Vietnamese-style caramel pork
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11 Ingredients
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30 min total
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Serves Serves 4
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Easy
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Vietnamese
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Pork
Recipe byThe ZestyPlate Kitchen
Pork shoulder stir-fried and simmered in a glossy, sweet-savoury caramel sauce with ginger and chilli, with rice and pak choi.
Tender pork in a glossy caramel sauce shot through with ginger, chilli and fish sauce: sticky, savoury and very hard to stop eating. It looks like slow cooking but comes together fast, the sauce reducing down to cling to every piece. Spoon it over steamed rice with some pak choi and you have a proper weeknight dinner.
Jump to recipe
Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min
Total 30 min
Easy
Scale:
- 1 ½ tbsp Ground Nut Oil
- 500g Pork Shoulder Steaks
- 2 chopped Shallots
- 1 tablespoon Ground Ginger
- 1 chopped Red Chilli
- 75g Brown Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
- 2 tsp Chilli Sauce
- 4 Spring Onions
- Steamed Rice
- To serve Pak Choi
Preparation
- Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok over high heat and stir-fry the pork in batches until browned all over, then lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Drop the heat right down, add the rest of the oil and stir in the shallots, ginger and chilli. Cook gently for a couple of minutes until softening. Add the sugar, fish sauce and 200ml water and stir together. Bring to the boil so the sugar dissolves, then return the pork to the pan. Let it bubble hard for 8 to 10 minutes until the sauce thickens, coats the meat and turns glossy. Taste, adding a little more fish sauce if it needs it, along with the chilli sauce. Scatter over the spring onions and serve with steamed rice and pak choi.
Tips from the ZestyPlate Kitchen
- Brown the pork in batches so it actually colours instead of stewing in its own steam.
- Keep the sauce bubbling until it turns thick and shiny.
- Taste at the end and tweak the fish sauce and chilli to get the balance right.
- Cook plenty of rice; you will want it to mop up the sticky sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Shoulder steaks stay juicy through the simmering. For something richer, pork belly is excellent too.
It sits between sweet and savoury. The caramel is pulled back by salty fish sauce and a hit of chilli, and you can adjust it to your taste.
Yes, and the flavour only improves. Reheat gently and loosen with a splash of water if the sauce has tightened up.
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