Cơm Tấm

Method

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1. Pound the lemongrass, garlic and shallots to a rough paste, then mix with the fish sauce, honey, sugar, soy, oil and pepper.

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2. Pound the pork chops lightly to an even thickness and marinate them for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

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3. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water for the nước chấm, then add the fish sauce and lime juice. Taste — it should be balanced, not aggressive. Add the garlic and chilli last so they float.

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4. Rinse and cook the broken rice with slightly less water than usual, as the grains absorb faster. It should be soft and slightly clumping.

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5. Heat a griddle pan or barbecue to high.

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6. Grill the pork for 4 to 5 minutes a side, basting with the leftover marinade for the first turn only, until well charred at the edges and cooked through.

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7. Rest the pork 5 minutes, then slice thickly.

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8. Fry the eggs so the whites are crisp at the edges and the yolks still run.

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9. Mound rice on each plate, lay the pork alongside, top with a fried egg, and add pickles, cucumber and tomato. Spoon over spring onion oil and serve the nước chấm in a bowl to pour over everything.

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Chef’s Tips

• Stop basting with the raw marinade in the final minutes so the surface can char rather than steam.
• Broken rice is sold in Vietnamese shops and is worth seeking out; jasmine rice works but is not the same.
• Make more nước chấm than you think you need. It goes on everything on the plate.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• Out of spring onion? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• A pinch of dried chilli flakes works in place of fresh chilli — start with about a third of the quantity the red chillies in the list implies, since dried chilli is more concentrated, and add more to taste.
• Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.

Pairing Suggestions

• Iced Vietnamese coffee
• A cold beer
• Canh, a light clear soup, on the side

Storage & Reheating

Marinated pork keeps 2 days raw and 3 days cooked. Nước chấm keeps 1 week refrigerated.

Common questions

Nutritional Highlights

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Treat these as an estimate — brands and cuts vary.