There is something about leftover roasted pork that makes it taste and smell ‘porkier’. This recipe was inspired by the Thai beef salad I made a few weeks ago, and it was super delicious! We used all the fresh herbs from our garden (Rau Dap Ca and Rau Thom — mint and fish mint), just because this is what we had on hand. And I roasted some raw sticky rice and ground it up in my coffee bean grinder to make ‘thinh’ or toasted rice powder. If you can score some ‘thinh’ or toasted rice powder from the Asian grocery store, even better! The Saigon thinh smells amazing!
After a day of roasting pork belly to make crispy roasted pork, I really wanted something tangy, fresh, and spicy to balance out the pork taste. This is a perfect recipe for it!
Ingredients:
– Sliced shallots and minced garlic
– Very roughly chopped herbs (I wanted them to be bigger like in my photo)
– Warmed up leftover pork sliced/diced however you like
– Toasted rice powder
– Sauce: fish sauce, lots of lime, thai peppers, salt and pepper, some mushroom seasoning, a dash of oil.
** Asian grocery stores sell toasted rice powder. They’re next to the other dried seasoning packets and the Vietnamese name for this is ‘thinh’.
Steps:
1. Create your sauce to your liking. I like mine to be super spicy and tangy and less salty so I don’t necessarily need to eat rice with it.
2. Toss your pork, shallots, garlic, and sauce together. Once incorporated add some of your toasted rice powder combine and then add your chopped herbs. Make sure to taste test often to make sure you get it right 😉
Some people don’t like adding too much toasted rice powder since it makes the dish start tasting grainy, so make sure you don’t over do it! If you don’t have sweet/sticky rice around, you can use regular rice and toast that. Toasting just means adding the raw rice to a pan over medium heat and constantly stirring until the rice grains become yellowed/browned – toasty :). If you don’t have a coffee bean grinder, you can use a mortar and pestle.
Happy eating everyone!