Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork, with a spritz of Chili Vinegar
This is the comforting, salty-sweet dish everybody loves, adapted to make Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. (If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can slow-cook the pork in a crockpot or dutch oven.) It’s actually a bit mild for our taste, but we solve the problem with generous amounts of Chili Vinegar or Nam Pla Prik Manao Kratiem (Thai Crack Sauce). Makes quite a few servings, perhaps 10-12 when served over rice.
Ingredients:
Pork shoulder or leg roast, 4-6 lbs
2 T neutral oil for sautéing
8 or more garlic cloves, chopped
4 or more coriander roots, chopped (use coriander stems if you don’t have roots)
3 cloves
2 whole star anise
¾ t white pepper
1 stick cinnamon
8 slices galangal (Thai ginger, optional)
½ t fennel seeds
2 T soy sauce
2 T oyster sauce
2 T fish sauce
2 t five spice powder
¼ c brown sugar
1-2 c water
Approx 2 T additional fish sauce, to correct seasoning
Approx 2 T lime juice, to correct seasoning
Salt to taste, about a t
Method: Heat oil in Instant Pot on Sauté setting. Cut pork into several large chunks (maybe 3 inches square). Brown in batches, including the meat attached to the bone if there is one. Reserve. Briefly sauté garlic and coriander root and spices until aromatic. Return pork to the pot and add soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Add water; you can use as little as 1 c but we like to use 2 c so the meat will have more contact with the sauce, then cook it down after. Seal and cook on high pressure with natural release 50 minutes if you want pork chunks that hang together, 60 minutes if you want something close to pulled pork.
Coriander Root. This are longer than usual. The fibrous ends aren’t edible but can be used for flavoring.
When pork is cool enough to handle, remove it from the pot. Strain off as much fat as you like (there will be a lot of fat) with a ladle or by cooling in refrigerator till fat becomes solid. Simmer the juice in a pan (or just return to Instant Pot) till reduced by half. (Skip this step if you used just 1 c water to begin with.) Strain out solids and taste; you may like it just the way it is but we add a bit of lime juice, fish juice and salt at this point.
Unless pork is falling-apart tender, cut it into approx 1 inch bite size pieces. Heat the pork and sauce together in a wok (or do it in stages on the Sauté setting of IP) till it crisps on the edges. Serve hot, over rice.
