Learn to Cook Like A Local Vietnamese - Orange Braised Pork Belly Delight

Hello, welcome back to my cooking corner. Today, let’s follow me to make a quick trip to the local market and see what I‘ll make for dinner.

There are many sellers but I like to go to this cool lady. Every time, I come to buy her vegetables, she smokes these huge hand rolled cigarettes. 😀

I bought from her some amaranth (called rau dền here) ($0.30) for tonight, as well as some morning glory and eggs for tomorrow. I go to another lady for the remaining 500gr of pork belly ($3.10) I'll need for later. Everything else I'll need I already keep at home. Let’s get started!

The first dish is braised pork. What we need:

• 400-500gr pork belly
• 100-150ml of milk
• 1 coconut water/ if you don’t have it use water is ok
• 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
• ¼ teaspoon five-spice powder
• Some chopped garlic and shallots
• Some annatto seeds
• Some salt, seasoning powder, black pepper

Step 1: Give the meat an attractive color by dyeing it with annatto seeds.
Heat your pan, add some cooking oil (I prefer olive), and add the annatto seeds, stir well, and you can start to see the beautiful orange color.

Stir it in 15 seconds, and turn off the heat once the oil begins to smoke. And take out the seeds. In addition to giving the food a nice natural color, the annatto seeds also have a lot of health benefits including being rich in antioxidants, good for eyes, natural antibacterial properties, as well as digestion support.

Step 2: Marinate the meat

After cutting the pork belly into small cubes, mix them with chopped garlic and shallots, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, some salt, some black pepper, some seasoning powder or msg(if you want), ¼ teaspoon of five spice powder and mix well. Let it rest at least 15 mins. If you want it to rest longer, put it in the fridge.

And now add ¾ of the orange oil you just made into the meat and see how beautiful it is now. What a game changer, right?

Step 3:
I didn’t have much time, and wanted to make a quick meal, so after marinating the meat for 15 minutes. I used the leftover orange oil and sautéed the shallots until fragrant.

Now pour the meat into the pan and sauté the meat until it firms up, then add the milk and coconut water or just water if you don’t have coconut. Simmer for at least 30 minutes until the meat is tender.

I finished the first beautiful dish. The second dish is boiled amaranth.

Step 1: After clean the amaranth, fill some water in the pot and add some salt for flavor and make the veggies greener

When it is totally boiling, add the amaranth into the pot until it reboils, a few more minutes, take the amaranth out.

And you know what, you can use the leftover boiled water for the soup. Don’t forget some rice too 🙂

Tada, now let’s enjoy dinner with me with 2 delicious dishes. The meat is very flavorful, juicy and tender. The slow braising process tenderizes the meat and makes every bite a melt in mouth texture. Even just with the thickened sauce and white rice, you can’t stop eating 😀
And amaranth makes the meal fresher and healthier. What a combination for a meal!

Mouth watering when I write about it now. Hope you are having fun with my post. In case you miss it, please check out my spring roll dish here [https://steemit.com/foodie/@buffalobaby/vietnamese-spring-roll-each-bite-is-a-flavor-bomb]
See you in the next posts! :)
All photos were taken by my Xsmax phone.