Bun thit nuong vermicelli bowl | Khanh Ong

Nuoc Mam Sauce

Ingredients

• ¼ cup warm water
• 20g caster sugar
• 2 limes
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2-4 birdseye chilies
  
  

Method

1. To make nuoc mam sauce, mix water and sugar in a medium bowl until sugar has dissolved, quarter and juice one of the limes into the sugar water, add 3/4 of the fish sauce.
2. Place your 2 cloves of garlic, 3 chili's into your KitchenAid cordless chopper. and blitz.
3. Add your liquid into the chopper and blitz again, taste and add leftover ingredients until the sauce is balanced. It should be sweet, sour, salty with a kick of chilli       

Vermicelli salad base

Ingredients

• 150g cooked vermicelli noodles
• ½ carrot finely sliced into batons
• ½ lebanese cucumber finely sliced into batons
• 4 cos lettuce leaves roughly chopped
• ½ cup of bean sprouts
• ½ cup of shredded red cabbage
• 1 bunch of mint leaves
• 1 bunch of coriander leaves
• 1 bunch of vietnamese mint leaves
• ¼ cup of nuoc mam dressing
• 2 teaspoons of roasted peanuts
• 2 wedges of lime
  
  

Method

1. Place vermicelli, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts and cabbage into a mixing bowl and combine well.
2. In another bowl mix the mint, coriander and vietnamese mint. Split each mixture into two bowls and dress with the Nuoc mam dressing and some roasted peanuts.
3. Place a wedge of lime on the side ready to serve. You now have the base of your salad ready to add toppings of your choice to charge up the dish today the protein will be pork which you can find below.

Bun thit nuong

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 lemongrass stalk
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 spring onions white part
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons of kecap manis
• 1 shallot
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 500g pork shoulder sliced to 1cm thick and 3cm pieces (pork belly will do if you remove the skin works too)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
  

Method

1. Place everything besides the pork and vegetable oil into your KitchenAid cordless chopper and blitz until a chunky paste forms.
2. Pour the paste over your pork and leave to marinade for an hour. On a griddle pan on high pour in ¼ of vegetable oil until hot then place ¼ of the marinated pork on it to cook for 2 minutes then flip and cook for a further 90 seconds. You want the pork to be beautifully caramelised and charred. (do this on a coal BBQ if you have one, if you don’t I usually hit the pork with a blowtorch just to get the smokiness up)
3. Repeat with the remaining oil and pork, set aside and split between 4 bowls of the salad base.