YummY Vietnam

Giò Thủ (Vietnamese head cheese) is one of the traditional dishes of Vietnamese people, used by many families in Tet holiday. According to the notion of many people, Vietnamese head cheese represents the fullness, the warmness, and the happiness of family.

Vietnamese head cheese is made of parts of pig head such as ears, nose and tongue, combined with some spices to help Vietnamese head cheese not to be greasy like others. Making Vietnamese head cheese is quite easy, instead of buying at the stores, you should choose clean, hygienic ingredients to make it for your family on this Tet holiday. If you follow the recipe below, your Vietnamese head cheese will surely better than which is sold outside.

Ingredients for making Vietnamese head cheese

• 4 pig ears
• 1 pig nose
• 50 g wood ear mushroom
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp whole black peppercorrns
• Seasoning, fish sauce, pepper, salt

Directions for making Vietnamese head cheese

Step 1:

Wash pig ears and pig nose with salt, shave off all the hair and then boil them, when boiling add 1 sliced onion and 2 tbsp of spices to deodorize pig ears and nose.

Boil in about 30 minutes until when ears are cooked but still crispy. After that, take ears and nose out and soak in cool water immediately to cool it down.

Soaking them in cold water not only cools it down but also helps meat not to be brown and Vietnamese head cheese to be more visually appealing.

Step 2:

Wash wood ear mushroom, cut the root and soak in boiled water in about 3 or 5 minutes to make them mushroom bloom, then take them out and slice slightly.

After cooling ears and nose, slice them slightly. The more slightly ingredients are sliced, the tastier brawn is.

Step 3:

Fry whole black peppercorns, then take it out and set aside.

Add a little oil into the pot, turn down the stove, put ears and nose in and stir-fry briefly

Note: if you stir-fry too well, Vietnamese head cheese will be dry; if you do it too briefly, Vietnamese head cheese will not be aroma. Therefore, just stir-fry until fat is out and meat is burned a little.

Add spices and fried pepper. Stir-fry until meat absorbs spices, then add wood ear mushroom and stir in about 5 minutes and turn off the stove.

Step 4:

There are 2 ways to wrap Vietnamese head cheese: wrap by hands with banana leaves or wrap by available mould. Wrapping by hands requires skills to make sure that Vietnamese head cheese is wrapped firmly and roundly. To be simpler, you can use mould and follow the direction below. Wrapping by mould helps Vietnamese head cheese to be compressed and more beautiful after being finished.

Put ingredients into the mould, stuff firmly. If it is possible, put something heavy above to press Vietnamese head cheese. You can cool Vietnamese head cheese in the cool compartment of your refrigerator in a couple of hours to have a beautiful cylinder.

After cooling Vietnamese head cheese, take it out of the mould, use knife to slice it, then cut it into small pieces and enjoy. You can it Vietnamese head cheese with pickled onions or pickled small leeks.