Pork filling

Vietnamese pancakes are also called rolls because of their small size.

Fried minced pork wrapped in rice paper is one of the Vietnamese's favorite lunchtime snacks in street cafes - with coffee, tea, and soup. This is something that tourists should definitely try - it is impossible to visit a country without eating what its inhabitants eat every day.

According to the recipe, the minced pork should not be very fatty and should be thoroughly minced. There are two ways: deep-fried or stewed until meat puree and ground in a blender.

Traditional oyster mushroom filling

The recipe is simple. Cut raw oyster mushrooms into small strips, fry in butter with onions into cubes or half rings if the onions are small. Wrap in rice paper, quickly fry all the pancakes on each side, cover the frying pan with a lid, turn off the heat, let stand for 5-7 minutes so that the rice paper is saturated with the mushroom smell - the pancakes will become soft and fragrant.

Authentic with pasta and bean sprouts

This filling is truly national. According to the recipe, you need to mix durum wheat pasta, boiled until half cooked, and bean sprouts. There is no need to cut the sprouts - they are not large and will crunch appetizingly. Fry the pancakes. They are eaten cold.

Nem for raw foodists

They are called nem kuan. It is prepared as follows - the filling is wrapped in prepared rice paper - you just need to soak it for 2-3 minutes in warm water. No need to fry.

Nems are traditionally prepared with a filling of dried fruits minced through a meat grinder, with salty and sweet cottage cheese.

Cooking example

A test of the pen: a step-by-step recipe for the kitchen amateur

Ready-made fried rice pancakes look transparent - the filling shines through beautifully. Let's try not to experiment, but to prepare everything according to the rules.

Ingredients

You will need a lot of products, but you will get as many as 10 servings:

• packaging of rice paper, for the first time you can experiment with rice noodles, but it is better not to skimp, but to use 30 sheets of paper;
• 50 grams of elite dried white mushrooms or a certain amount of fresh oyster mushrooms according to the owner’s eye;
• 500 grams of minced pork;
• 2 pieces of boiled egg yolks;
• fresh cilantro to taste: if you don’t like it, you don’t have to add it, but we are preparing a Vietnamese dish;
• green onions - a bunch;
• lemon – 1 piece;
• garlic - without it there is no Vietnamese cuisine;
• 1 carrot;
• ground black pepper and paprika - to taste, a pinch;
• a little granulated sugar and ground dried ginger powder;
• fry - your favorite vegetable oil, preferably olive oil;
• a glass of cold boiled water;
• 100 ml store-bought fish sauce.

Preparation

1. Soak rice paper (or noodles) in warm water, dried mushrooms in cold water, fresh mushrooms finely chopped.
2. Fry minced pork in vegetable oil. Fry the grated carrots in another frying pan.
3. Prepare the filling - mix fresh cilantro, fried carrots and meat and fried mushrooms, grate boiled chicken yolks on a fine grater, season with a mixture of ground pepper.
4. Let the filling sit for about 15 minutes so that the ingredients absorb each other’s flavors.
5. Sauce: water, fish sauce, freshly squeezed lemon juice, crushed garlic cloves, granulated sugar, ground black pepper.
6. Fry the pancakes, wrapping the pork filling in soaked sheets of rice paper. Eat by dipping in sauce. Delicious - hot and warm. The Vietnamese do not eat this dish cold.

How to eat - the traditional way

The main condition: rice paper and small size, for two or three “bites”.

This dish is eaten dipped in soy or fish sauce: add freshly squeezed lime juice with hot pepper, finely chopped onions and garlic to the prepared sauce.

The beauty of national dishes and delicacies lies in their unusual taste. Soy sauce goes well with unleavened rice paper with cottage cheese and fruit, and fish sauce goes with traditional Vietnamese pork pancakes. Vietnam is a maritime country. Salt there, along with the sun, is present in the air itself. The combinations are not surprising. Once you try this dish in the country, everyone will want to cook it at home, and without trying it, without going to Vietnam, you can make a home culinary trip. And these pancakes will be loved for their lightness and unusual taste. Once you try it, you will definitely start cooking them!

Nems or rice paper spring rolls are an Asian dish. The filling for rolls is usually made from meat, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms, noodles or rice. The selection of ingredients is a matter of taste. There are even dessert nems - with berries and fruits.
You can use frozen vegetables in bags.
I have nemas with mixed vegetables, bean sprouts and mun mushrooms.

I won’t give exact proportions, I think you can figure it out for yourself.
The base for the nems is rice paper. It has been on sale for a long time. You can buy it in departments that sell everything for sushi.
Nemes or spring rolls come in dry, fried, baked and soaked varieties. They are traditionally served both separately and in salads and soups.
Rice paper is hard and brittle when dry, but when soaked in water it becomes elastic.
To prepare rice paper, it is best to take a flat, deep plate or large bowl. It needs to be filled with water at room temperature. It is better to soak the sheets individually. Place one sheet of paper in water for 10-20 seconds. You will understand when the paper becomes flexible and pliable. Try not to overdo it, otherwise it will tear.
Take out a sheet, remove excess water with your palm, and place it on a table, board or bamboo mat.

