Foot and Fire

The caramel pork in clay pot -- Carlene's dinner later. <p><p><p> </p></p></p> Another favorite of the Vietnamese aside from the fish sauce is the caramel in their fave meats. Since I am not a pork person, I asked the chef for the alternative and he suggested chicken and warned that beef will not be suitable for the recipe as beef gets dry... Well, I am going to try it on chicken and fish meat for sure. here's the recipe to this popular claypot dish. 100g boneless pork legs, sliced (chicken breased or legs ma...

This is one of the dishes we cooked up at the Saigon Culinary Art Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lotus stem is tasteless, aroma-less but super crunchy; perfect for salad. Since this recipe called for pork and shrimps, I omitted these two. In the following recipe, I shall include pork and shrimp for your perusal. Marinade 1 T lemon juice 2 T sugar 2 T white vinegar 2 T fish sauce (patis or nuoc mam cham) A pinch of salt and pepper 180g Lotus stem (cucumber, carrots, green papaya, cabbage or turnip may be used)  100 g pork tenderloin 100 g shrimp 10g celery 20 g carrots Garnishing 1 big chili 1 chili flower 5g knot weed (may use sweet basil) 5-7 g mint leaves 1/2 T fried peanuts 1/2 T fried shallots (may use onions) Preparation MARINADE: Mix all marinade ingredients except fish sauce, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely. VEGETABLES: Cut in julienne the lotus stem, carrot and big chili. Cut celery in 1-2 cm length. PORK: Prepare pork by boiling it over medium h...