Vietnamese Style Caramelised Pork

In my increasingly desperate attempts to find something new to cook I happened upon this creation in the Good Food Magazine. I doubt it’s very Vietnamese but sweet and meat are usually a good combo.

It occured to me; would a food blogger in Vietnam be interested in recreating a classic English roast beef dinner? Do Mexican food bloggers try making Spotted Dick when they get sick of quesadillas? Something tells me they don’t. Don’t get sick of quesadillas and don’t try making Spotted Dick. I don’t know whether many of you have tried Spotted Dick, it’s not worth the trouble really.

If I had kept up my series of ‘Quick & Easy’ recipes, this would have made it into that category. But I didn’t; lets just say this is quick. And easy.

Get a decentish bit of pork and make sure you remove most of the fat.

• 1lb pork shoulder, cut into bite size pieces
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated or finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 red chilli, chopped (remove the seeds if you don’t like too much heat)
• 3 oz brown sugar
• 1-2 tbsp fish sauce, depending on preference (it’s salty)
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 4 spring onions, cut in half and then sliced lengthways

First off fry the pork in batches in a little oil to brown.

Remove from the wok and set aside.

Add the shallot, chilli, garlic and ginger to the wok and cook for a few mins. Add the sugar and about 1/4 pint of water.

Add the pork back to the wok and cook, stirring until the sauce starts to boil.

Now add some chilli sauce.

This brand was a no-brainer for me. I mean ‘Healthy Boy’. It’s like they modelled it on my lifestyle.

Anyway. Serve with rice and Pak Choy. Only Pak Choy seems to have done one at my local super-duper-market. I had to slum it with some cut-price Choi Sum.

It’s like really tall, really thin, really crunchy pak choy. Didn’t like it.

 

But I’d say this was seriously nice. The chilli and the fish sauce to cut through the sweetness; it’s seriously good. My wine pairing? Wine, white.