Clay Pot Pork

Inspired from the aroma seeping from the microwave in the anesthesia lounge... my friend Mark Stivers is quite the gourmet chef and he gave me this recipe that he just whipped together one day!  OMG it is to die for - modified from the Gourmet Vietnamese recipe here, we had it for several nights in a row!

PS I doubled this recipe.

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/3 cup Asian fish sauce, preferably Vietnamese
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced (I used an onion)
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 lb country-style boneless ribs (or trimmed boneless pork shoulder), cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 3 jalapenos, (1 chopped)
• 1 hand of ginger, grated
• 1 16 oz package of noodles of preference, I used egg-yolk free wide noodles, or jasmine rice
• 2 Tbs butter + 2 Tbs flour for thickening sauce

Cook sugar in a dry 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, without stirring, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar has melted into a deep golden caramel. Carefully add stock and fish sauce (caramel will harden and steam vigorously) and cook, stirring, until caramel is dissolved. Add shallots/onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapenos, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes.

Toss pork with pepper in a bowl and stir into sauce. Bring to a simmer, then cover pan, reduce heat to low, and braise pork, stirring once or twice, until very tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. 

Mark (and I) both pulled out the pork when it was perfectly braised so we could reduce the rest of the sauce.  I added melted butter tabs to flour and stirred, then mixed in with the sauce to thicken.  Once the right consistency, readd the pork to warm and use fork to pull apart.

Cook pasta/rice as directed.  Serve the pork over top and enjoy!