There is nothing difficult about rolling mutes. The filling is placed on one edge of the paper and wrapped in the same way as traditional pancakes or cabbage rolls.
Do the same procedure with all sheets.

Carrots, celery, cucumbers, bean sprouts, lettuce, greens - can be put raw. Firm vegetables, meat and seafood should be pre-fried in a wok. If the recipe contains thin rice noodles, then when preparing the filling in the wok, they should be added 30 seconds before the end of cooking.
I lightly fried all the filling in coconut oil.

The nems can be eaten cold immediately after wrapping (the rice paper is not raw - according to the technology, it is steamed). But I prefer to fry them. Some do it in egg or batter. But you won’t get a crispy crust; the rolls will still remain soft. It’s easier to eat them with your hands.
Serve with soy or any other sauce.

I first tried magnificent juicy and appetizing pancakes with minced meat in rice paper in Vietnam. I slightly adapted the recipe for Vietnamese nem pancakes according to the preferences of my household. In the original version of preparing this dish, rice vermicelli and Shitake mushrooms are added to the minced meat. I only put carrots, spices and onions in the minced meat. I recommend that housewives prepare delicious and satisfying minced pancakes in rice paper and serve them with a spicy sauce like in my recipe. By tradition, I provide step-by-step photos for each stage of preparing the dish.

Products:

Minced meat – 0.6 kg;

Egg – 1 pc.;

Carrots – 150 gr;

Onion – 100 gr;

Table salt - 1/2 tsp;

Coriander (ground) – 1 tea. false;

Provençal herbs – 1 tea. lodge;

Sunflower oil – 200 gr;

Rice paper – 20 sheets.

Ingredients for the spicy sauce:

Garlic – 1 head;

Vinegar – 20 ml;

Soy sauce – 50 ml.

How to cook nem - Vietnamese pancakes

We start cooking with minced meat. The minced meat should be tender. You can have pork, beef or chicken. Carrots and onions give the minced meat for pancakes a special tenderness and juiciness, so try to choose juicy and sweet carrots, and it is better to choose onions that are not very hot. For example, as in my recipe - white.

And so, we need to peel the onion and cut it into half rings. After cutting, we disassemble the half rings into separate pieces.

We also peel the carrots and grate them on a thin long grater.

Then, put the minced meat, onions and carrots into a deep bowl, beat in the egg, add spices and salt.

Mix the minced meat for our “nem” pancakes until smooth.

Now, let's start wrapping the minced meat in rice paper. You first need to wet a piece of rice paper with water using a pastry brush, but you can just do it with your hands.

Let the leaf soak for 2-3 minutes. I wet two sheets of rice paper with water and, while one is soaking, I begin to wrap the minced meat in the second.

The process of forming Vietnamese pancakes is very similar to preparing our cabbage rolls. In the middle, closer to the bottom edge of the sheet of rice paper, place a small sausage of minced meat and then wrap it in an envelope, as in the photo.

When there are only a few pancakes left to wrap, you can put a frying pan with vegetable oil on the fire to heat up.

Minced pancakes in rice paper should be half covered with oil. Fry them over medium heat until the rice paper is well browned.

Nem pancakes must be served with soy-garlic sauce. To prepare it, we peel and press the garlic through a press. Then, mix soy sauce, chopped garlic and vinegar in a glass container.

And with that, our spicy sauce for pancakes is ready.

You can serve delicious Vietnamese empanadas as a separate dish with spicy sauce, herbs and fresh tomatoes.

I specially took a cross-sectional photograph of the pancakes and even in the photo you can see that the minced meat remained juicy and was well fried.

Bon appetit everyone.

Exotics are increasingly finding their way into our daily lives, at least in the form of unusual delicacies. Among these, Nem pancakes have gained particular popularity. The savory dish has a rich, expressive, memorable taste and excellent aroma. Usually pancakes are wrapped in small rolls, which are fried until deliciously crispy on both sides. This Vietnamese dish will effectively diversify the everyday table, but can also be an excellent addition to the holiday menu. Guests will certainly appreciate the non-standard interpretation of the usual snack.

Cooking time – 45 minutes.

Number of servings – 4.

Ingredients

To prepare Vietnamese Nem pancakes, you will need to prepare the following ingredients:

• carrots – ½ pcs.;
• rice paper – 4 pcs.;
• green onions – ½ bunch;
• pork – 150 g;
• funchose – 10 g;
• onion – 1 head;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• tomato paste or ketchup – 50 ml;
• ginger root and salt - to taste;
• vegetable oil - for frying.

