My grandma calls this chả nướng because she used to grill it over charcoal in Vietnam. Most may know this as chả trứng hấp, or Vietnamese egg meatloaf, often included in cơm tấm (broken rice plate). My grandma makes it best — the meatloaf itself is moist, and I love the translucent layer of egg yolk on top.
Ingredients
- 500g ground pork (70/30 ratio ideal)
- ½ onion
- 2 shallots
- ¼ cup wood ear mushrooms (rehydrated)
- 20 eggs (set 4 egg yolks aside for the glaze)
- 3 oz vermicelli bean thread
- 5 tbsp fish sauce
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (to oil the pan)
Instructions
- Soak vermicelli noodles and wood ear mushrooms (separately) in room temperature water for 30 minutes
- Finely chop the onion, shallots, and wood ear mushrooms into small pieces. Cut the vermicelli into 1/4” pieces.
- Set aside 4 egg yolks. Mix remainder of eggs, pork, onion, shallots, wood ear mushrooms, vermicelli, fish sauce, and salt.
- At this point, you can cook a small piece on the skillet to adjust the flavoring to your liking.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Oil baking pan and preheat for 10 minutes. My grandma used a 9”x13” baking pan in this video.
- Add the mixture to the preheated pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- To check doneness, stick a wooden skewer down the center — if it comes out clear, with no wet ingredients clinging to it, it’s done.
- Mix the 4 egg yolks you set aside earlier. Evenly spread it on top of the meatloaf while it’s still hot.
- Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting into it.
Notes from Grandma
- Option to substitute 100-200g of ground pork with fresh crab meat.
- If the ground pork is not fatty enough, you can add some vegetable oil. The ground pork we used on the day of filming looks like it had a 85/15 ratio. To that, she added about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.
- Sometimes my grandma bakes it at 350°F for 30 minutes. There’s no rhythm or rhyme to it, she’s just forgetful.
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