Vietnamese Lemongrass Grilled Beef Spring Rolls (Thịt Bò Nướng Cuốn Bánh Tráng)

Here is my go-to dish whenever I have to host. It’s a communal meal. All I have to do is the prep work and guests can cook and man their own food.

Bò Nướng Vỉ is a Vietnamese dish where thinly sliced marinated beef is quickly seared on a small tabletop griddle with plenty of butter and onions. The grilled beef can be eaten as is, right off the griddle while it’s piping hot, with a dipping sauce. It can also be tossed in a bowl with rice noodles and plenty of fresh vegetables and herbs, or wrapped in rice paper.

Spring Rolls

My favorite way to enjoy these thinly sliced grilled butter beef is in a spring roll (Thịt Bò Nướng Cuốn Bánh Tráng).

To make a beef spring roll, wet the rice paper. I like to use a rice paper water bowl, which you can buy cheaply at a Vietnamese grocery store. One half of the holder conveniently holds the rice paper upright while the other half gets filled with water. All you need to do is insert the rice paper, a sheet at a time, in the water. Give it a quick swirl so that all areas of the rice paper get wet. Do not leave it in the water! Transfer the wet rice paper onto a plate.

The rice paper will soften in a few seconds. In the meantime, gather all the other ingredients and customize your spring roll. Add the grilled beef and any other vegetables to your liking. I like to add leafy lettuce, a slice of pineapple, a slice of cucumber, pickled daikon and carrot, and whatever Vietnamese herbs I can harvest from the backyard (mint, perilla, and sorrel). You can also add cooked rice vermicelli for even more bulk, but I like to leave this out so I load up and enjoy the beef.

There’s no need to be fancy with the wrapping, like other spring rolls. Since it’s a DIY and grill-as-you-eat kind of meal, the only rule is to make sure the fillings don’t fall out. So slap those rolls haphazardly together because no one’s judging (at least not in public). The rice paper is like glue and will stick onto itself when overlapped, just like Saran wrap.

Cuts of Beef

For the beef, you can use beef chuck, tenderloin, ribeye, sirloin, or center round. Look for one with a good distribution of fat (marbelization). This helps to keep the meat moist and flavorful when grilling. If you have a butcher, ask him/her to slice the beef chuck against the grain into thin strips. You can also cut the meat yourself by putting it in the freezer until it is partially frozen. Use a sharp knife and thinly slice the beef. The partially frozen meat will keep the meat sturdy so that you can easily cut the beef into uniform slices.

Beef Marinade

You can leave the beef unseasoned since it will be cooked in a good amount of butter and onions. There’s also plenty of flavor with the dipping sauces.

To bring it to a whole different level, I like to season the beef with freshly minced lemongrass, garlic, thinly sliced onions, oyster sauce, soy sauce, the obligatory sugar, sesame oil and orange juice. The orange juice works as a meat tenderizer and the acidity balances out the flavor very nicely. For a bit of heat, add red pepper flakes.

Cooking

I like to grill the beef on a portable butane stove with a grill plate, similar to Korean BBQ. This is my favorite way to grill the beef. It gets smokey so do this outside if weather permits. You can do this indoors, as well, but make sure you have good ventilation. 

You can also use an electric nonstick electric griddle, which you can just get just about anywhere. These electric grills have good temperature control and are super easy to clean. The downside is you don’t have that amazing grill smokey flavor.

You can also simply toss the sliced beef in a large skillet on the stovetop. This is great for a busy workday or when you don’t want to deal with anything extra.

To cook, melt some butter on the griddle or whatever appliance you are using, and cook the beef to your desired doneness. The thinly sliced beef cooks up quickly in a minute or two.

Dipping Sauces

The beef spring rolls get dunked in either a traditional pungent fermented anchovy sauce (Mắm Nêm) (my favorite) or a more tamed Vietnamese fish sauce dipping sauce (Nước Mắm Chấm).

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