Bánh Xèo - Vietnamese Sizzling Cake

Every time somebody ask me to make Banh Xeo for them I cringe and ask politely to pick another dish, actually it's more like 'pick something else or you don't eat'!  I hate making banh xeo; it takes forever, you get oil spatter everywhere, and you and everything in your house end up smelling like fried food for days.  But if I don't have to make it myself, I absolutely love it!  

Banh Xeo is a popular street food made from a rice flour batter fried into a crispy crepe filled with pork belly, shrimp, and bean sprouts.  You eat it with a lot of fresh veggies and herbs and dipped in sweet fish sauce.  I always crave it on the hottest summer day when my family's garden is at its peak with plentiful of herbs.  

When somebody makes it for you, appreciate it because it is a labor of love.  I can still remember when I was little at my grandma's house, my mom and her sisters were in the kitchen making banh xeo as we wait to eat them fresh right out of the frying pan. That's the only way to eat banh xeo, hot and sizzling!  

Tips:

1.  Always let your batter sit overnight to rest (ie Banh cuon, banh khot, banh beo) this will allow the flour to expand and won't become rubbery. 

2.  The first couple of banh xeo will usually be the worst!  Your frying pan needs time to adjust to the heat and oil.  

3.  Use a light pan which will be easy for you to turn/rotate which will help you distribute the batter more evenly and thinly.  

4.  Don't use too much oil it will absorb into the batter and become soggy. Don't use too little oil it will not become crispy.  You will figure this out as you cook.

5.  Stir the batter especially at the bottom before every use.

6.  You can cook your pork belly and shrimp ahead of time to speed up the cooking the process.  

7.  Use a specific ladle or a measuring tools to help you stay consistent with how much batter you'll need to use  according to the size of your frying pan.

8.  Use a nonstick pan or you will be sorry.  I use one that has an aluminum coating. 

9.  Use a cooking brush (or paper towel or cotton) to evenly brush/spread oil onto your pan.

10.  Use cheap beer that is really carbonated like Bud Light. 

11.  Don't be scared, the outcome will be worth it! 

Ingredients:

pork belly thinly sliced

shrimp (cut in half)

bean sprout

rice flour

tapioca flour

coconut milk

beer

green onions (just the green bottom)

1/2 thinly sliced sweet onions

1 wedge of lime

cooking oil

lettuce 

cucumber

herbs of choice

pickled carrots

fish sauce dipping sauce

Batter:  This will make about 20-25 crepes.

4 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup coconut milk 

1/2 cup warm water

25 oz can beer

2 teaspoon of turmeric powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of minced green onion

a squeeze of lime juice

Mix and let rest!

1.  If you like to cook your pork belly into the batter then do this first.   Add sweet onions at the very end. You can use as much pork belly and shrimp as your like.

2.  Once your meats are cooked brush the surface of your pan with oil and wait for the pan to be hot ( not smoking hot) but you should be able to feel the heat.  Pour batter evenly in the pan, rotate/turn your pan so the batter coats the pan evenly.  You can always add more to fill in the spot.

3.  You can add pre-made pork belly and shrimp at this point, and then add bean sprouts ( a little under a handful). Cover with lid to help cook your filling (this takes about 10-15 seconds)

4.  Uncover the lid.  Lift up the crepe from the pan and I like to add a little bit more oil, turn down the heat a bit and let it fry until crispy.

5.  Fold the crepe in half and remove from pan.

6. Repeat.

Thit Heo Quay - Crispy Pork Belly

The nearest Chinatown is roughly 2 hours away from us, therefore food such as roasted pork or duck is just out of the question.  We have to travel all the way to Chicago just for some good BBQ meat.  It's such a shame because there are so many Vietnamese dishes that calls for roasted pork.

Last fall I got the chance to learn how to make roasted pork at home.  It was so incredibly easy and to be honest it was better than store bought; the skin was so incredibly crispy.  It's as easy as dumping salt on a slab of pork belly and popping it in the oven.  All you really need to do is make a rub out of salt, sugar, and whatever spices you prefer.  I usually go for a classic five spice rub to go with my Vietnamese dishes.  But be creative with your rub, crispy pork belly is such as universal dish.

