Vietnamese Braised Pork Shoulder (Thịt Kho)

VIETNAMESE BRAISED PORK SHOULDER | Recipes collection here
A classic dish served in all Vietnamese homes! This is rarely served in restaurants but it’s a true delight! My mother never made this recipe in the oven and would often braise the pork on top of the stove and it would come off so tender, it’d melt in my mouth. I’ve tried to replicate her recipe and the meat would come off as a clunker, so this recipe for the oven is a good way to fix that problem!
SERVES 4-6

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 3 pounds pork shoulder
• 2-3 tablespoons vegetable OR canola oil
• Juice of 2 young fresh coconuts OR 20 ounces canned coconut juice
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce, preferably Three Crabs brand
• 2 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar
• 6 hardboiled eggs, peeled (optional)

Cut the meat into pieces roughly 2 inches wide and 4 inches long.

To cure the meat, place it on a sheet pan and coat both sides with salt and peppercorns. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. About 30 minutes before cooking, remove the meat from the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Brown the meat on all sides and set aside.

In a deep baking pan or braising pot, stir together coconut juice, chicken stock, garlic, fish sauce and sugar. Add the meat. Place a piece of parchment paper directly on top of the meat and braising liquid. Cover pan with a lid or wrap tightly with foil. Place in oven and braise for up to 4 hours, or until the meat is tender. Optional: Add hardboiled eggs to the braise for the last 20 minutes of cooking. At 2 hours, check for doneness; the meat should be very tender. Serve on a bed of leafy greens with braised hardboiled eggs.

NOTE: The recipe can be made using 3 pounds of baby back ribs (though Mangalitsa ribs are very small). Modify as follows: After coating the meat, refrigerate for 3 hours. Upon removing from refrigerator, cut into 2-rib sections. Braise for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Courtesy of Eric Banh, reprinted from seattlepi.com

*I usually serve this with a nice hot bowl of rice and some pickled vegetables.

Vietnam limits rice exports on food security concerns

Hanoi – Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered authorities not to sign any more rice export contracts this year, the head of the Vietnam Food Association said Thursday. “The prime minister sent a letter to the Vietnam Food Association asking us to urge rice exporters to stop signing new rice export contracts and focus on implementing the contracts signed,” said Nguyen Thi Nguyet, chairwoman of the Vietnam Food Association.

The move is due largely to domestic food security concerns, officials said.

A February cold snap in the north of the country, which lasted an unprecedented 45 days, destroyed over 100,000 hectares of rice paddies. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates total damage at 14 million dollars.

“In northern Vietnam , a large area of rice was sowed 15 days behind schedule due to the cold spell,” said Trang Hieu Dung, director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s planning department. “This area may bear no rice if the hot season arrives when the rice is blossoming.”

Vietnam has signed contracts to export some 4 million tons of rice in 2008, a figure comparable to last year. Exports in the first quarter of 2008 were up 5.3 per cent year-on-year.

Earnings from rice exports, however, rose 43 per cent to 366 million dollars, due to rising global prices. Rice went up 70 dollars per tonne this week, worldwide.

February’s cold snap and rising global rice prices have led to price hikes across Vietnam.

The cost of rice in the domestic market has gone up some 20 per cent since the beginning of this year, with prices rising dramatically in the last month. Nguyet said prices have now stabilized.

Vietnam comes second to Thailand in the world export market, but in fact produces more rice. But Vietnamese typically consume more rice than Thai people, leaving less available for export.

Consumption is especially high in rural areas, where poverty tends to be much higher than in cities.

“Vietnam consumes more rice than other countries because the country’s living standard is still low,” Dung said. “What would people eat instead of rice?”

Consumption of the national staple crop is typically high in poor and developing countries, said Lisa Studdert, a health specialist with the Asian Development Bank in Hanoi. Dietary diversity improves as countries grow richer, though this has risks as well.

“Diets dominated by rice, with low consumption of vegetables and meats, will be low in iron, and that’s where you get high levels of anemia,” Studdert said. “But often the diversification will come in the form of white bread, donuts, cakes, and high-fat meats. So that has a downside to it.”

Vietnam is unable to increase its rice production to take advantage of higher prices, due to the scarcity of land. Rapid urbanization and industrialization are reducing the territory available for agriculture.

“We cannot increase the rice output because there are more and more people, while the land available for farming is shrinking,” said Dung. “Meanwhile, rice productivity cannot be raised any further.”

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/194913,vietnam-limits-rice-exports-on-food-security-concerns.html

Vietnam’s rice field loss threatens food security: minister

 http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iF7vKNgxf62dnL1kRfr41US6DWGQ

HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam’s rapid industrialisation is threatening the country’s food security as rice fields are being lost to development, the agriculture minister has warned, state media reported Monday.

The growth of cities and new industrial parks could mean Vietnam stops exporting rice in coming years, Cao Duc Phat, the minister of agriculture and rural development, said according to the Vietnam News daily.

“The increasing allocation of farmlands for other purposes is a major threat to food security with many plots of fertile lands being turned into urban areas and industrial parks,” Phat was quoted as saying.

More than 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of farmland had been converted between 2001 and 2007, and last year alone 125,000 hectares of rice fields had been lost, he reportedly said.

At the current trend of arable land loss, rice production in Vietnam — one of the world’s largest exporters of the food staple — was expected to fall by about 1 million tonnes of rice per year, he said.

“In five years, the loss is expected to equal current rice exports,” he reportedly said. “It means that we will no longer have extra rice for export and, in the long term, the country’s food security will be threatened.”

Phat said Vietnam’s urbanisation and industrialisation were necessary but that agriculture remained the country’s “strong point,” adding that new industrial zones should be built in hilly areas and on exhausted farmlands.