Bo La Lot Recipe
I grew up in Hackney central and for birthday meals we would go to the Vietnamese restaurants on Mare Street and Kingsland road. Bo La Lot was a favourite. Betel leave wrapped around fragrant lemongrass marinated pork and beef mince then charred under the grill.
At home ee serve ours with our own dipping sauce and usually sticky rice or noodles with stir friend ginger and garlic greens.
Ingredients
Bo La Lot
250g beef mince
250g pork mince (just use beef if needed)
4 gloves Garlic grated
2 tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp lemongrass finely chopped
2tbsp sugar
2 shallots finely chopped
One pack of betel leaves. Approx 20-30 (I get mine from Starlight on Mare Street E8. If you really can’t locate any, why not try with jarred vine leaves that you can get in your local Turkish shop)
Dipping sauce
1 passionfruit
1 tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp soy sauce (or gluten free alternative)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1/4 scotch bonnet chilli deseeded and finely sliced
1tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce
Toppings
Fresh mint
Chopped salted peanuts
Method
Mix all the Bo La Lot ingredients together apart from the betel leaves. Let marinate for at least 2 hours. I’d recommend doing this the night before.
To make the dipping sauce mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Pick each betel leaf from the stem and wash. Lay on kitchen towels to dry.
When you are ready to assemble, give the beef mix another mix in the bowl as marinade juices will sink to the bottom.
Place a leaf shiny side down with the stem base closest to you. Pinch out some of the mix, about a cocktail sausage size but a little thinner and place horizontally on the leaf.
Fold in the sides of the leaves, and roll away from you until it’s wrapped up. Sometimes the leaves are smaller and you can’t tuck the sides in first, that’s fine!
Once you’ve run out of either filling or leaves, you’re ready to grill. Place betel leaf parcels on a tin foil lined oven tray and place under the grill on a high heat for 8 minutes turning twice. This stage can also be done on the bbq, in which case place all parcels on two wooden skewers and grill for 5 mins max, or until they are charred lightly.
Serve with chopped peanuts and mint leaves on top. Accompanied by the dipping sauce.
Let me know how you get on!
