Barbecued pork fillet with Vietnamese caramel sauce

Pork

Ever since I baked coconut bread, my first Bill Granger recipe, a few months ago, I’ve enjoyed trying quite a few of his recipes and was lucky enough to dine at his restaurant Bills a few weeks ago. My latest ‘Bill’ dinner was his Barbecued pork fillet with Vietnamese caramel sauce which I found in this month’s Delicious magazine. It was a really simple, tasty mid-week dinner but it’s also fancy enough to serve at a dinner party or weekend lunch.

Heating the syrup

Start by making the sugar syrup. Place the brown and caster sugar in a small saucepan and add two tablespoons of water. Cook it over low heat, stirring until the sugars have dissolved then increase the heat to a medium heat and cook it a little more until it reduces. Don’t forget to keep stirring. It should take about two minutes to reduce. Set the pot aside to cool.

Glaze

Mix the rest of the glaze ingredients together in a jug and when the sugar syrup has cooled, add it to the jug.

Marinate the pork

To marinate the pork, mix the ingredients all together in a shallow dish or small bowl. The recipe recommends cutting the fillet in half first to make it easier to handle. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for 10 minutes while you heat up the barbeque.

Sizzling pork

Cook the pork on the barbeque turning it every few minutes so each side gets those glorious grill lines. It took about 14 minutes to gook through. I had some corn cobs wrapped in aluminum foil cooking away on the grill too.

Resting the pork

Rest the pork on a plate for 5 minutes after you take it off the barbeque.

Barbequed pork

Slice the pork up and pour the glaze over the top. Serve it with whatever you like. I served mine with grilled corn, purple carrots (my first purple carrots – delicious!) and potatoes. Enjoy!

Barbequed pork

Barbecued pork fillet with Vietnamese caramel sauce recipe by Bill Granger in Delicious magazine October 2011

serves 4

• 1 large pork fillet (at least 600g)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

For the glaze

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 long chili thinly sliced

To make the sauce, combine the sugars and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugars have dissolved. Up the heat to medium and continue to cook until the sauce reduces (about 2 minutes).

Remove the sauce from the heat and transfer it to a jug to cool.

When cooled, add the oil, fish sauce, lime juice and chili and mix it through.

To prepare the marinade for the pork, mix together the fish sauce, sugar and garlic in a bowl then add the pork fillet to the bowl and toss it around until it is coated. It’s easier to cut the fillet in half first. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for 10 minutes while the barbecue heats.

Cook the pork on the barbecue turning so that each side gets nice char lines. It should take 12-16 minutes to be cooked through.

Leave the pork to rest on a chopping board for 5 minutes and then slice it up.

Place the pork slices on a serving platter and dress with the caramel sauce.