Com Tam with Pork

Rinse the broken rice 2–3 times until the water runs clear, transfer to a pot, pour in 360 ml water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 15–20 minutes until done, then let it sit covered for another 10 minutes.

Lightly pound the pork. Mix it with the minced lemongrass, garlic and shallot, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp oil and black pepper. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes.

Cut the carrot and daikon into thin strips, toss with salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Rinse, squeeze out excess liquid and pour over a mixture of rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar and 100 ml water. Let pickle for at least 2 hours.

Grill the marinated pork on a well-heated grill or roast in the oven at 200°C for about 15–20 minutes, turning so the pieces brown evenly and cook through.

Finely chop the green onion. Heat 2 tbsp oil until almost hot, pour it over the onion and stir — this is the scallion oil.

For the sauce, combine the remaining fish sauce, remaining sugar, lime juice, 50 ml water and chili pepper. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Divide the broken rice among plates, add the pork, pickled carrot and daikon, and cucumber slices. Drizzle with scallion oil and serve with the sweet-and-sour fish sauce.