Vietnamese caramelized Pork

I bought a pound of ground pork. But I had no idea what to cook with it.

Looking for inspiation I checked Pinterest and some cooking sites. I thought about some kind of meatloaf, then I discovered this Vietnamese dish. It intrigued me.

Cooking time was long and I needed some coconut water. I never bought that before. Just heard people raving about it. The only time I had some fresh coconut water was in Cuba a decade ago. The water was bland and the bartender put a good amount of Cuban rum in. Then it was good.

It took me a while to find it in the supermarket. I only needed a small amount of it and took a slurp. Bland! Where is the rum? Now I have about 350 ml sitting in the fridge, waiting for a purpose (without the rum).

Recipe for 4:

500 g ground pork

100 ml coconut water, 50 g medium dark sugar, 1 tbsp water, 2 tbsp fish sauce

1 spring onion, 1 shallot, 1 small yellow onion, 6 cloves of garlic, 10 cm ginger, 2 red hot chilis

Pepper, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

Romaine lettuce leaves, mung bean sprouts

Jasmine rice

Chop the starter veggies and keep lettuce and sprouts for later. In a Wok heat up the sugar with the little bit of water until the sugar is melted and starts to brown. Now add the chopped veggies.

After 4 min toss in the pork and break it down in small pieces and let it get color. Season with fish sauce.

When it is no longer pink, pour the coconut water in. On medium high heat without a cover let it cook 70 min. Stir occationally.

Now add the dark soy sauce and some more chili flakes if it is not spicy enough for your taste.

While the meat cooks, blanche the sprouts, loosen the lettuce leaves and wash them and cook the rice.