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Thit Kho, Caramelised Braised Pork Belly and Quail Eggs with Cucumber Salad
Recipe by Gillian Dinh
Try this Vietnamese Thit Kho with caramelised pork belly and quail eggs, served with a cucumber salad
- Steps
- Ingredients
Steps
- For the Thit Kho, bring a small saucepan of salted water to a rolling boil, add fresh quail eggs to saucepan and partially cover with lid to maintain rolling boil. Cook for 3 minutes then drain eggs. Roll eggs on bench to slightly crack shell and place into a bowl of iced water bowl immediately to stop cooking process and allow water to seep into shell (this process makes it easier to peel eggs). Set aside.
- Add half of the raw sugar with palm sugar to large frypan at medium high heat. Do not stir. Allow sugar to slowly bubble. Once this happens, add splashes of water and fish sauce to create a caramel.
- Add pork belly to the pan and stir, coating the pork with caramel then add remaining half of raw sugar and white pepper to pork and toss. Increase the heat to caramelise rapidly.
- Once caramelized, lower heat and add kecap manis, stir and cook until slightly reduced. Add birds eye chillies, long red chillies, garlic, onion, coriander stems and spring onion stems. Stir with pork to slightly caramelise.
- Add 250ml of coconut water to the pan and leave on heat for 3 minutes, until slightly reduced. Strain caramel sauce liquid to a large bowl. Place the pork and aromatics into a pressure cooker. Add remaining coconut water to pressure cooker to just cover pork contents. Set for 30 minutes.
- Peel quail eggs carefully and add to the caramel sauce. Remember to continue turning the eggs occasionally to ensure the eggs are evenly coated and coloured with the marinade. Set aside until required.
- In a small saucepan add rice and 4 cups of water. With lid on, bring to the boil. Cook on a low simmer for 12 – 15 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat and leave lid on for another 8 minutes.
- For the Cucumber Salad, toast whole peanuts in a small dry frypan on high heat, continually stirring to ensure they don’t burn. Once toasted, remove from heat and coarsely crush in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
- Place red onions in a bowl of cold water to remove strong taste. Prepare other salad ingredients and place on a plate. Cover and set aside in the fridge until ready to combine and serve.
- To prepare the Salad Dressing, place ingredients in a bowl, whisk with a fork to combine. Season to balance. Set aside in a serving jug the fridge.
- When ready, to serve, remove eggs from marinade. Place marinade in a large frypan on a high heat. Remove cooked pork from pressure cooker and add to the frypan on a medium heat. Caramelise for 1 minute, until gelatinous pork has a brown sear.
- Drain onions and combine with other salad ingredients in a serving bowl. Top salad with crushed peanuts and serve with wedge of lime.
- Place rice into a serving bowl. Arrange pork on top with marinated eggs. Garnish with chilli and coriander and serve with salad and dressing.
