Bun (Vietnamese noodle dish)

Lemongrass pork

Begin preparations the day before because the recipe calls for a 24 hour marinade. Nations sells deboned pork shoulder in roughly 2 lb chunks, so I doubled the recipe. Trim off excess fat and any silverskin. Shoulder (aka pork butt) has grain that goes in all directions, but thanks to the marinade, it didn't make much difference whether I cut the slices against the grain or not.

Marinade for 2 lbs of pork butt (shoulder):

• 3 to 4 stems lemongrass (white part, bruised using meat hammer, 1cm slices on the bias)
• 8 cloves garlic
• 8 tbsp lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 6 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 8 tbsp brown sugar (not packed down)
• 6 tbsp light olive oil, or other neutral oil
• 1.5 tsp sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda)

Make 1cm thick slices of the pork butt, and pound them with a meat tenderizer. I harvested as many scraps as possible from what I bought, so there were lots of little not-steaks. Doesn't matter, because I'm going to cook them an a grill plate. Nothing will fall through, compared to cooking on the BBQ. Mix pork pieces in with the marinade.

The marinade will fizz because the baking soda reacts with the lime juice. Some heat will also be generated. I am curious how the baking soda or its by-products tenderizes the pork. In the end, the results were very good (L- loved it), so I will likely continue including the baking soda. As the author noted, pork shoulder usually benefits from long slow cooking, but this process created sufficiently tender and flavourful pork.

I cooked the pork on a domed Korean grill plate on an Iwatani butane burner outside, because that's what we have. I wiped the plate between batches to remove black residue, to avoid burned (bitter) flavours. It's not difficult to do, just shut off the burner and wipe down with a damp paper towel. Don't forget to scrape off any lemongrass before putting the pork on the grill plate. It helps to have covered containers for input and output to keep wasps off the meat.

https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-lemongrass-pork-steaks/

Nuoc cham (dipping sauce)

Begin preparations an hour or more before eating because it may be necessary to cool the sauce in the fridge before serving. I made the 8-servings quantity, which fits in a 500ml mason jar and was plenty for 2 or more meals for the three of us.

• 1 cup water
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 tbsp lime juice (1 to 2 limes)
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

The sugar has a hard time dissolving, so I put the water+sugar in a mason jar and microwaved it for 30 seconds to a minute (don't remember). The author recommended dissolving the sugar in 1/3 of the water, then adding the rest of the water at cool / room temp. If you prepare ahead of time, the sugar water will have time to cool before adding the rest of the ingredients (fish sauce, lime juice, garlic). Definitely try to add the lime juice to a cool mixture, to get the most flavour from the limes.

https://www.hungryhuy.com/vietnamese-dipping-fish-sauce-recipe-nuoc-cham-nuoc-mam-cham/

Noodles

Soak 375g package of vermicelli rice noodles in warm (45-50 degrees C) water for 10 minutes. Remove from the warm water, and cook in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Stop cooking when the noodles have reached the desired level of doneness (e.g. al dente). Drain and thoroughly cool down with one or two cold water baths, to stop the cooking process. Drain again, and use a salad spinner to remove any excess water. Spread the noodles across two plates to allow them to air dry. 

https://runawayrice.com/cooking-basics/make-perfect-rice-vermicelli/

Veggies and all the rest

Prepare:

• bean sprouts
• cucumber slivers
• sweet pepper slivers
• chopped lettuce
• salted roasted peanuts, chopped or lightly crushed
• some Thai basil, coriander, mint leaves

The original recipe recommended a carrot + daikon quick pickle, but if you have some fermented carrot + daikon, e.g for banh mi, you're good to go. If you don't have daikon, even slivered carrots is fine. Everyone chooses what they want anyway.

https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-pork-noodle-bowls/

Serve

Cut the cooked pork into bite-sized pieces.

Place some veggies in a big bowl. Add a layer of vermicelli. Top with pieces of pork, basil, coriander, mint, and peanuts. Spoon some nuoc cham over everything, and dig in.