Yellow rock sugar into the pot and heat on medium heat. I looked it up, and it is okay to use stainless steel or a wooden spoon while doing this IF you are not melting the sugar with water. Supposedly, stirring it will make the sugar re-crystalize then its GG.
Once it gets to a nice caramel color (it’s hard to see when the pot is black), turn off the heat and pour in some hot water. The amount of water put in should be approximately half of the amount of sugar you put in. Make sure you are at a fair distance away from the pot because it will splatter. Keep stirring and put aside for it to cool down. Once room temperature, it should look like this:
Next, the Thit Kho Tieu.
Pork belly, green onion, thai chili pepper, sugar, salt, pepper, caramel syrup, and fish sauce. These simple ingredients made something that was so delicious.
I diced the green onion, half a chili pepper, and a few slabs of pork belly. Following the recipe, I added 1/4 tsp salt, 1tsp sugar, 1/4tsp ground black pepper, 3 tbsp fish sauce, and 1tsp of caramel syrup. Mix well and let it marinate for an hour in the fridge.
Cooking this dish was very easy. Quickly saute in a claypot with a little oil.
After sauteing, add 2/3rd cup of water ( I added more water in this recipe) and cook on simmer with lid off.
This will braise the meat and the sauce will reduce into this awesome delicious sauce. All it needs is a bowl of rice to go with it and it was DELICIOUS. The flavors were really balanced. Sweetness from the caramel syrup, heat from the chili pepper, and the fish sauce adds a distinct flavor that makes it all come together. Yum yum
