In addition to always appearing in dishes like bread, wet cake,… Vietnamese pork sausage is also a very popular dish during Tet holidays due to its distinctive, unique flavor and particularly appealing chewy texture. Together with the Kitchen Tips section of TasteVN, refer to the following article for tips to achieve the right level of delicious chewiness in this dish!
1 Choose fresh and delicious meat and high-protein fish sauce
To make delicious and chewy Vietnamese pork sausage (chả lụa), you should select pork cuts that have a thin layer of fat surrounding the meat inside. For example, tenderloin, ham, lean pork shoulder, or pork from the back. These cuts will show excellent binding quality once minced!
We often mistakenly think that using frozen meat (which is chewier than fresh meat) will make the chả lụa tastier. But that’s not true. A good chả lụa requires the pork you choose to have good binding quality. Frozen meat may be chewy, but its binding quality is not guaranteed.
Instead, you should buy the aforementioned pork cuts and process them while they are still fresh and tender for perfect chewiness in the steamed chả lụa!
Besides the meat, the fish sauce also plays quite an important role in the quality of the dish. High-protein fish sauce will be a very reasonable and appropriate choice to enhance the flavor of the chả lụa.
2 Grind and mix the ingredients thoroughly
Grinding the meat is perhaps a time-consuming step for homemakers. If your household has a high-capacity grinder, you can confidently buy meat and proceed to prepare and grind it.
If not, you can ask the butcher to grind it for you right at the counter. After that, take it home and grind it again 2-3 more times until the meat is very fine and smooth to the point that you can’t see any strands of meat anymore.
To increase the chewiness of the chả lụa, you should put the meat in the refrigerator for about 1 hour before grinding. While waiting, put the mung bean flour and tapioca flour into a bowl, add water, and stir to dissolve.
After 1 hour, put the meat into the grinder with a little cold water. Then, press the grind button, gradually pouring the flour mixture in. After grinding for 1 minute, put it in the freezer to chill. By repeating this process 2-3 times, you will have enhanced the chewiness and deliciousness of the chả lụa!
3 Avoid undercooked meat during processing
Because meat is one of the main ingredients in making cha lua. Therefore, if the meat is processed to be undercooked, the flavor of the dish will be significantly affected.
To prevent this from happening, you should add a little ice or ice cubes to grind along with the meat. The cold ice will help lower the temperature of the meat during grinding. After grinding, you should wrap the meat tightly and immediately put it in the freezer.
This method not only helps reduce the risk of the meat being undercooked but also makes the ground meat more firm and appealing when mixed.
4 Wrap firmly
To ensure this step is successful, you need to prepare the banana leaves well. After buying the leaves, gently wash them with clean water, avoiding tearing the leaves.
Next, you place the leaves on a pot of boiling water to increase the elasticity of the leaves, making the wrapping process easier. Then, you need to use a dry cloth to wipe off the steam on the leaves. If you don’t wipe it off, the moisture will penetrate the raw sausage, causing it to become mushy and watery.
When wrapping, you should wrap the sausage firmly with moderate force. You need to note that the wrap should be firm but not too tight. Because the sausage will expand after being steamed, wrapping too tightly will make the structure of the sausage roll become unsightly.
5 Steaming temperature for cha
The final important factor affecting the chewiness or mushiness of cha lua is the temperature. Cha lua needs to be steamed for just the right amount of time. Not too early and not too long.
If you steam the sausage for a short time, it will cook unevenly and won’t be preserved for long. Conversely, if you steam the sausage for too long, it will lose its fat. As a result, the dish will no longer be chewy and even the elasticity of the sausage slice won’t be guaranteed.
Therefore, you should only steam the sausage for a sufficient amount of time (about 1 hour). Specifically, it is from 40 to 50 minutes depending on the size of the sausage piece.
In addition, you can check if the sausage is cooked by using a toothpick to poke into the piece. If the toothpick has meat stuck to it, or if after pulling the toothpick out, the piece still leaks juice, it indicates that the sausage is not yet cooked.
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Hopefully, through this article, TasteVN can contribute to helping you with notes to help steamed pork sausage stay chewy and delicious to enhance the flavor of family meals. Especially during holidays and Tet. Remember to take notes and try it out when you have the chance! Wishing you success!
