Vietnamese Caramelized Pork

Crispy, salty, subtly sweet, delicious pork.  I like to mix it with rice and serve it in a lettuce wrap with fish sauce as an appetizer, or just over rice also with a side of fish sauce as a decadent main.  This recipe is an adaptation of the one found in Andrea Nguyen's excellent cookbook Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.

Ingredients:
1/4 C oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 small cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground pork
3 T fish sauce
1 T Vietnamese Caramel Sauce
1 t sugar
3 green onions, thinly sliced

Add the oil to a skillet and saute the onion and garlic on medium for a few minutes until soft.  Add in the pork, and break up the pieces as much as possible until the meat has cooked through.  Add everything else except the green onions and cook on medium high for 10-12 minutes or until the meat develops brown caramelized spots.  Add in the green onions, toss for a minute or so, and remove from the heat.

Thit Bo Xao Dau (Vietnamese Beef and Green Bean Stirfry)

A simple and quick stir fry of beef and green beans that ends up being quite tasty.

Ingredients:
1 lb lean beef, sliced thinly across the grain (flank steak works well)
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 t grated ginger
1/2 C chicken stock
1/2 T soy sauce
2 T fermented black beans
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fish sauce (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 T vegetable oil
dried chiles to taste (optional)


 Marinade:
1 T Shaoxing rice wine
1/2 T soy sauce
2 t cornstarch

Combine the marinade ingredients, then add the beef.  I usually just let this marinate while I'm prepping the onion, garlic, and green beans.  When everything is ready heat the oil in a wok and sear off the chiles (if you're using them; they aren't authentic), then add the beef and stir fry quickly until just done.  Remove from the wok and set aside.  Add extra oil if necessary, then stir fry the onions and garlic until the onions wilt.  Add the green beans and ginger and stir fry for maybe a minute.  Add the stock, black beans, and soy sauce; bring to a simmer and cover, cooking until the green beans are done, roughly 4 minutes.  Add the fish sauce, check the seasoning, and serve with rice.

Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

This is one of the more important base sauces for Vietnamese cooking, but making it ranked right up there with the apprehension of pulling a sheet pan completely full of 400 degree oil out of the oven.  I mean what kind of recipe calls for you to heat a cup of sugar with a 1/4 cup of water until it starts to smoke, then pour water on top of it?  If you get it right though, and manage to not start a fire or coat yourself in culinary napalm, you create a rich, slightly viscous caramel sauce with rich, earthy notes of coffee and a hint of charred bitter flavor.  You'll need a stainless steel pot, and I'd suggest stopping up some cold water in your sink.

Ingredients:
1 C sugar
1/4 C + 1/2 C water

Mix together the sugar and 1/4 C of water in the pot, and put over medium low.  Stir some until the sugar has dissolved, then leave it alone.  Cook it for a good long time ( ~20 minutes depending on heat) as the color goes from clear to pale golden to amber.  From this point watch it continuously, and when it starts to smoke slightly swirl it around in the pan.  Be careful! It's called culinary napalm for a reason!  Continue cooking and swirling until it turns the color of molasses.

Immediately remove it from the heat, plunge the bottom of the pot into the water in the sink, and pour the 1/2 C of water into the sugar.  It's going to be pretty spectacular, it's going to splatter, and you might get hit with some of that splatter.  Keep your face away, and when it dies down return the pot to the heat just long enough to ensure that all of the sugar melts in to the water.  The sauce will keep indefinitely without refrigeration.

Nuoc Cham Sauce

A simple Vietnamese dipping sauce for things like spring rolls.  I've written this to be fairly spicy, but you could cut back on the chiles.

5 1/2 T sugar
1/2 C warm water
5 T fish sauce
2 T rice vinegar
2 t lime juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 Thai chiles, or to taste, thinly sliced

Combine ingredients and let it sit for a couple of hours to blend the flavors.