Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Lemongrass-Thit Nuong-My Spiced up version

Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Lemongrass-Thit Nuong-My Spiced up version

Sliced and still moist

 

There are many recipes on the internet for this dish. My version uses a Red Habanero chili in addition to the Thai Chili to give the meat a spicy, fruity flavor. I do not remove the seeds from the Habanero but it's advisable for people who are not accustomed to spicy food to remove them. The other ingredients are all pretty traditional, and are found in most of the recipes I came across on the net. I also cooked it using a variety of techniques (steam bake, and broil) since I do this in the oven, not on a grill. This makes it more suitable for urban dwellers that live in apartments. I slice the cooked meat thinly, and eat it in a lettuce wrap with rice vermicelli, mint leaves, cilantro, basil leaves, Sriracha sauce and Vietnamese Do Choa pickle. It’s a perfect Summer dish. I also use it in noodle soups to spice up the canned broth that forms the base for the soup.

Ingredients

 2 ½ lb pork butt or shoulder. I got some thick sliced pieces with fat in it. 

 1/4 cup minced Lemongrass 

 3 tsp brown sugar 

 4 tbsp fish sauce

  2 tsp ground black pepper 

  3 thai chili

  1 Jalapeno chili 

  1 red habanero chili 

  4 -5 cloves garlic, minced 

  3-4 shallots, minced.

    2 -3 green onions white and green part

    2 tbsp sesame oil

    2 tbsp thick soy sauce (not regular soy sauce. This is Soya sauce mixed with molasses, making it thicker and gives a good char to the meat. If you can’t get this, use a combination of equal parts of molasses and dark soya sauce)

Juice of 2 limes

Method

1. Make cuts in the meat with a cleaver. Do not cut all the way through. The idea behind this is to increase the absorptive area of the meat so that it takes up the marinade better.
2. Put the lemongrass (cut away tough outer covering), shallots, green onion, peppers, garlic, sugar, and fish sauce in a small chopper. Puree to a paste. Pour over pork in plastic bag and add black pepper, thick soy sauce, and sesame oil. Mix well. Marinate in refrigerator overnight.
3. Remove pork from bag, reserving marinade. Scrape off as much of the marinade mix as possible (see photo).

   

   Ready for first broil

   Place pork on a rack in a roasting pan, and place under broiler to char the meat. (see photo).

   

   Slight char after first broil

   When charred, place meat strips in roasting pan (lined with foil). The meat is not cooked at this stage so handle like you would raw meat.
4. Pour marinade over the charred meat and use the lime juice to wash out any remaining marinade in the bag.Pour this over the pork as well.
   

   

   Marinade poured over pork, ready to be covered and baked

   5. Cover the roasting pan with foil. Bake covered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.Remove foil (see photo) 

   

   After baking for 1 hour covered

   and place under broiler to obtain final char on both sides of the strips.

   

   Final broil

   Slice and eat in a lettuce wrap with the herbs and rice noodles(see photos)

Plate of herbs, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Mint and Pickled Cucumbers

Rice noodles with sesame oil

Iceberg lettuce

Wrap with pork, herbs, noodles, and sriracha