Bò Bía – Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Jicama, Eggs and Chinese Sausage

Posted on | February 24, 2010 | Asian, Recipes, Vietnamese | 9 Comments

Bo Bia - Ric Paper Rolls with Jicama

Rice paper rolls makes a delicious healthy snack. When I want a quick rice paper rolls snack and don’t want to bother with fancy fillings, I use left overs for fillings, wrap it with rice paper and dip it with fish sauce dipping sauce (a sauce we always have in the fridge) and you have yourself an instant snack.

Bò bía is popular street food in Vietnam. It’s a refreshing crunchy rice paper rolls filled with jicama, eggs, chinese sausages, peanuts, herbs and lettuce, and served with hoisin, chili and peanut dipping sauce. The jicama and carrots gives the rolls the crunchiness and the chinese sausages really adds flavours. I really enjoy jicama on its own; crispy and sweet.

If you don’t want to use jicama you can substitute for cabbage. I’ve had vegetarian version of these rolls made with cabbage, carrots, tofu and shitake mushrooms and they are just as good.

Bo Bia 2

Serving rice paper rolls can be really fun meal times with family and friends. Spread all the ingredients on a table and let everyone wraps their own rolls. Lots of fun!

Bo Bia

Bò Bía
Approx 20 rolls

Ingredients

1 large jicama (600g), peeled and julienned
20g dried shrimp
4 chinese sausages
4 eggs
1 medium carrot
4 cloves garlic, crushed
basil leaves
Vietnamese mint leaves
1 lettuce
1 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
chilli sauce
crushed peanuts

Method

Soak the shrimp in cold water for about 30 minutes, then drain.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add hoisin sauce, water and sugar. Continuously stirring until the sauce boils and remove from heat. Set aside until ready to serve.

Fry the chinese sausages. Once cooked remove and sliced thinly and set aside.

Beat the eggs. Make 3 plain omelettes. Roll the omelettes and sliced thinly.

In a frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of oil. Fry the garlic until fragant. Add the shrimp and stir. Then add the carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Add the jicama. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I prefer to wrap the rolls by starting with the lettuce and herbs first followed by the eggs, sausages and sprinkle of peanuts. To give the rolls more bright colours you can lay the eggs, sausages and peanuts first then followed by the herbs and lettuce.

To assemble the rolls, wet a sheet of rice paper then lay on a plate. Add the fillings and fold the two sides into the centre over the fillings, then fold the bottom up and roll over to form a tight roll.

Add some hoisin sin mixture into a small bowl. Add chili sauce and sprinkle crushed peanuts. Serve rolls with the dipping sauce.

Bo Bia Rice paper rolls

Comments

9 Responses to “Bò Bía – Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Jicama, Eggs and Chinese Sausage”

chocolatesuze
February 24th, 2010 @ 12:55 pm

yum i love jicama its so refreshing! these rice paper rolls would be awesome in this crazy hot weather we’ve been having!
mrs Joiner
February 24th, 2010 @ 6:45 pm

Hi I have a real problem with my rice paper falling apart. Do I have to soak them in water ebfore rolling or just dip them then roll? I can’t wait to try these and buy your dumpling book!
Yen
February 24th, 2010 @ 11:24 pm

Hi Chocolatesuze, how terrible was that heat on Mon. These rolls were certainly perfect for the summer heat.
Yen
February 24th, 2010 @ 11:37 pm

Hi Mrs Joiner, if you soak the rice paper they will become too soft and break apart. But if your rice paper is not soft enough it also breaks. I use a large mixing bowl with hot water and dip with rice paper (ensuring whole sheet is wet) and take out straight away. Ensure you have a dry plate when you put down a soften rice paper. If you are still having problems there are lots of videos on youtube showing how to wet and roll paper rolls. Good luck and have fun!
Amy @ cookbookmaniac.com
February 25th, 2010 @ 10:44 pm

I have very fond memories of eating this on the streets of Saigon. It an amazing snack for a very humid and day day. Your pics are lovely!
Ellie (Almost Bourdain)
February 27th, 2010 @ 8:30 am

I love vietnamese summer rolls. Love the fillings of yours. Thanks for sharing.
Trissa
February 28th, 2010 @ 9:26 pm

Am a big fan of jicama too! We used to have them all the time in the Philippines and I used to eat them plain with some salt – delicious! And so are your rice paper rolls!
Katherinw
February 28th, 2010 @ 10:27 pm

You have a fantastic blog. So glad I came across it. I adore Jicama. I use to eat this as a snack back when I was at school. My mum would cut it up and we would eat it while doing our homework. Nice addition to a summery vietnamese roll.
Yen
February 28th, 2010 @ 11:33 pm

Hi Ellie, thank you.

Hi Trissa, I read somewhere that the fillings of jicama in the rice paper rolls was an influence from the phillipinos.

Hi Katherin, back in Vietnam we used just to peel the skin off the jicamas and eat it like an apple. It is so crunchy!