Five-colour pork roll.

This pork roll is a must-have on a family food tray for Tết. Hà Nội Green Food aficionado and home cook Hoàng Long shows you his tasty recipe ahead of the Lunar New Year.

The five colours in this dish resemble the five elements of the universe, and our hope for a fulfilling and accomplished new year. Every family hoping for a prosperous new year wants to have this dish on their table.

Serves: 5

Time: 45 min

Ingredients:

- Pork tongue: 1 medium size

- Pork ear: 1 medium size

- Salted duck egg yolk: 5

- Chicken eggs: 3

- Finely ground lean pork: 300g

- Salt, pepper, and white vinegar

- Carrot: 100g, peeled, julienned

- Dried woodear mushrooms, soaked in water: 5g

Method: 

- Rub 4g of raw sea salt on the pork tongue and ear, then soak in 750g of water with 5g of vinegar in a bowl for 15 minutes before washing them clean.

- In a pot, add warm water to boil the tongue and ear for 15-20 minutes until tender. Take out from the pan, let them cool and julienne them into fine threads.

- Soak the salted duck egg yolks in 50g of white alcohol for 10 minutes.

- Break three chicken eggs in a bowl, and mix well with 2g of salt.

- In a pan over medium heat, add 5g cooking oil, then pour the chicken batter in and fry the egg to make very thin pancakes. 

- In a bowl, put 300g of finely ground lean pork, add the finely chopped woodear, julienned pork tongue and ear, the carrots, and seasoning, ground pepper, fish sauce, and finely chopped purple shallots before mixing well.

- On a large tray, place a layer of banana leaf (heat it up so that the leaves become softer to wrap), spread an egg pancake on the leaf, then add a layer of ground pork mix, then place the salted egg yolk on top, and roll over into a big roll using thinly sliced bamboo threads. 

- Tie the roll really tight on both ends, and steam the roll for 30 minutes. 

- Let the roll cool down, then unwrap the banana leaves and slice the roll into slices 1.5cm thick, and garnish the dish with carved flowers for decoration. 

This dish can be placed on a plate or a soup bowl for decoration. 

Bon appétit!

COOKING UP A STORM: Home cook Hoàng Long of Hanoi Green Food