Name: Barbecue beef with starfruit (Banh cuon)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 1 stick lemongrass, trimmed and very finely chopped; 2 tsp caster sugar; salt and black pepper; 2 small shallots, roughly chopped; 3 cm piece fresh galangal or root ginger, peeled and chopped; pinch of five-spice powder; nuoc cham; a handful of fragrant herbs, such as mint and basil; 1 starfruit, shredded into thin strips; 1 large fillet steak or boneless pork steak, thinly sliced into strips; 2 cloves garlic; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 tbsp runny honey; 2 tbsp fish sauce

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

In Hoi An, cooked beef is rolled up in rice papers with slivers of starfruit, plantain and herbs to make banh cuon [summer rolls]. Banh cuon sellers make their own rice papers from a rice flour paste, gracefully swirling the batter across muslin that is tied taut-as-a-drum across a steamer. We don’t have the time or skill for such fiddle, so use instant rice paper wrappers instead: dunk rice papers in a dish of warm water for a few seconds and then leave on a tea-towel until they go limp. A