Giò Lụa – Vietnamese traditional food

On the Tet traditional tray of food according to Vietnamese culture, with traditional dishes such as Chung cake, chicken meat, spring rolls and so on, “giò lụa” is one of the dainty morsels. Today, when “giò lụa” almost become daily food and there are more various and attractive dishes on the tray, delicious dish of “giò lụa” cannot be missed...
There are many types of “giò” such as: giò lụa (pork-pie), giò bò (beep dumpling), giò bì (pork and skin paste), giò mỡ (lean and fat pork paste), giò xào (fried pie), etc. Each type has a particular taste but the most important thing to make “giò” dish really attractive is that the fragrance of banana leaves and fish sauce combined in the piece of “giò”.
Giò lụa (pork-pie)

Pork is chosen to make pork-pie must be lean, delicious and fresh meat. It is continuously ground until the meat is fine. These days, the meat is ground by machine, which makes the process more quickly and helps to save the maker’s strength.
However, the pork-pie is make in the traditional way remains the delicious flavor that is different from the one ground by machine, since the makers must use more strength so they take proper care of their product. Fish sauce for making pork-pie must also be tasty and fragrant. When being cut, the pie must has the color of ivory-white and the surface has some small holes, surely that the pie is so delicious!





INGREDIENTS
2 lbs fresh lean pork loin-- ground twice--ask your butcher (substituting other lean meats such as chicken or turkey may work--we just haven't tried)
1 cup water
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 bag of Alsa baking powder (try to use this brand--commonly found in Asian markets or other Single acting baking powder
2 tbsp tapioca flour
DIRECTIONS
1.

In mixing bowl, add the pork, fish sauce, and sugar and mix. In separate bowl add the water, tapioca flour, and baking powder and mix. It will foam and bubble up--that's normal.  Fold this into the pork mixture. It will be quite moist. Cover and allow to rest at least 6 hrs, but preferably over night in the fridge.



When ready to cook, grind the mixture one more time in small batches in your food processor. The texture should be very smooth--this is the consistency of gio song (stop here if you're just making gio song for bun moc). You can either wrap it up in banana leaf or in plastic wrap. While it's prettier and you get a slightly more fragrant giò lua with banana leaf, wrapping the gio lua in plastic wrap is much faster and easier.  We made both sausage and round shaped gio lua.  Remember that the cha lua will rise and expand a bit when cooked. Steam for about 20-25 minutes (will vary depending on size). 

*Cooks note: The amount of Alsa baking powder and tapioca flour will determine the cha lua's "bounciness" and chewiness.Other brands of single acting baking powder should work, although we have never tried and we have not tried using any double acting baking powder. .

                      
                                                     

In Vietnam, once try to taste these kinds of “giò lụa”, it is certaintly that you cannot forget the tasty flavor and fragrance of the dainty morsels...