My Chinese BBQ Pork Cheat! Weeknight Noodle Salad Bowl Marion's Kitchen

Oh yes, yes, yes. The flavour, the char, the sweetness. It's so good. Since moving back to Australia from Thailand, I've realised just how important a really good stash of pantry ingredients is. It's so that I can create some of the things that I used to be able to just easily buy down the street in Bangkok. And today, we're all about barbecue pork. Okay, so you can buy this down the street in Bangkok. But here in Australia, it's a little more difficult, particularly where I am in Noosa. So I'm going to use char siu sauce. And we're going to make a cheats version of barbecue pork. I'm also going to make some pickled veg. And we're going to serve this noodle bowl style with fresh herbs. It's going to be amazing. So first of all, I want to get started on my quick pickled veg. All right, so we're going to start off with some very convenient vegetables here. I think why not take advantage if someone's going to pre-cut things for you and it's available in your supermarket. So I have here my carrot. And then some cucumber here as well. You could use daikon. Just some crunchy things is what I'm after. So now the pickling itself. This is supposed to be really quick and just give you that kind of like essence of tang and sweetness. So I need a little bit of sugar here. Salt. And some vinegar. A really good mix here. So just let those vegetables do their thing while we get everything else done. Okay, so Vietnamese rice noodles. Ah, their very own special thing. I think it's really worth searching out the particular like Vietnamese thicker rice noodle from your Asian grocery store. It says vermicelli, but the vermicelli you get in most supermarkets is the Thai version, which is a lot thinner. Totally fine to use. But this will give you like a really kind of like thick, chewy, springy kind of texture to your salad. Does take some preparation though. So you want to start off soaking it in some water. This helps with getting a noodle that doesn't stick or overcook when you do actually go to boil them. So about 15 or 20 minutes for this kind of noodle until they're bendy and pliable. They won't be cooked, but they will be softer. They'll look just like this. And from here, we cook the noodles. So boiling water, cook the noodles, keep them moving around a lot so they don't stick together. And this takes about 6 to 8 minutes. Once it's just tender, then you can pull them out and drain them. And then I like to give them a rinse so that they really cool down quickly and stop cooking any further. Now I think the best thing to do with rice noodles is to get them into your serving bowl straight away because they can tend to stick a little bit. So you don't want that to happen. Pop your noodles straight in here. So even if they do firm up a little in the bowl, that's okay because when we add the dressing later, that's going to loosen them up. They'll get all lovely and juicy and tangy. But it's just nice to have them in there ready to go. So leave these for later. We need to get on to making our Cheats Char Siu BBQ Pork. So I'm going to start off with char siu sauce. Look at that. Sticky. It's red. It's got all of that punctuous kind of sweetness going on. So good. And then this is our pork. Now not all minced pork is created equal. I do find that here in Australia, people may be a little bit more health-conscious than in Thailand but the pork is always really lean. So I'm forever searching out like a really nice fatty pork. I think it does make a difference to the flavour. Look, I totally understand if you want to keep things a little more virtuous. So you can go with your extra lean mince but I'm going in with my non-virtuous fatty pork here. A little bit of salt. And now I am well aware that traditional char siu pork is actually a fillet of pork. And if you do want to make my homemade version of that, I have a video on how to do it. But I did say this was my cheat's weeknight version. We're going to make a little pork patties out of this. We're still going to get that char siu pork kind of vibe. Just need a little bit of oil. Now you do want to get this pan really nice and hot because I want to get kind of like that charred business going on in my little pork patties. So you do want a pan that's a bit sturdy like a carbon steel or a stainless. I've got my carbon steel steak pan that I'm using for this one. My Mako branded one. So take some little spoonfuls of pork. Don't be too fine-dining about it. I kind of like a little rustic look here. And straight into your pan. Smoosh it down a little. With the heat of this pan, I can already smell like the charry burning business happening underneath there. Smells good. It's kind of like that charcoal barbecue vibe that you get when you're grilling pork. That's why I love this high heat kind of sear. And the sugar in that char siu sauce is what's giving us that caramelized burnt kind of flavour and aroma. I say burnt, but it's like an intentional burnt. It's a char, you know what I mean? Not like a, whoops, I left it in the pan too long kind of burnt. I think this is looking good now. Just gonna do a little flip. Oh yes! Look at that colour! That is what you want. See how loose that patty is? Like it's almost breaking apart. And that's what I want here. I want that pork to kind of melt and disintegrate in your mouth. And it's like sweet and charry. That's the business. Yes! Oh god, it smells good in here. The last thing we need to do is make our nuoc cham dressing. And I just need some chillies for the dressing. This is a pretty classic Vietnamese style nuoc cham dressing. There's chilli, garlic, fish sauce, a lot of fish sauce. And I'm using Vietnamese fish sauce here. Because I do think there is a difference in flavour between Vietnamese and Thai. And I prefer to use one or the other depending on the recipe. And then vinegar, sugar. Mix all of that together. I would add lime if I had some here, but I ran out today. So I'm not adding the lime juice. But this will still taste really good. Just mix it and set it aside. So now we're going to build our bowl. And I have my vegetables that have been sitting in that lovely kind of like sugar, salt, vinegar mixture. Just going to give them a bit of a squeeze, get rid of that excess moisture. And these will have a really lovely little tang to them which is so nice in this salad. Now some of this beautiful herb situation I've got going on here. Some mint, Thai basil if you can find it. I mean I love Thai basil so much. It is a little harder to get here in Noosa than it is in Bangkok. And you can tell it's Thai basil and not another kind of basil by the fact that you can see these purple stems and the purple leaf. Oh that's looking lovely. A little bit of coriander, some greenery here. See how beautiful this bowl is coming together? Just with some lovely fresh ingredients. And now our BBQ pork. Honestly guys, this gives you such a great BBQ pork vibe without having to search out like a Cantonese BBQ pork restaurant. I just love it so much. Such a good cheat. There we go. Now this is like an optional extra but I always keep fried shallots in my pantry as well. Speaking of pantry ingredients that are very handy. So I'm going to just sprinkle some of that on top. And this dressing, I know I've actually made a mountain of dressing here. But it'll keep in the fridge for a week and I'll use it for other kinds of salads or a dipping sauce so it will not go to waste. Drizzle that everywhere. And there you have it my friends. This is such an amazing salad bowl to make. It's got the chewy noodles, the pickled veg and that pork. Oh my goodness. The flavour, the char, the sweetness. Yes, yes, yes. Love.