This was heavily inspired by an Alison Roman recipe from her 'Home Movies' series on Youtube (which I would strongly recommend you watch!) I made it withe the expectation that it would be a relatively simple, quick and healthy dinner, but instead was taken aback by how good it tasted. Its a meal which is greater than the sum of its parts, and tastes disproportionately good to the amount of effort it takes.
Ingredients (Serves 4):
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
500g pork mince
2 tsp chilli flakes
4 tbsp soy sauce
1L vegetable stock (ideally bouillon)
200g flat rice noodles
150g cavalo nero
Medium knob of ginger
1-2 tbsp Fish sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 red chilli
3 spring onions
Lime and coriander to garnish
Method:
Begin by placing a large pot on the stove. Add in 3 tbsp neutral oil and the garlic. Bring up to a medium heat and fry until just starting to go golden, then immediately remove the garlic, leaving the oil, and set aside to crisp up.
Place the pork in, trying to separate out the strands. Turn the heat up to high and cook until some parts are deeply browned. Once browned, add in the chilli flakes and cook for 30 seconds.
Once the chilli is aromatic, add in the soy sauce to deglaze the pan. Scrape up any of the fond on the bottom of the pan. Add in the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer and cook away for 20 mins.
In a separate saucepan, cook the rice noodles to 1 minute under package instructions (likely around 2-3 mins). Immediately drain and refresh in cold water. Drizzle over plenty of neutral oil to avoid them sticking to each other and set aside.
Strip the Cavalo Nero leaves from the stems and roughly chop. Add into the broth for 2 mins before serving. Once the stock has simmered and the leaves are cooked, taste for seasoning. Grate in ginger and add fish sauce as desired. Finely slice your chilli, spring onions and some of the remaining ginger into matchsticks.
To serve, place a handful of noodles in a bowl, and top with the broth, making sure to get some pork in. Add a few drops of sesame oil to the top of the bowl broth. Garnish with the sliced chilli, spring onions, sliced ginger, garlic chips, coriander and a wedge of lime.
This is a really good mid-week meal to try, so do give it a go. And if you do, drop me a message or tag me in your recreations on instagram, @OTCooks_Eats.
Thanks pals x
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