Crispy roasted pork is good on it's own but here are some my favorite ways to eat thit heo quay.  I will eventually post recipe for each of the dish below, bare with me!

1.  Banh Hoi:  Thinly woven vermicelli noodles with sweet garlic fish sauce and plenty of fresh greens.

2.  Bun Mam Nem:  Vermicelli noodle with fermented fish paste, pickled carrots, and assorted fresh vegetables.

                

3.  Chao:  Shredded roasted pork congee with 1000 year old duck egg.

                

Ingredients:  

A slab of pork belly
vinegar

Five Spice Rub:
(This is the ratio of the rub, you want to use just enough to cover the size of your pork belly)
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of salt (a little less than 1/2)
1/4 cup five spice powder
2 tablespoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon of paprika

1.  Wash your pork belly well.  Use paper towel to absorb as much moisture as possible.
2.  You want to use something sharp or pointy to poke holes in the surface of the skin, this pretty much allows the fat underneath to rise up and crisp up the skin.  I like using a razor or the pointy tool below (I have no idea what it is, but I found it in my dad's garage).  Razors are harder to handle especially on tough pork skin, so you might want to go with some pointy to be safe.

3.  Marinate the meat side of the pork belly with the rub.  Don't forget the rub above is a ratio.  You just want to use enough of it to cover the meat.  You can poke holes or cut into the meat so the rub will season the inside of meat better.  I usually keep it whole unless it's a thicker slab of meat.  You don't really need to a marinate the pork belly for a really long (about and hour or less for me), because once you pop it in the oven the rub is not going anywhere it's just going to form a flavorful crust.

4.  I like placing a cooking rack on top of pan and then putting it in the oven.  When cooking the fat will drip down to the pan. Try to position the cooking rack as low as you can in the oven because you will be using the broiler.  It would be better if the pork belly is not to close to the heat source otherwise it will burn too fast.

5.  Set the oven at 350 degrees on broil.  Place the pork belly meat side up and let it roast until it browns (approx. 25-30 minutes).
6.  Take pork belly out and wipe the skin dry from all the moisture.  Brush some vinegar on the skin, this will keep the skin dry and allows the skin to crisp up.  Place the pork belly back in the oven skin side up until it browns and crisp up.  Keep eye on the skin because some parts may burn faster so you might need to re-position your pork belly in the oven.  Whenever there is too much moisture on the skin, you'll want to take it out and wipe of the moisture.  Brush more vinegar on the skin and pop it back in the oven.
7.  When the skin has brown and crisp up enough, remove and let it cool.
8.  Cut up your pork belly and enjoy it however you like.

Bun Moc - Pork Paste Soup

Bun moc is another soup originated from northern Vietnam. Not only does it have to go up against popular northern soup such as pho and bun rieu, it is overshadowed by just about all the other soup from Vietnam.  While most of us are well acquainted with bun bo hue from central vietnam and hu tieu from the south; there is very little love for this humble soup from the north.  Bun moc is a light soup made with pork bones and pork paste.  Pork meat is ground into a paste and then used as the main meat of the soup.  The pork paste is very similar to the ones you could steamed with banana leaves to make cha lua, also know as Vietnamese pork rolls.

While my dad's breakfast of choice was pho, my mom prefer bun moc.  She even had a favorite spot near my grandma's in Saigon.  Even though I was my dad's pho buddy, I often accompanied my mom whenever she craves a bowl of bun moc.  My favorite thing about bun moc is definitely the pork balls made by spooning glob of pork paste right into the broth.  Most stall also offer deep fried pork paste and you can get fancy by mixing pork paste with some wood ear fungus.  The pork paste for bun moc is slightly different from the pork paste used to make cha lua because cha lua's meat is dense and firm.  Bun moc's pork paste on the other hand is very light and airy; it's like you are biting into chewy pork marshmallows.  I love it so much so I often put pork paste in a lot of other soup like bun bo hue,bun rieu, mi, and hu tieu.

My mom buys a freezer full of pork paste from Seattle, there is a deli that makes very good pork paste.  Every now and then I would grab a few container when I visit home.  If you like your pork paste extra fluffy, I suggest adding a tiny bit of Alsa baking powder (the ones in the pink pouch).

Bun moc is another soup that is very simple to make and doesn't require the whole day.  Use pork neck bones and a couple yellow onions to make the broth.  Bun moc is also know for it's very light and clear broth so make sure you par-boil and rinse your bones well.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:  

2 lbs pork necks bones
2 yellow onions
rock sugar
sugar
salt
fish sauce
black pepper
mushroom seasoning
2 cups of pork paste
1/4 cup of wood ear fungus (rehydrated and then minced)
lettuce/bean sprouts
lime
green onions (chopped)
cilantro (chopped)
chili

1.  Par-boil your pork bones and then rinse with plenty of cool water.
2.  Add clean bones to a 6 quart pot and fill with water.  Let simmer on low-medium heat.  Add two yellow onions.
3.  Season with salt (3 tablespoon), rock sugar(thumb size), mushroom seasoning (1 tablespoon), and black pepper (1/2 teaspoon).  And continue to taste and season with salt and sugar if necessary.
4.  I deep fried 1 cup of pork paste and mixed the other half with minced wood ear fungus.

5.  Prepare your noodles(vermicelli rice noodles),vegetables of choice, and garnish.
6.  Taste your broth for the final time.  If broth still need some saltiness, taste with fish sauce.
7.  Spoon pork/fungus mixture right in the broth, you can ball it up ahead of time also.
8.  When pork balls floats to the top, your soup is ready to eat.
9.  Enjoy!

Ca Chua Nhoi Thit - Pork-Stuffed Tomatoes

I adore this dish because it's beautiful and delicious.  The sauce produced by marrying all the ingredients together is so divine.  It's salty and sweet; tomato, sugar, and fish sauce equals the best sauce EVER!

This is quite a popular recipe on the web so I was a little reluctant to write an entry on it. I mean there are already so many great recipes out there, I should just focus on something else?  Well the bag of tomatoes I brought last week sitting in the refrigerator beg to differ.  

For this recipe you want to use firm tomatoes and try to pick out the flattest one if you want a pretty presentation.  You'll want to remove the core of the tomatoes but save them for the sauce.  For the pork mixture I used wood ear mushroom, minced garlic, minced green onions, paprika, chili powder, soy sauce, mushroom seasoning, salt, and vegetable oil.  Adding vegetable oil to the pork mixture will help it stay soft and moist after cooking.  The sauce is a combination of fish sauce, sugar, chili powder, ketchup, the core of the tomatoes, and green onions.  I often add chili powder to my recipe for that extra kick, omit if you prefer a mild taste.  Once you have mix all the ingredients together for the pork mixture, refrigerate this mixture for a couple hours.  Refrigerating the mixture help it bind together and it will less likely fall apart during the cooking process. 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of ground pork

6 medium size tomato

1/2 cup of wood ear mushroom (rehydrate and finely chopped)

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of minced green onions

soy sauce

fish sauce

salt

sugar

chili powder

paprika

mushroom seasoning

vegetable oil

chopped green onions

1.  Prepare the pork mixture by mixing together the pork, wood ear mushroom, garlic, green onions, 2 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning and 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Combine and refrigerate for a couple hours. 

2.  Cut the top of the tomatoes off and remove the core of the tomatoes.  Save the core and top part of the tomatoes for later use. You'll want to cut them into smaller pieces.

3.  Fill the tomatoes with the pork mixture.

4.  Heat up cooking oil in a pan.

5.  Place the tomatoes top down into the oil and let brown.  Let this brown slowly because you'll want the pork to cook all the way through.  

6.  Once the meat has brown flip the tomato over.  We can begin making the sauce.

7.  Add about 4-5 tablespoon of fish sauce to the pan ( you can add more if you would like to make more sauce).  Add the rest of the tomatoes, 3 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of ketchup.  Just let it simmer on the stove on very low heat.  This will produce the sauce and the tomatoes will soak up the sauce as well.  You want to make sure the bottom of the tomatoes doesn't overcook and burst.  Just be patience and let this cook on very low heat.  Add the green onions at the very end.  

Best eaten with steamed rice, enjoy!

Banh Canh Cua - Crab Noodle Soup

Even though I have already posted a recipe for Banh Canh Cua, this version is more authentic. The other version is like a quick fix, this version will take some time but it's definitely worth the extra effort.

The other day I went to our local supermarket looking for ingredients to make dinner. I wasn't really looking for any specific ingredients, kinda hoping something would jump out at me. As I was walking through the seafood section, I notice a sign, "wild caught stone crabs". They were running a stone crab claws special for $7.99 a lb. There were around 4-5 five claws per package and each package ran around $7-$8. I knew this is what I have to make for dinner, so I grabbed five packages with the largest claws.

After coming home, my sister-in-law looked through our freezer outside and dug up two dungeness crab parts. We use the meat a couple weeks ago to make Tamarind Crabs, and save the head with all the eggs for later use. There was no other option, these ingredients screamed Banh Canh Cua.

Instead of buying premade noodles, I wanted to make the noodles from scratch out of rice and tapioca flours. Again this took extra time but it's really not hard. It taste so much better than the premade noodles. The broth is a little tricky because I use some left over ingredients and then frozen stone crabs. The frozen stone crabs are already cooked so it's not going to give off a lot of crab flavor. Using mushroom will also give sweetness and lots of flavor to the broth. If you do not have access to stone crabs just use two whole dungeness crabs. On some occasion, Costo sells whole frozen dungeness crab for around $10 each.

For this recipe, I'm going to list what I did with my ingredients (5 lbs of stone crabs claws and 2 head parts of the two dungeness crabs). Since most people will not have the heads of two dungeness crabs laying around, I'm also going to list the procedure if you were going to use two whole dungeness crabs. I'll try not to sound confusing but please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Noodle:

3 cups of rice flour

2 1/2 cups of tapioca flour

1/2 cups to the side

boiling water

a big bowl

wooden spoon

rolling pin

1. Sift together 3 cups of rice flour and 2.5 cups of tapioca flour.

2. Slowly add boiling water a little bit at a time to the flour mixture. With a wooden spoon work the flour and boiling water together. You want to add enough water to form a dough that you can knead and then flatten.

3. Once you have achieve a texture where you can mold the dough, split the dough into smaller balls (about the size of racketball).

4. Use the rolling pin to flatten the dough balls and then cut the flatten dough in half. With a knife cut the half sheet of dough into 1 cm strips.

5. Store the noodle in a container and sprinkle tapioca flour in between noodles so it doesn't stick together. The additional tapioca flour will help thicken soup later too.

Broth:

2 lbs of pork neck bones

5 lbs of stone crabs

the hard shell and it's content to two dungeness crabs

1 teaspoon of of minced shallots

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

cooking oil

4 cup of mushroom quarters

salt

rock sugar

mushroom seasoning

fish sauce

green onions

cilantro

1. Steam the stone crab claws and save the liquid that is produced. Let the claws cool.

2. Preboil the pork bones with a good amount of salt. Re

move the pork from the dirty liquid and rinse under cold water.

3. Transfer the pork bones in a big pot filled with water. Let bones simmer in water up to 2 hours.

4. If you are using dungeness crabs, you want to remove the hard shell and scrape as much of the yellow content from the shell. You then would want to steam the crab meats and save the crab liquid for later.

5. Add the dungeness shell I just cleaned out into the broth. Add all the liquid produce from steaming the crabs.

6. Taste the broth with salt, rock sugar, and mushroo

m seasoning.

7. Heat up some cooking oil in pan and fragrance the minced garlic and shallots.

8. Add the head/egg content of the two dungeness crabs to the garlic and shallots. Sauteed the egg content until fragrance.

9. Add the content to the broth, which will give the broth some color.

10. Add the mushroom.

11. Taste the broth with additional fish sauce if needed.

12. Crack the claws and remove the meat.

13. Rough chopped the green onions and cilantro for garnish.

14. Like the previous recipe, you should prepare each bowl individually. Whenever you want to cook up a bowl, transfer the broth to a separate pot. Once the broth comes to a boil add the noodle and then turn down the heat. Make sure you stir the noodle around with a spoon or it's going to stick to the bottom. The noodle and extra tapioca powder will thicken the broth so add additional broth if needed.

Dau Hu Nhoi Thit Sot Ca - Tofu Stuffed w/ Pork in Tomato Sauce

I love tofu in every form; soft, firm, extra firm, fried, and so on. One of my favorite recipe is Dau Hu Nhoi Thit Sot Ca. You stuff fried tofu with a minced pork mixture. Next you pan fried the stuffed tofu and then braise it in a tomato sauce. It's one those dish that appeared every week in my family, I can never get tired of it. I recently receive a couple request for this recipe and I'm glad to do it.

Ingredients:

2 packs of fried tofu (makes 16)

1/2 lb of ground pork

1/2 a cup of dried wood ear fungus

3 tomatoes

2 green onions

oil

salt

fish sauce

sugar

black pepper

mushroom seasoning

onion powder

minced garlic

chili powder (optional for spiciness)

1. Soak the wood ear fungus in warm water until soften, rinse it well before using. Once it has soften, mince

the wood ear fungus.

2. Combine the ground pork and wood ear fungus and taste it with some salt, black pepper, onion powder, and mushroom seasoning.

3. Wash the tofu before cooking and then tow

el dry.

4. Cut your tofu in half so you'll have one side with the white side exposing.

5. Make a split in the middle on the white side. Use a small spoon to carve some of the white part out to create a small pocket. This will make it easier to stuff the pork mixture.

6. Stuff the tofu with the pork mixture.

7. Cut your tomatoes into smaller chunks

8. Chop you green onions.

9. Heat up oil in a large pan (big enough to fit all your tofu). Once the oil is hot enough add the tofu, and pan fried all side of the tofu.

10. Once the tofu has been lightly seared on each side, remove from pan.

11. Add another tablespoon of cooking oil to the pan again. When it is hot enough add the tomatoes.

12. Add 3-4 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, chili powder, and a couple fish of mushroom seasoning. Stir the dry ingredients into the tomatoes and fish sauce.

13. Add the tofu and let it braise in the tomato sauce on low-medium heat. Make sure all side get the opportunity to braise into the sauce.

14. Braise the tofu until the sauce has reduce a bit and add the green onions at the very end.

Enjoy!

Thit Heo Kho Trung - Pork and Eggs Braised in Caramel Sauce

When I was growing up, not a week went by when my mom did not make a pot of Thit Kho for lunch. But i'm sure Thit Kho is a weekly regular in most Vietnamese household. Because it is easy and cheap to make, Thit Kho is categorized as "com binh dan" or meal of the commoners. In Vietnam during lunch time, you can find many stand that sells meal for the working person which includes Thit Kho.

Thit Kho is made by braising chunks up fatty pork such as pork belly in a caramel sauce made of caramelized sugar and fish sauce. The pork is braised in the sauce until it becomes so tender you can cut it with your chopsticks. Since I do not always have access to pork belly, I often use Boston pork butt instead. I suggest using any pork cut that has some fat because fat is flavor.

As much as I love eating tender and fatty pieces of pork, my favorite part is the egg. I eat my Thit Kho Trung a certain way since I was a little girl. I break the egg in half and take out the yolk and mix the yolk bits into the rice. I then drizzle a lot of the caramel sauce on top and mix everything together. My favorite part is the egg whites so I always eat that last. Some things just can never change, and i'm OK with that!

Thit kho is often link to the Lunar New Year celebration 'Tet'.  Every year our family welcome the new year with a big pot of braised pork and egg along with pickled bean sprouts.  I especially love to at thit kho with rice paper rolls and dipped the delicious caramel sauce we cook the pork and egg in! 

Ingredients

1.5 lbs of Boston pork butt

1 shallot finely sliced

2 tablespoon of fish sauce

1/2 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning
2 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

9 eggs

1 can of Coco Rico
1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil

Thai chili (optional)

1. Cut pork into 1-2 inch cubes.

2. Marinade pork with 1 shallots sliced, 2 tablespoon fish sauce, 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil and 1/2 tablespoon mushroom seasoning. If you like it spicy you can add Thai chili for heat.  Let pork marinade in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Begin cooking marinated pork on low heat in a large pot.

4. In a separate smaller pan, cook  1 tablespoon of sugar until it turns dark brown turn.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of water which will cause it to bubble vigorously mix the mixture.  This will be the coloring for your pork.

5. Pour caramelized sugar to the pot of pork.  Mix pork into the caramel sauce, make sure every pork pieces is coated with the sauce.

7. Add 1 can of coco rico,1/2 cup of water, 1 teaspoon of salt.    Let pork simmer in liquid on medium heat.

8. At this point you can begin preparing your eggs. Boil as much eggs as you would like or fit in the pot. I try to under cook the eggs so it won't over cook when I add it to the pork. So cook it to the point where the egg whites are firm but the yolk is still runny. Cooking time will depend on however many eggs you'd like.

9. Once the eggs are prepared, peel and then add to the pork.

10. Once eggs turn color, your pork is done and ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio - Vermicelli Noodle with Grilled Pork and Vietnamese Egg Rolls

A great dish for this time of year; you can practically see, smell, and taste summer in every bowl. I love the smell of marinated pork hitting the hot grill, which gives out this wonderful lemon grass and garlic aroma. You can add an array of fresh herbs, sliced vegetables, and pickled vegetables that makes this dish both delicious and healthy to eat.

If you don't have a grill or simply do not want to deal with the hassle, use the stove top. Pan fry the pork on medium to high heat, constantly flipping the meat on both side until it has a nice char. Cook the noodles to an al dente texture, and give it time to cool down to achieve springiness. When you pull the noodles apart you should be able to hear a faint snap. I also fried up some egg rolls from the freezer and added to my bowl, sometimes more can be a good thing.

Ingredients:

(Pork marinade)

2 lbs of sliced Boston butt pork roast

1 tablespoon of spoon of minced lemon grass

1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic

1/2 tablespoon of minced shallots

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce

1/4 tablespoon of mushroom seasoning

skewers (if grilling)

Vietnamese egg rolls (optional)

vermicelli noodle

1 cucumber

lettuce

herbs

pickled vegetables (Do Chua)

prepared fish sauce

crust peanuts

1. Marinate the pork with oyster sauce, brown sugar, fish sauce, mushroom seasoning, garlic, lemon grass, and shallots. The longer you let the pork marinate, the flavor will soak through the meat more.
2. If you are using wooden skewers, soak the skewers in water to avoid burning on the grill. Skewer enough meat on the skewer.

3. Cook the vermicelli noodle and let dry.

4. Wash and pick out the lettuce and herbs.
5. Slice the cucumber into thin slices or strips.
6. Cook the pork skewers on the grill.
7. Build a bowl to your preference, add your finest batch of prepare fish sauce, and enjoy!

Suon Ram Man - Carmelized Pork Spare Ribs

When we first moved to the States my parents were always working, sometimes day and night. We never really sat down together to enjoy dinner, we just ate whenever we had some free time. Now when I come home to visit I always make an effort with dinner, food always bring the family together. I actually look forward to sitting together with my family to enjoy a traditional family style meal where we share rice, some sort of protein, and a soup. It feel like time slows down; my dad reminiscing about his past and our family nearly choking on our food due to his out of this world stories. You just can't do the same thing with a bowl pho. Vietnamese family style meal is meant for family to chit chat between bites. We must cherish these times that we easily take for granted.

One of many favorite family style dish is Suon Ram Man, it taste like a dry and saltier version of thit kho (pork belly braised in caramel sauce). You braise the spareribs in caramel sauce until it is completely reduce. In the end you are left with crispy spare ribs from the caramel sauce sticking to the outside of the meat. I used to not like a lot of pork products when I was little (don't worry I got over that stage), but every time my mom made suon ram I would pick at every little pieces to the bone. Every part of the meat was glazed with the caramel sauce, the outside was crispy but the inside was so juicy. I love biting into all the fat and of course my favorite part is the cartilage. When it's cooked long enough I will gnaw on the bone, don't judge me bones are awesome!

To reduce some of the cooking time and achieve a wonderful crust on the outside, I cheated and used my deep fryer. You can totally skip this step and do it the old fashion way. Family style dish is meant for sharing, so please share this recipe with your love ones.

Ingredients:

2 lb of spare ribs
2 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 teaspoon of minced shallot
1/2 can of coconut soda (coco rico)
fish sauce
garlic powder
sugar
black pepper
cooking oil
green onions (optional)

1. Chop spare ribs in small pieces (1.5 inches)
2. Marinade with a couple dash of garlic powder and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce in the fridge for a couple hours.
3. Throw it in the deep fryer until the outside become crispy. Remove and let meat cooled in a lot of paper towel. This will help remove some of the oil.

4. In a pot (I like using nonstick pot or pan), melt tablespoon of sugar. As soon soon as you see some color, add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce. This part will probably be the most difficult part. If you let the sugar cook too much it will burn by the time you add the fish sauce.
5. Add the deep fried spare ribs, garlic, and shallots. Coat all the spare ribs in the caramel sauce.

6. Add 1/2 a can of coconut soda. Let the meat braised in the sauce for 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
7. Turn the heat up a little and let it it cook until the sauce begin to charring the outside of the meat. Be careful not to let it burn. Sprinkle some black pepper on top.
8. Serve and enjoy with a bowl of white rice.

Goi Cuon Thit Ba Roi - Vietnamese Summer Roll w/ Pork Belly

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with Goi Cuon so I won't write too much about it. Like I have said before I love just about anything roll in rice paper. This particular Summer Roll has thinly sliced pork belly, shrimp, vermicelli rice noodle, lettuce, cucumber, and Chinese chives. Most Vietnamese restaurant serve Summer Roll as an appetizer along with a hoison-peanut sauce, I always ask for nuoc mam cham (diluted fish sauce) instead. I'm one of those people that really appreciate a good batch of nuoc mam cham. I actually base restaurant on how well they prepare their nuoc mam cham. I really do see a correlation between how well restaurant cook their food and how well they prepare their fish sauce. Making the perfect fish sauce for dipping require a balance between sugar, lime, chili, water, and fish sauce, and if you can master that you definitely can balance the flavor in other food. I sure have a lot to say about nuoc mam cham therefore I will save that entry for another time.

Ingredients:

pork belly
tiger shrimp
vermicelli rice noodle
rice paper
lettuceEnglish cucumber
Chinese chives
nuoc mam cham

1. Boil a portion of pork belly in water until it is fully cooked. Remove, let it cooled, and then slice thinly.
2. Boil the dry vermicelli rice noodle in water.
3. Cook shrimp the shrimp, in water or microwave, and then cut in half.
4. Wash the lettuce and chives and let it dry.
5. Thinly slice the cucumber into flat strips.

To Roll:

1. Have a bowl of hot water ready.
2. Reconstitute the rice paper in hot water and wait until it's flexible again.
3. Add the remaining ingredient be careful not to over stuff. Fold the two side toward the middle and then roll foward.

Serve with nuoc mam cham and enjoy!