Bun Thit Nuong (Vietnamese)

Yesterday for supper I made some Bun Thit Nuong for the second time, but with a different recipe, taken from The Food of Vietnam by Luke Nguyen.  It was delicious!  The original recipe calls for pork neck, but since I couldn't find pork neck anywhere, I bought pork shoulder, which I've never cooked with before.  As I sliced a half-frozen piece, each slice would break because of all the fat.  I marinated the meat overnight, and when I was ready to skewer, I started doubting that I'd enjoy the meat just because of all that thick fat.  But once "grilled" (I only have a ridged pan - I still love that pan, a gift from my aunt Myriam), the fat was totally gone!  Only one bite I had some unchewable piece, but the rest was only meaty!  I guess next time I won't be as scared of trying new cuts of meat. 

About this recipe, it uses the most Vietnamese ingredients: fish sauce, pork, rice vermicelli, herbs, nuoc-cham, fried shallots.  It's so tasteful, one of my favourites!

So here is the Bun Thit Nuong recipe, adapted from "Chargrilled Pork Neck with Vermicelli Noodles", from the book "The Food of Vietnam" by Luke Nguyen.

(Serves 2 hungry people)

Marinade for 500g of thinly sliced pork neck, shoulder or fillet:

-2tbsp sugar

-4tbsp fish sauce

-1tbsp honey (I used barley malt syrup for colour and caramel taste)

-6 green onions, white parts puréed in a mortar, green parts finely sliced and reserved for the scallion oil

-2 garlic cloves, chopped

-2 tbsp vegetable oil

-6 bamboo skewers or more, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes if you use a grill (I used a griddle pan so it wasn't necessary)

Scallion oil:

-reserved sliced green parts of green onions

-1 cup vegetable or canola oil (avoid coconut oil since it hardens in the fridge)

-a pinch of salt and/or sugar (optional)

-2 portions rice vermicelli, cooked

-1-2 handfuls herbs (different mints and basils, perilla, cilantro if you like but I don't so I always replace it with flat parsley...)

-about 10 cm cucumber, sliced 

-1-2 handfuls bean sprouts

-nuoc-cham (dipping fish sauce - I use this recipe: http://danangcuisine.com/recipes/recipe-2-vietnamese-dipping-sauce-cach-pha-nuoc-cham/

-fried shallots for garnish

-roasted peanuts for garnish

Combine all marinade ingredients (except the skewers haha) together and marinate the meat for a couple hours to overnight.

For the scallion oil, put oil and scallions, plus salt and sugar if using in a small pot on low, and remove when it starts boiling a little, cool down and keep in the fridge for days.

Skewer the meat by folding on the sticks, then leave at room temperature for 30 minutes (when I don't, the meat in the center doesn't cook properly by the time the outside is charred).  Grill until nicely charred on all side.  You can cook the vermicelli at the same time.

To assemble, start with the vermicelli, then disperse the herbs, cucumber and bean sprouts.  Add skewers on the side and garnish them with some scallion oil.  Garnish the plate with fried shallots and peanuts.  Top everything with nuoc-cham.  You can eat as a bowl or serve with lettuce leaves or rice sheets, putting a little of everything in the leaf or sheet.  

Last time I made Bun Thit Nuong with this different recipe and it looked like this, it was delicious too and it has a video!:

http://youtu.be/STkMj5pGvyQ