Tép Rang Ba Roi (School Prawns Wok-Tossed with Pork Belly)

This was a result of finding steeply discounted pork belly at the grocery store and wanting to do something new with it. I ended up making a triple batch, due to the amount of pork belly; this writeup is for the original amounts.

It also recommends serving it with a side of chopped birds-eye chili in fish sauce for dipping, although I just had it as is over rice and was quite pleased with the results.

As written it calls for "small school prawns", saying that they are "very small and are best eaten with the shells still intact". This, I think, marks them as smaller than the shrimp readily available in the grocery store here, and I ended up making the recipe with de-shelled small shrimp instead; that said, I would like to try it with even smaller crustacea at some point.

Tép Rang Ba Roi

From The Songs of Sapa by Luke Nguyen (p.124)

Ingredients

• Pork Belly Marinade
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tsp finely chopped lemongrass, white parts only
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp ground black pepper
• Prawn Marinade
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp finely chopped lemongrass, white parts only
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine
• 200g small shrimp or prawns, legs and heads trimmed, optionally peeled
• 200g lean, boneless pork belly, skin on, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp sliced green onion

Directions

1. Combine salt, rice wine, and 1 C water in a bowl.
2. Add prawns, wash thoroughly in the rice wine mix, then strain and discard washing liquid.
3. Combine all ingredients for the prawn marinade. Toss with prawns and let stand 15 minutes.
4. Combine all ingredients for the pork belly marinade. Toss with pork belly and let stand 15 minutes.
5. Heat a wok.
6. Add oil, shallots, and pork (with marinade). Stir-fry until browned.
7. Add prawns (with marinade) and continue stir-frying until prawns change colour.
8. Add remaining garlic and green onion, stir-fry for another minute, then serve over rice.