Name: Caramel Pork Salad
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Laotian
Ingredients: 400 g pork loin; 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced; 8 wing beans, sliced; 8 hard-boiled quail eggs, halved; ½ yam bean, peeled and finely shredded; 80 g bean sprouts, trimmed; 3 green onions, finely sliced; ½ green mango, finely shredded; 40 g mizuna leaves; 6 flowering garlic chives, cut into 3 cm lengths; 50 ml rice vinegar; 100 ml fish sauce; 125 g palm sugar; 75 ml water; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 teaspoon minced lemongrass (use a Microplane); 2 small red chillies, finely sliced; 3 red shallots, finely diced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fire

By Christine Manfield

Published 2008

About

Caramel sauce is one of those essential South-east Asian preparations that is used in myriad ways, particularly with meat and fish. Pork prepared in this manner is often referred to as paddy-field pork, as it’s a staple dish for farmers and those who till the rice paddy fields. It can be served with steamed rice, hard-boiled eggs or tossed through the raw salad ingredients as I have done here. The pork can be replaced with chicken thigh meat if you prefer.