Bò Bía (Jícama Rolls)

Bò bía with Thai basil

This is the perfect recipe to use up any jícama you have lying around, just as I did when my dad bought a whole bag of small organic tubers. If you would like to learn a little more about jícama, I have an 'Ingredients Explained' post about them (click here).

Bò bía is Vietnamese version of popiah introduced to the country through Chinese immigrants. Oddly enough there is no beef in the rolls as the name would suggest, in fact, bò bía is simply a phonetic translation of the original Chinese popiah. Rather than being served with a dipping sauce, hoisin sauce and Sriracha (if desired) is added inside the wrap, similar to Peking duck pancakes - you can also substitute for nước chấm (fish sauce based) if you prefer.

The flavour of the rolls are perfectly balanced with a slight leaning towards sweet between the saltiness of the dried shrimps, the freshness of the basil, the crunch of the jícama and the salty-sweetness of the Chinese sausage and the hoisin sauce.

One of my bò bía rolls that I had for lunch -I can never get my rolls looking perfect!-

_________________________________________________________________________________

Bò Bía (Jícama Rolls)

Ingredients:

          6 whole eggs, lightly beaten to break yolks
          Chinese sausages (lạp xưởng/ 腊肠)
          3-4 large jícama, peeled with black 'eyes' removed and washed
          1/2 cup dried shrimps (tôm khô)
          Oil
          Salt & sugar (to season)
          Peanuts, roasted and crushed into coarse chunks
          Hoisin sauce (tương đen)
          Sriracha chili sauce (tương ớt, optional)
          Rice paper sheets (I use the thinner sheets for cold water)
          Thai basil (rau huế)

Method:

1. Heat a crepe pan with a little bit of oil and cook eggs as if you were making crepes. Set aside to cool before thinly slicing

Egg crêpes and lạp xưởng (Chinese sausage) to be prepared for bò bía filling

     2.  Slice Chinese sausages on the diagonal and cook in a pan with a small amount of oil (you 
          don't need too much oil because the sausages are quite fatty). Season to taste, keeping in 
          mind the salty-sweetness coming from the Chinese sausage and hoisin sauce. Set aside to
          cool
     3.  In the same pan, add julienned jícama and dried shrimp and sautée until jícama is tender

Julienned jícama ready to be sautéed as bò bía filling

     4.  To make the rolls, wet a rice paper sheet; spread a small amount of hoisin sauce; Sriracha; 
          and arrange desired quantities of remaining ingredients
     5.  You can either choose to serve the rolls pre-rolled or arrange the ingredients on a platter
          in the centre of the table for individualised rolls

****Tips: 

Bò bía can be pre-made and refrigerated as party finger food or for lunch the next day, because the rolls don't contain any starches aside from the rice paper, the roll won't become hard in the fridge

_________________________________________________________________________________

The dried shrimp is usually cooked separately to the jícama, but I like to sautée them together because I find that the shrimp becomes much softer and easier to eat, as well as to simplify the steps. I generally like the bulk of my rolls to be jícama, as it allows the rolls to be tasty without being an overload of sweet and salty flavours.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! These rolls really fill you up because of the high water content and fibre in the jícama. I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats