cook: lemongrass pork rice noodle bowls

I was not wanting to skewer tiny pieces of meat--a time-consuming and tedious task. Jagalchi copper grill to the rescue, and so I defrosted pork shoulder, cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and marinated the protein in lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and baking soda for the day. Before leaving for the clay studio, I peeled, cut in halves and julienned daikon and carrot, salted and then pickled the vegetables in a brine of sugar, vinegar, and water. Evening arrived, and I placed all the pork into the copper grate. While the meat grilled over burning charcoal, I took out the pickles and rinsed 3 Persian cucumbers.      

I also boiled water and put out the rice sticks or noodles and then gathered mint and Thai basil from the herb garden.

While the meat was grilling to golden brown delicious, I plunged the vermicelli rice noodles into the boiling water for a few minutes and then into an ice bath.

For the mise en place, I had chopped butter lettuce, sliced cucumbers, drained radish and carrot salad, herbs and the herbs.

My neighbor kindly made the nuoc cham or sauce of sugar, warm water, fish sauce, sambal oelek, and lime juice. Dinner was served. We ate. And the leftovers became my lunch the next day.                  

Such an easy meal. I placed leftover noodles and vegetables in a bowl and zapped the meat separately in the microwave for 2 minutes before tossing all together with leftover nuoc cham. Healthy and delicious.