Made by Mark at the Cottage in 2013.
This recipe is copied from the bbc, Mark did not really use a specific recipe, that seems to be a theme. This is a dish I learnt from Samuel's mother......for me, it is the perfect hangover food. Use leaves of gem lettuce as scoops for the salad, (you could pre load leaves and have them on a platter for party food?) and we also had tabbouleh with it.
Serves 2
Ingredients - all quantities are indeterminate, I think have more of everything than you think (apart from the pork) and just taste taste taste. Every mouthful should be sweet/sour/salty/hot with sugar, lime, fish sauce, chile etc, and every mouthful should have coriander, onion, spring onion and peanuts.
1 tbsp vegetable oil
200g/7oz lean pork mince
1 red pepper, seeds removed, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 red chillies, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
6 spring onions, finely sliced (I would just use loads)
1 small bunch coriander, chopped (I would just use loads)
1 small handful mint leaves, chopped
1 small handful thai basil, chopped
peanuts - preferably unsalted
Dressing
2 limes, juice only
1 teaspoon of fish sauce (be careful, it's very powerful)
1 pinch of brown sugar (palm sugar is even better, but brown is a decent subsitute so you get the molasses flavor)
Preparation method
Heat the vegetable oil in a large a pan over a medium-high heat and fry the pork mince with the red pepper and half of the red onion for about five minutes or until the pork is cooked through and browned in places. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside. Roast the peanuts in a pan or in a roasting tray until lightly toasted.
In a large bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients, apart from the lettuce leaves, then add the hot pork and stir to combine. Taste the mixture and add more fish sauce or palm sugar, to taste.
To serve, arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving platter and spoon the pork mixture into the leaves.