I rarely cook with pork as Carlos is not a fan of it but I will cook them occasionally if I get a chance to buy the pork from Chinatown. In Vietnam they will normally use fatty pork or pork ribs for this dish but I just used the lean pork I have in my freezer. This dish has a lovely sweet and savory taste that is highly addictive. You can use chicken meat for this dish too.Ingredients :
1 pound of pork – cut into thin strip
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
2 green chilies – slice thinly
2 tbsp sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
2 tbsp fish sauce (nuoc mam)
2 tsps ground black pepper
1. Marinate the pork with fish sauce and black pepper and set it aside for an hour.2. Heat up about 2-3 tbsp of oil in a pan on medium high and add in the sugar. Stir from time to time and make sure the sugar does not burn. When the sugar starts to turns into a darker brown color, remove the pan from heat and add in the ginger and garlic and stir-fry for a few second.
3. Place the pan back on heat and add in the slices pork. Let the pork cook for about 1 minute and turn them around to cook the other side. The meat will have a dark golden color from the caramel.
4. The meat will discharge some juice and create a sauce with the caramel. Once that stage is reached, cover the pan and let the pork/sauce mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. If the sauce dry up too fast, add about 1/4 cup of water to it and continue to simmer until the sauce thicken and the pork should dry up and caramelized. If that's not the case, increase the heat until the sauce dry up.
6. Check seasoning and add in green chilies. Serve with warm rice.
Note : You can use less oil if you are using fatty pork.
This looks incredible! I am sooo bookmarking this to make later.
ReplyDeleteCan you use pork tenderloin, or is there another cut that's best to use?
I am not a huge fan of pork, but hubbyand daughte rloves them so i do make for them and i am bookmarking this too.
ReplyDeleteI have to say i am not a huge fan of fish sauce.
Interesting! I never cook in this way before, will try one day. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGertrude,
ReplyDeleteAnother great dish from you!! Really wish that you stay nearby ;)
it is quite additive as I make something almost simliar to this and have found myself eating it for breakfast with eggs...bad I know, but good! LOL
ReplyDeletethis really look good especially with cameralize sc!! would love a big plate of w rice now,yummy!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! This looks great and we are big pork lovers. In fact, I bought some tenderloin today...
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you caramelized the sugar separately. My mother always adds the sugar right with the marinades.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether it would turn out differently.
Thanks for the recipe :)
This is an unusual take and looks really delicious :P
ReplyDeleteCaramelising the sugar gives it such a nice colour!
ReplyDeleteThis looks great! And easy too!
ReplyDeleteWow, looks great. I've never seen the caramelization of the sugar as a technique ... I'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteAlisa, you can use tenderloin for this dish.
ReplyDeleteHappy Cook, you can always use chicken and reduce the amount of fish sauce if you are not a fan :)
LCOM, do try this out and it's really good with rice.
Leemei, hope you can visit me one day and I will cook and bake for you :)
Dawn, I guess eating it for breakfast once a while is not so bad :)
Lesley, it sure taste good with rice.
Fiona, do let me know if you like this dish :)
Jun, caramelizing the sugar first produce a nice color to this dish.
Noobcook, thank you.
Pigpigcorner, yea the nice brown color comes from the caramelized sugar.
Lilium, yeap pretty easy dish to cook.
Ninette, thanks for stopping by. Hope you like this dish.
This looks yummy & something my hubby & kids will surely love to have for dinner. Thanks for sharing, will see if I can try it out this week / next. Will blog how it turns out, keke! Not sure if it'll look as appetising as yours does ;)
ReplyDeleteI am going to cook this for dinner.:) I am running out of idea what to cook for dinner and this came juz in time. Thanks Gert :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks too good not to make! But could chicken replace the pork?
ReplyDeleteThis is nice and simple, not too many ingredients, but looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteLittle Chef, I am sure yours will turn out well too :) Looking forward to your posting.
ReplyDeleteElin, hope your family like this dish.
Jamie, yes you can always replace the pork with chicken.
Meeso, yea simple and easy just the way I like it :)
What can I say, a favorite! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd it's great, I always have Nuoc mam in my kitchen :)
Christelle, I will put a few splash of Nuoc Mam in most of my cooking :)
ReplyDeleteThks for sharing this recipe, gert! My kids and i enjoyed this simple but yummy dish. Here is a pic of my vietnamese caramelised pork - http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii13/sspaks64/vietnamesecaramelisedpork.jpg
ReplyDeleteSusanna, Perth
That pork looks so tasty! I have enjoyed the Vietnamese caramel dishes in the past and now I will have to try this one!
ReplyDeletewow, this looks soo good. lovely dish! i'm so bookmarking this.
ReplyDeleteSusanna, glad your family enjoyed this dish and the dish you cook look great.
ReplyDeleteKevin, you too like Asian food a lot :)
Jescel, hope you like this dish :)
I'm Vietnamese and you can use cat fish instead of pork or chicken. Fish is the best! Tasty and healthy. ;)
ReplyDeleteYummy, definitely I am going to try to make this dish for my family. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI made this tonight! Fantastic! The only I change I made was adding chunks of onion, celery and bell pepper when I added the pork. Soooooooooo good!
ReplyDeleteI'll be making this again.
Delicious and easy so it's pretty much perfect! I would say it cooks much quicker than 20 minutes but maybe I sliced my pork thinner. Thank you, Gordita, I love the idea of doing it with fish, too.
ReplyDeleteI made this last night using boneless pork loin chops that I flattened slightly with my palm and then sliced. Added a relatively spicy, sliced Anaheim chile (usually mild but not in this case) which worked well for my husband's taste. Have been taught to never put oil in a cold pan(All Clad), warm first, then add oil. A mistake for this recipe, I think I heated the pan too long, since my caramel immediately broke. To the separated, very deep golden broken sauce, I added the ginger and garlic hoping that would help, to no avail. I thought, "Now what?!" Thank goodness for the Internet, googled it, and easily found a one-minute video demonstrating how easy it is to fix a broken sauce just by gradually adding a bit of water, whisking all the while. The sauce came back together and I was able to proceed as the recipe instructs! The only change I made was to cook the pork for only half the time noted. It was quite well done but still juicy. Not surprisingly, after adding quite a bit of water to bring the sauce back together, I had to remove the pork to a platter and reduce the sauce for just a few minutes. Excellent result overall, delicious and easy, I will make this again and hopefully without the sauce breaking next time! Thank you for posting!
ReplyDeleteHi I know it's completely different but would this work if I changed the fish sauce for soy sauce?
ReplyDeleteUnknown, you can just omit it but you need to taste the dish as it might need a bit of salt.
ReplyDelete