How to cook Vietnamese Nem pancakes

Making your own Vietnamese Nem pancakes couldn't be easier. The main thing is to use a step-by-step recipe with a photo, following it “from” to “to”.

1. If you decide to enjoy the exotic Nem snack, you will first need to prepare all the necessary ingredients.

1. Next, you need to start preparing the filling for these savory rolls. To do this, you will need to roll the meat with onions. The minced meat must be mixed.

1. Then you need to pour boiling water over the funchose. After 10 minutes, you will need to squeeze it out and cut it into small pieces with scissors.

1. Carrots need to be chopped on a special grater for Korean salads.

1. Green onions are washed and finely chopped.

1. Now you should mix the minced meat, funchose, green onions and carrots. The pancake filling should sit a little.

1. Next you need to prepare the pancakes themselves. Take sheets of rice paper. Alternately, they are immersed in hot water for 10 seconds, after which they should be laid out on the mat.

Note! Wet sheets of rice paper should definitely release excess moisture to the mat. Otherwise, too many splashes will form during the frying process, but the pancakes themselves will not turn out crispy.

1. The filling is laid out on the leaves, and everything is wrapped like cabbage rolls.

1. The next stage of preparation is frying Vietnamese Nem pancakes made from rice paper in a frying pan with the addition of a large amount of oil. You need to turn them over 4 times.

1. We need to make the sauce. To do this, tomato paste is mixed with grated ginger, chopped garlic and soy sauce.

1. The delicacy can be tasted. It is recommended to tie the dish with green onion feathers. You can also sprinkle the rolls with sesame seeds and grate fresh carrots as an addition.

Video recipes for making Nem pancakes

It’s not difficult to implement the recipe for Vietnamese Nem pancakes, but it’s even easier to do it with the help of rollers:

I won’t hide it: I fell in love with Viet Cafe and concept chef Tran Manh Hung at first spoon. Or even before the first spoon.

I've been eyeing VietCafe for a long time. Ever since they opened on Gazetny Lane. Now this is the first chain of Vietnamese restaurants in Russia. And recently the network became international: VietCafe opened in London and Almaty.

VietCafe specializes in home-style cuisine from northern Vietnam. Here you can try the real Pho soup and the real fresh nems. I have to admit, these dishes just make me lose my will! (in general, I can eat Thai noodle soup or Vietnamese Pho soup 3 times a day every day, and I don’t get bored, I’m generally a fan of soups).

Since Pho soup takes a full 7 hours to prepare (most of the time is, of course, spent cooking the broth), there will be no recipe for the soup.

But we were still very lucky: Chef Hung shared with us recipes for two whole dishes that cook much faster. So, we will now have the best instructions for preparing Vietnamese nems and the best instructions for preparing spring rolls (I will show spring rolls next week).

By the way, I would like to note that in all VietCafes and in all VietCafes Express nems are prepared only “with a knife”. Those. no preparations, everything is cut especially for you. Nems can only be absolutely fresh.

For 2 servings of nems we will need:

Minced pork neck - 80 gr.
- shrimp - 60 gr.
- squid - 40 gr.
- onion - 20 gr.
- carrots - 20 gr.
- kohlrabi - 20 gr.
- black mushrooms - 20 gr.
- glass vermicelli - 30 gr.
- green onion - 10 gr.
- cilantro - 10 gr.
- soy sprouts - 20 gr.
- fish sauce - 4 gr.
- ground black pepper - 2 gr.
- egg yolk - 1 pc.
- rice paper - 8 pcs.

Pre-soak vermicelli and black mushrooms in the cold water 30 minutes

Fish sauce and rice paper look like this:

Cutting the onion

Please note how to properly, quickly and conveniently chop carrots:

Kohlrabi is cut in the same way.

Same method - black mushrooms

It's even easier with vermicelli

Cutting soybean sprouts

The squid cut is like this:

Now let's cut the shrimp

Add minced meat and egg yolk

Fish sauce

And mix everything thoroughly

Place the rice paper on a damp towel and moisten it with water (i.e., under no circumstances should you put it in water!!!)

Put the filling

And wrap it up (detailed instructions)))

Now let’s start deep-frying the nems. If you don't have a wok at home, you can use a frying pan, saucepan or deep fryer. Whatever is more convenient for you.

While frying, the nemas must be stirred periodically so that they fry evenly.

Fry until they are brown like this

Remove to a paper towel and let the oil drain a little

It turns out to be such beauty. It’s impossible to resist, and it’s impossible to stop.

How to make nam sauce?
Simple, like all ingenious things:

Fish sauce - 1 spoon
- sugar - 1 spoon
- lemon juice - 1 spoon
- water 4 tablespoons.

Stir, add finely chopped carrots (you can, of course, cut them into shapes), hot peppers and finely chopped garlic.

The sauce is ready!

Many thanks to Chan Man Hung and