Pork And Eggs Simmered In Coconut Juice And Caramel Sauce Recipes

PORK AND EGGS SIMMERED IN COCONUT JUICE AND CARAMEL SAUCE

Steps:

• Examine the pork skin for any stray hairs and use a sharp knife to scrape and remove any you find. Cut the meat into long chunks about 1 inch thick and 2 to 3 inches long. Each piece should have some fat and skin attached. Put the pork into a 3- or 4-quart saucepan and add the caramel sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. Give everything a stir with a rubber spatula or spoon to coat the meat with the seasonings. Set aside to marinate for 45 minutes, turning the meat every 15 minutes.
• Cover the pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Uncover and stir to ensure that each piece of meat is well exposed to the bubbling seasonings. Re-cover and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the pork is a gorgeous golden brown.
• Add the eggs, coconut juice, and water just to cover. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat. Use a spoon to skim and discard any scum that rises to the surface and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover partially and cook for 1 1/4 hours, rotating the pork and eggs occasionally to ensure that they cook evenly. Uncover and continue simmering for 15 minutes after uncovering, or until the meat is tender when pierced with the tip of a knife and the sauce is reduced by half.
• Remove from the heat and let stand for a few minutes so that the fat collects on the surface, then use a ladle or spoon to skim it off. (Or, let cool, cover, and refrigerate overnight to congeal the fat, making the task much easier; reheat before continuing.) Return to a simmer and taste the sauce. Add extra fish sauce and/or sugar to create a deeper savory, sweet flavor, or water to lighten the flavor.
• To serve, transfer the pork, whole eggs, and sauce to a shallow bowl. Let diners halve the eggs as they eat them, using their soup spoon (or provide a knife) to cut them. Or, halve the eggs in the kitchen and serve the pork in a large, deep dish with the halved eggs rimming the meat.
• This chapter, like the chapters on poultry and seafood, includes recipes for kho, savory-sweet dishes in which meat, poultry, seafood, or tofu is usually simmered in a caramel-based sauce. The reddish brown dishes that result are deeply flavored and perfect with rice. They are traditionally cooked in clay pots, which is why the kho recipes include tips on preparing them in the earthenware vessels.
• Quick kho preparations, such as the ones that feature chicken (page 82) and shrimp (page 105), are ideal when you don't have much time to put a meal on the table. Others, like the three recipes in this chapter, require long simmering to yield tender, succulent meat, and while certainly fit for everyday eating, are also served on special occasions. For example, a meal during Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration and the most important holiday of the year, would be incomplete without at least one kho. Southerners like to simmer pork with eggs, as is done here. Raised by northerners, I always offer two kho for Tet: one with pork riblets and the other with beef flank and ginger (pages 148 and 149, respectively). All of them deliver a true taste of Vietnam.

THIT HEO KHO TRUNG (PORK AND EGGS IN CARAMEL SAUCE)

Steps:

• Make the caramel sauce: In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the 1/4 cup sugar, vinegar and 1 tablespoon water until the sugar nearly dissolves, 60 to 90 seconds. Cook without stirring until the mixture turns champagne yellow, about 3 minutes, then continue cooking for another 1 to 2 minutes, frequently picking up the pan and swirling it to control the caramelization. When the mixture is a dark tea color (expect faint smoking), turn off the heat and keep the pan on the burner. Let the caramelization continue until the mixture is burgundy in color, 1 to 2 minutes. Slide the pan to a cool burner and add 3 tablespoons water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Warm over medium heat to loosen, if needed.
• Cut the pork into chunks about 1-inch thick and 2 to 3 inches long, making sure each piece has both lean meat and fat. Warm the oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in 2 or 3 batches, cook the pork on all sides until lightly browned, about 1 minute per batch, holding the seared meat on a plate. When done, return all the pork and any accumulated juices to the pot, then add the caramel sauce, fish sauce, onion, garlic, peppercorns and coconut water. Bring to a boil over high heat, skim the scum, then adjust the heat to maintain a simmer. Cover and cook until a knife tip inserted 1/4 inch into the pork meets little resistance, about 1 1/4 hours.
• Use tongs to retrieve the pork and hold in a bowl, loosely covered to prevent drying. If peppercorns cling to the pork, leave them for zing, or knock them off and discard. To quickly filter and remove fat from the cooking liquid, set a mesh strainer over a large heatproof bowl, line with a double layer of paper towels and pour the liquid through. After most of the liquid passes through and a layer of fat remains above the solids, set the strainer aside. (Save the fat for cooking if you like.) You should have about 1 1/2 cups cooking liquid.
• Return the liquid to the pot, bring to a boil over high heat and cook until reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer, then add the pork and eggs. Cook, gently stirring now and then, to heat through and coat with the dark sauce, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let rest 5 minutes, uncovered, to concentrate flavors. Taste and add up to 1 1/2 teaspoons of fish sauce or 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, or both, as needed for a pleasant savory-sweet finish. Transfer to a shallow bowl for serving. Invite diners to halve the eggs themselves. If you'd like spicy heat, gently smash the chiles in individual dishes for dipping sauce with some sauce from the pot, and use it to dip the pork and egg or to drizzle into the bowls.