Ba Chỉ Rang Sả - Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Belly
Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Belly (Ba Chi rang Sa) includes savory and tender pork pieces, which are cooked with lemongrass. It makes the smell delicious. It's best eaten with rice.
Ingredients
- 1 2 lbs pork belly
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon plus 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 3 shallots, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper freshly cracked
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
- 5-6 lemongrass stalks
- cooking oil for cooking
Instructions
- Slice the pork belly into pieces bite-sized About half an inch in thickness (or as thick as 3/4 inches). Check out the video posted in the article to learn how the pieces of pork appear.
- Blend the meat with chopped garlic and shallots sugar, fish sauce, and pepper. Keep to room temp for 10 to 15 hours (or for up to 30 mins).Remove the fibrous outer layer and the lemongrass' green stalks. Slice the white and light green portion very thinly , on the bias.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat it up at medium-low heat, and add cooking oil. Add lemongrass, and cook until you begin to get a whiff of the scent.
- Add the pork belly to the pan. Stir, mix with lemongrass, and let cook till the exterior part of the meat isn't anymore pink. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lemongrass and pork are golden brown, and the pork becomes delicious. Reduce the heat towards the end so that you don't burn the lemongrass. Adjust the seasoning by adding more sugar and fish sauce according to your preference.
- Transfer the plates to serving dishes Serve hot rice steamed.
Notes
If you cook pork belly that has skin, it will have a chewy feel (kinda similar to chewy bears) after cooking, which certain Vietnamese people love. It's totally acceptable to remove the skin prior to cooking.
If your stove isn't strong, prior to making the addition of the pork raise the heat to medium and, once the outside has stopped being pink lower the heat to medium. This is to make sure that the pan is heated, or else the pork could be cooked losing its original juice. After the exterior is not pink anymore, keep an oven at a moderate temperature and roast the lemongrass and the pork.
If the temperature gets too hot, then the pork will dry out and become tough too fast , and the lemongrass might be burnt. Cook until the yellowing of the lemongrass and pork are your preference. The cooking time shouldn't exceed 30 minutes.