Mu ping

Pork marinated in coconut milk overnight and basted with it, grilled fast over a high heat.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, oyster sauce, pork.

Ingredients

• 900 g pork shoulder, in thin strips
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 4 tablespoons palm sugar
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 coriander roots, pounded
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 100 ml coconut cream, for basting
• bamboo skewers, soaked

Method

1. COCONUT MILK IN THE MARINADE, AND IT IS NOT FOR FLAVOUR. The fat in it keeps the pork from drying over a fierce fire, and the sugars in it are half the reason the edges char the way they do. Marinated without it, thin pork over high heat is leather in four minutes.
2. CUT ACROSS THE GRAIN, 5 mm thick and 4 cm wide. Thicker and the outside burns before the middle is done; with the grain it is chewy however briefly it cooks.
3. White pepper and pounded coriander root, not black pepper and not leaves. It is a different, earthier heat and it is the backbone of the marinade.
4. Mix everything except the basting cream and work it into the pork with your hands for 2 minutes.
5. OVERNIGHT, or at least 6 hours. Two hours gives you seasoned pork; overnight gives you pork that tastes the same all the way through.
6. Thread the strips onto skewers in loose folds, not stretched flat -- the folds protect the inside while the ridges char.
7. Very high heat, close to the coals. 2 to 3 minutes a side, no more.
8. Baste with coconut cream at every turn, and once more as they come off. The last baste is what makes them glossy.
9. Watch for the sugar. It goes from caramelised to black in under a minute, and these are meant to be charred in patches rather than burnt across.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes