Recipe:
First, dice your pork. The pieces should be at least 1cm thick. Then, put in in a bowl.
The, dice the onions, and mince the garlic cloves. Add them in the bowl, with the Nuoc Mam.
Squeeze the meat so as to impregnate it of all the flavours. Then, cover the bowl, and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours (overnight would be better).
Put the glutinuous rice in a sieve thin enough. Rinse with cold water for about 30 seconds, while stirring gently. Then, soak the rice with fresh water for at least 2 hours (12 hours at most).
It is now time to make the caramel. In a pot, at medium heat, add one 5th of the sugar (here I used brown sugar, but white would be just as fine). Leave it to melt without stirring.
Once it is all melt, and begin to caramelize, add another fifth of the sugar. Keep going with all the sugar, without ever stirring.
If you like strong caramel, you can cook it a bit longer than on the picture. If you don't like bitterness a bit blonder could be enough. Once the caramel has reached the desired color, add the water - beware of the splashes! Leave on the stove until all the caramel has melted.
You can put your caramel in a glass, be careful it's very hot!
Put a large pot at high heat, with the oil. When it begins to smoke add the pork and the rest of the bowl (onions, garlic and Nuoc Mam). Again, beware of the hot oil splashes.
Stirr regularely until all the sides of all the pork bites are cooked. Then, add the caramel, and turn down the heat to medium. If all the pork isn't covered by the caramel, you can add a bit of water. Keep stirring once in a while. The cooking should take a bit less than one hour.
You can now cook your rice: put about 4cm of water in a pot, and place the (heat-proof) stieve with the rice on top of it. The bottom of the rice shouldn't touch the water. Should it be the case, remove a bit of water, or pick a slightly bigger pot. Put the pot at mid-low heat for 40 minutes.
Once your pork looks like the picture, it is ready! You can put it in a plate, with minced coriander or basil: it'll add a lot of freshness to the taste.
You can serve with the glutinuous rice in small bowls, the caramel sauce is devine with this rice.
Bon appétit !
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© 2020 Mathilde Merx.