Thit Kho

For this blog post, I will be making thit kho, a braised pork dish with a coconut caramel sauce.  Kho is a Vietnamese cooking technique of simmering meat (usually pork or catfish) in coconut juice until the sauce caramelizes and thickens.  The dish is sweet, savory, and spicy.  I learned how to cook this dish from my mother and this will be my first time making it by myself.  It takes about one hour to make.

The ingredients that I used to make the sauce are:
Two teaspoons of nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
One teaspoon of coconut caramel sauce (you can usually find this at any Asian grocery store)
One half can of coconut soda
I mixed all of these ingredients in a small pot and simmered it on medium heat.

I then cut up a half pound of pork belly into one inch pieces and put them in the pot with the sauce.

I let it simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes before turning the pork.  After 20 more minutes I gave the sauce a taste, which was too sweet so I added one more teaspoon of nuoc mam.  I also added a pinch of black pepper and a teaspoon of Sriracha hot sauce for spiciness (Thai chili peppers are preferred but I didn't have any on hand).  After another 10 minutes, I knew the dish was done because the sauce had completely thickened.  There was no more liquid in the pot.

The meat was really tender but the sauce was a little too thick.  I should have cooked it for about 40 minutes instead of one hour.  It didn't quite taste like the thit kho that my mom makes because the sauce was too thick, but overall, I'd say the dish was a success.  Next time I will attempt to cook ca kho, which is another popular kho dish with catfish instead of pork.