Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls
Recipe video above. An exciting way to use ground meat (mince) to make a quick stir fry that taste unbelievable! This is great made with chicken, turkey or pork. It also works with beef though it is better made with "white meats". Serve it over rice or vermicelli noodles to make rice bowls with shredded lettuce, carrots and cucumbers on the side (very classic Vietnamese meal!).**NOTE: If you reduce sugar then the pork will not caramelise as well and it will take longer to get colour on it!**
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tbspcooking oil ((i use peanut oil))
- ½onion (, finely diced (brown, white or yellow) (~1/2 cup))
- 2 tspginger (, grated or minced)
- 2garlic cloves (, minced (2 tsp paste))
- 1birds eye or thai chili (, deseeded and finely chopped (can omit, note 1))
- 500 g1 lb pork mince ((ground pork) (note 2))
- 5 tbsp(tightly packed brown sugar ((don't skimp, else won't caramelise))
- 2 tbspfish sauce
- 1green onion stem (, finely sliced)
- jasmine rice (or other rice for serving)
- sliced red chilli, tomato, cucumber ((optional))
Directions
- 1
Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.
- 2
Sauté - Add the onion, ginger, garlic and chili and cook for 2 minutes.
- 3
Cook pork - Add the pork mince and cook for 2 minutes or so until white all over, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon.
- 4
Add sauce & caramelise - Add the sugar and fish sauce. Stir, then leave it to cook without touching until all the juices cook out and the pork starts caramelised - about 2 minutes. Then stir it and leave it again, without stirring, for around 30 seconds to get more caramelisation. Repeat twice more until caramelised to your taste.
- 5
Serve over jasmine or other rice, or vermicelli noodles, garnished with sliced green onion. For a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice! I like to have chunks of plain cucumber and carrots on the side which is a classic way of making Vietnamese bowls.