Vietnamese Braised Pork with Eggs (and Happy Lunar New Year!)

Today is the first day of Lunar New Year, and we’re making our (now) annual Lunar New Year dinner. The past few years, we’ve cooked Chinese dishes (Chinese Turnip Cake, Lion’s Head meatballs, several noodle dishes), so this year I wanted to make sure we branched out from just Chinese celebratory dishes. While I was contemplating this a work one day, a friend pointed me towards a favorite dish of hers, thit kho tau in Vietnamese, and a blog she liked with a recipe. So today, we’re making Vicky Pham’s version of this dish. Per usual, we made a few tweaks to our liking, most relevantly, doubling the marinade. This certainly made it saltier, but it wasn’t too salty for us. We also used pork shoulder, as my friend’s family does, instead of pork belly as in the linked recipe. It is PLENTY rich and fatty with shoulder instead of belly.

We also have been reading (and reading and reading) Boys Don’t Fry, by Kimberly Lee, and had fun making the Chicken Pongteh recipe at the back of that book, for another non-Chinese Lunar New Year dish last weekend!

We also made “fruit rolls,” like spring rolls filled with fruit and simply sauteed water spinach. We tried banh cam for the first time, but didn’t make them – bought those from the Vietnamese market.

Vietnamese Braised Pork with Eggs

(ADAPTED FROM Vicky Pham)

Ingredients: 

• 2 lb pork shoulder
• Salt
• 2 large shallots, minced (divided)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced (divided)
• 2/3 cup fish sauce
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 can (12 oz) coconut soda
• Water
• Green onions

Instructions:

1. Scrub the pork with coarse salt. Place it in a pot and just cover it with water. Bring to a boil and then remove and drain.
2. In a large bowl, stir together 1 shallot, 4 cloves of garlic, fish sauce, bouillon, brown sugar, and soy sauce.
3. Cut the pork into ~2in portions. Place the pork in the bowl with its marinade, toss to coat, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (and as much as overnight).
4. Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs and set aside.
5. When ready to start cooking, heat oil in a dutch oven or similar over medium heat. Cook the remaining garlic and shallots a few minutes, until fragrant and starting to brown. Then add the pork and its marinade. Top with the coconut soda. Add additional water until the meat is completely covered (we added 2 cups).
6. Lower heat and cover. Check after a bit – you want a light simmer. [The original recipe calls for braising for 1 hour here. We did ours for 2 hours.]
7. Remove the lid and adjust heat to bring up to a simmer as needed. Add the hard-boiled eggs. Cook at the simmer for another 30 minutes, until the braising liquid thickens and reduces and the eggs have taken on a darkened color.
8. Serve with white rice and topped with sliced green onions.