Pork in palm sugar caramel with lime and fried lotus root
( SERVES 4 )
|700 g||Pork belly, boneless and skineless|
|1 cup||Palm sugar, grated|
|4||Red chillies, long|
|½ tsp||Fresh ginger|
|½ cup||Fish sauce|
|½ cup||Fresh coriander|
- Cut the pork belly into 8 even-sized pieces and set aside. In a deep saucepan mix the palm sugar with half the water and place over a low heat. Cook until the caramel is golden brown.
- While the caramel cooks, seed and chop the chillies, then peel and finely chop the ginger. Add half the chilli, all the ginger and the remaining water to the caramel. Add the fish sauce and lime juice, then simmer for a minute or so.
- Add the pork to the caramel, stirring well, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer gently for about an hour or until the meat is tender.
- Finely slice the spring onions just before the pork finishes cooking.
- Gently lift the pork into serving bowls and sprinkle with the remaining chilli, spring onion and coriander.
- To make the batter, mix the egg yolk and water in bowl and stir in the flours until just combined and with a few lumps remaining. Set aside for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a deep pan. (Test the temperature by dropping a piece of white bread into it; if it’s hot enough, the bread should quickly turn golden.) Dip the lotus root pieces into the batter and lower them slowly into the hot oil. Hold them under the oil by pushing down with a metal draining spoon. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the batter is golden and crisp.
- Lift the lotus pieces out to drain on a piece of absorbent kitchen paper, then season lightly with salt and touch of ground black pepper. Serve hot. Serves 4.