Name: Pork and Garlic Meatballs with Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce (Nem Nuong)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: ½ tsp finely chopped bird’s eye chilli; 2 tsp fresh black peppercorns; ¼ tsp finely chopped bird’s eye chilli; 1 tsp sugar; 50 g pork lardons (as fatty as possible – back fat would be used in Vietnam); 1 tsp rice vinegar; ½ lime, juiced (or 1 tbsp bottled lime juice); 25 ml water; ½ tsp black pepper; 1 tsp salt, or to taste; 400 g pork mince; 1 tsp finely chopped garlic; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 3 tsp finely chopped garlic; 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander, or to taste

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
30 min

Appears in

The Garlic Story: Nourish your body, delight your palate

By Kumud Gandhi

Published 2023

About

This super tasty recipe hails from Vietnam and the meatballs are extra special thanks to the inclusion of pork lardons. I serve a classic nuoc cham dipping sauce on the side which cuts through the richness of the pork while adding a citrus note and a kick of chilli.

Ingredients

For the dipping sauce

25 ml water
1 tsp rice vinegar
1

Method

First, make the dipping sauce. Bring the water to the boil along with the rice vinegar and sugar. Boil rapidly for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and allow to cool. Once cool, stir in the chilli, garlic, fish sauce and lime juice, then set aside.
Now prepare the meatballs. In a mixing bowl, combine the black pepper, salt, sugar, chilli, peppercorns,