Grilled Pork w Rice Vermicelli | A Vietnamese American Mash Up |

Welcome to Cooking with ‪@cheftuan‬ I am in Austin, Texas and feeling like grilling and smoking some meats! One of my all time favorite dishes is Bun Cha Hanoi, a rice noodle dish consisting of grilled pork meatballs, pork belly, a wide variety of fresh herbs, pickles and a light fish sauce vinaigrette.
If you are a fan of the late Anthony Bourdain, then you may have seen this dish. It was made famous around the world when he sat down with President Obama in Vietnam and they ate this dish together in 2016 at restaurant, Bun Cha Huong Lien, in Vietnam.
I want to create a mash up of American style BBQ to accompany this grilled Vietnamese dish. Texas is known for smoked beef brisket and since this Vietnamese dish is made of pork, I couldn't think of a better thing to do with the pork belly than to create pork belly "burnt ends". This is my dish and I would love to share it with you.

This recipe makes enough to serve 4 people.

Ingredients for Pork Meatballs:
2lbs ground pork (I mixed 50/50 lean and fatty ground pork, but you can do whatever you like)
110 g shallots, finely diced
25 g fresh garlic, finely diced
5 tbsp oyster sauce
5 tbsp fish sauce
1.5 heaping tbsp light brown sugar (probably closer to 3 tbsp)
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper (use as much as you like)

Steps:
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well by hand until evenly mixed. Cover and wrap with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator to marinade at least 4 hours up to overnight.
2. Once marinated, grab around a golf ball sized portion and roll into a ball with your hands and flatten to a disc about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. You are looking to make patties that would be about 2-3 bites per patty.
3. Continue doing so until you are finished.
4. To cook them, grill them like you would any kind of patty.

** This pork mix freezes well. I like to put extra into vacuum bags and flatten out as flat as I can before I vacuum seal them. Then I put them in my freezer stacked like books on a shelf. Saves lots of room**

Pork Belly Marinade for 1-2 lbs Pork Belly:
300 g water
15 g sugar
60 g shallots
20 g garlic
30 g oyster sauce
20 g fish sauce

Combine all the ingredients into a blender and blend well.

Pork Belly:
1. Depending on the size of your grill/smoker, cut them so they can fit appropriately.
2. Place pork bellies in a zip lock bag and pour in half the marinade and reserve the rest as a finishing sauce for the bellies.
3. Once marinated, remove from bag and coat generously with black pepper.
3. To smoke, set your smoker to 250-265F and smoke for 3 hours or until tender to your desired level. For me, after 3 hours, the internal temp was 209F.
4. I took them off the heat and set them in a foil tray and loosely covered w foil and let rest.
5. When slicing, I like to lay each piece of pork belly on its side and slice on a bias to create a diamond shape. I love how it looks for presentation.

Vietnamese Pickled Vegetables:
I use quart containers for my pickles so use as much vegetables you can to fill a quart container.
Traditionally green papaya or kohlrabi along with shredded carrots but I like green cabbage and carrots. Depending on where you are located, green papaya may not be easy to find.

No matter how much vegetables you use, this is the pickling ratio I like. But feel free to make your own adjustments.
This is a formula for however much pickling liquid you need.

Water 100%
White vinegar 30%
Sugar 10%
Salt 3%

You can pickle whatever vegetables you like. All you will need to do is chop up your veggies of choice, bring the liquid to a boil and pour over the vegetables once they are packed in a quart container. Once the liquid cools, they are ready to eat. Store in the fridge and they will get better with time.

Fish Sauce Vinaigrette/Broth:
3 C water
1/4 C fish sauce
1/4 sugar

You will also need fresh lettuces and herbs. Use your favorite.
I like dark green and red leafy lettuces, mint, cilantro, Vietnamese coriander, and cucumbers.

Rice Vermicelli Noodles:
Cook as much as you like according to package instructions.

Once you have completed all these steps, assemble the dish and enjoy!