Making my husband’s favorite dish

When I first got married, I wanted to make my husband’s favorite dish. He is Vietnamese and the only Asian foods I knew how to cook were Chinese and Japanese dishes (which are nothing like Vietnamese foods).

Now a few years later I find that making Vietnamese foods are not so daunting.

This is my husband’s favorite and the very first Vietnamese meal I learned to prepare: Thit heo kho voi trứng (Carmelized Pork and Eggs).

Here we go!

First chop about 1/2 large onion and crush 2 cloves of garlic.

Cut up about 1/2 lb of pork. Most Vietnamese cooks I know leave the fat on for flavor, but for health considerations I compromise with my husband and trim “most” of the fat off.

Set aside 1/2 cup sugar and at least 4 hardboiled eggs (I always make more because that’s everyone’s favorite part).

You will also need coconut juice, which looks like this:

And the most important ingredient – 1/2 cup fish sauce

You can also add a little Sambal Oelek…but not too much

Combine the pork, garlic, onions, fish sauce and sugar in a bowl and let sit for at least 10 min (Even better if you let it marinate for a couple of hours).

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan and brown meat. You can add a little chili paste (Sambal Oelek) to this if you want.

Add 1 cup coconut juice and simmer for about 5 min.

If you don’t have Asian caramel syrup on hand (which I never do) you can make your own by caramelizing sugar. Place about 1/2 cup sugar in a pan.

Cook on high stirring constantly until it is a rich caramel color. (This is where my husband usually pulls the battery in the smoke detector because I’ve set it off).

Don’t leave it too long or it will taste burned and make your meal bitter.

Add eggs to the pork mixture then pour the hot caramel over and stir well. This should turn everything a nice caramel color.

Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

Now it’s time for me to go eat supper! 🙂