Vietnamese Inspired Pork Belly 'Nachos'

Ginger caramel pork belly, fried rice paper, nuoc cham mayo, and a herby cabbage salad make up these Vietnamese inspired 'nachos'.

Done in 1 hour

Serves 4

Dish by Spencer Lengsfield

Ingredients

Mayo:

3 tbspmayo

1lime, zest and juice

1garlic clove, grated

1 tspsugar

2 tspfish sauce

1red chilli, finely minced

Pinchsalt

Pork belly:

600gpork belly, diced

45gsugar

85mlwater

1.5 tbspsoy sauce

1.5 tbspfish sauce

2 tbsprice vinegar

1 inchginger, julienned

3garlic cloves, julienned

1shallot, julienned

Salad:

1/4red cabbage, shredded

1carrot, julienned

1/2red onion, thinly sliced

Handfulmint leaves

Handfulcoriander

2chillies, thinly sliced

50mlolive oil

1lime, juice

salt, to taste

Trust us, these are like no nachos you've ever tried before...

Method

Start by making the mayo. Dissolve the sugar in the fish sauce and lime juice. Once dissolved, add the mayo, garlic, lime zest, and finely minced chilli. Season with salt, and set aside.

For the caramel, melt the sugar over a medium heat. Once it’s a brown/red colour, carefully add the water (it will bubble up and spit), and whisk. Set aside.

Once cooled, add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and rice vinegar to the caramel mixture.

Into a non-stick pan, add a splash of oil and cook the pork belly cubes until nicely browned on both sides.

Add the caramel mixture along with the shallot, garlic, and ginger and cook on medium/low, turning frequently until the pork is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a glaze.

Meanwhile, cut the rice paper up into evenly sized triangles. Heat a shallow pan with about 1 inch of vegetable oil. Once it’s hot enough, add a double layer of rice paper (two triangles on top of each other). They’ll quickly puff up, then remove and place on a paper towel lined plate.

Toss together the cabbage, carrot, shallot, herbs, onion, lime, soy, and oil.

Plate up - the rice paper triangles in one section, then the caramel pork belly and salad each in their own sections. Add a little dish of the mayo, and more spring onions. You can build it all like nachos if you prefer, but this can mean things get soggy faster.

What do you think of the recipe?

save recipe

Spencer Lengsfield

follow

Spencer has been cooking since she got her first Easy-Bake oven at four years old, and began recipe developing professionally whilst completing her Master’s degree in 2020. Born in Los Angeles, she has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean, but is also heavily influenced by her family's Louisiana heritage. Spencer loves bright flavours, spice and fusion food. If she were a food, she'd be kimchi - versatile, spicy and funky.