Vietnamese- Style Caramelised Pork

Submitted by Good Looking Cooking

"This recipe was featured in the Australian WW. Apparently this dish is a variation on a Vietnamese recipe traditionally prepared for new mothers. The salt from the fish sauce would create thirst, so the new mothers would drink plenty of water, allowing them to produce plenty of milk for the newborn baby! I have not tried this recipe, but saw it made on TV and it looks absolutely divine so I have to try it."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 500 g pork belly
• 2 vietnamese purple shallots, chopped finely
• 1⁄4 cup fish sauce
• 1 red chili pepper, sliced (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup sweet chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce, extra
• 6 mushrooms, halved
• 2 green shallots, cut into 1cm lengths
• coriander, for garnishing
• red chili pepper, extra for garnishing

directions

1. Cut pork belly into 3cm cubes.
2. Combine pork with purple shallots, fish sauce, sliced chilli and sweet chilli sauce in a large bowl.
3. Mix well and stand for 15 minutes.
4. Place the rice bran oil and sugar in a wok and cook until the sugar starts to caramelise. This gives the dish it's colour.
5. Add the marinated pork mixture to the wok and stirfry over high heat until browned and mixture is thickened.
6. Add 1 cup of the stock and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half.
7. Add the remaining stock and extra sweet chilli sauce and simmer for a further 20 minutes or until the pork is tender and liquid is reduced by half again.
8. Add mushrooms and half the green onions and toss to combine.
9. Transfer to a serving dish.
10. Top pork with remaining green onions, coriander and sliced red chilli (if desired).
11. Serve with steamed jasmine rice and steamed Asian greens.
12. Suitable to freeze.
13. Note: Prep time does not include the 15 minutes standing time.

Reviews

[Cilantro in Canada]

So good and so easy. I used canola oil and only 2 Tblsp fish sauce. It was still a little strong for us so next time I would only use 1 Tblsp of fish sauce. I did not have the shallots called for so I used regular coking onion. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[MarthaStewartWanabe]

What a delicious recipe! This was a new adventure for DH's and my taste buds, as we have never used sweet chili sauce until now. We liked it so much that I think we'll be using it a lot more. I only made a few modifications to this recipe--substituting worcestershire sauce for the fish sauce, red pepper flakes for the chili pepper (1/2 tsp.), olive oil for the rice bran oil and adding broccoli spears. I did not use "pork belly" (as it is not a popular cut of pork here in the US) but used 1 lb. pork loin instead. I served this over rice. We took the left-overs to work for lunch the next day and found it is even better on day two. Thanks very much for posting such a yummy creation!

 

[mersaydees]

This is so awesome! My picky DH said that this is a "keeper"! I tried to make as directed, however, had to alter the following: I interpreted "green shallots" as "scallions", I could only find regular or normal pink shallots at my grocer's, and my store was out of red chili pepper so I simply omitted it. This made me so thirsty! As I'm that rare person (that I know anyways) that likes fish sauce I used the full 1/4 cup; this made me wake up at night to guzzle water! At least the recipe came with a warning! Lol! Thanks, Good Looking Cooking for finally making <i>me</i> look good! Made for Spring 2010 PAC.

 

[The Flying Chef]

This is a wonderful recipe which we really enjoyed. I adjusted the fish sauce amount from 1/4 cup which is just over 60ml to 40ml as it sounded like a lot and fish sauce has a very strong flavour. I also upped the chili sauce slightly just personal preference there. I also added quite a few veg to this, as we are trying to eat more low carb in the evenings. So knowing I would not be pairing with rice I added the veg to make it a more substantial meal. Although I have to say this would be great with rice as the sauce so yummy and I needed something to soak up all the yummy flavours. An excellent recipe and one will be enjoying often.