Thịt Bằm

Simmered ground pork.

INGREDIENTS

• If possible, ask for some fat in the ground pork; otherwise you can add bacon as an ingredient.  If you want it lean, that’s fine too.
• Dice some white or yellow onions (to about a quarter of the size of your pinky fingernail.)  Remember the function of onion is to sweeten the dish.The sweetness lingers unlike with sugar; sugar brings the sweetness to the forefront.
• Marinate the ground pork lightly with salt, pepper, and diced onions.  You’re ready to go right away.
• If you use bacon, slice it to the size of your thumb nail.
• Mix a teaspoon of sugar with a teaspoon of soy sauce (for about a quarter pound of ground meat) in a small bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put a pot on the stove on high heat, toss in the bacon (if you only have lean ground pork). 
2. Otherwise, use some vegetable or corn oil.  Toss in the marinated ground pork.Brown the meat, stirring it frequently to separately it into small chunks (it’s up to you how small the chunk.)
3. Turn the heat to medium low and add the sugar/soy sauce mixture, a little at a time.
4. Start simmering the pot. A total of 15 minutes of cooking is enough if you want a quick meal. You can add water if you want more sauce (and more soy sauce/sugar too, to taste.)
5. Or you can simmer the pot until the onion disintegrates; it’s totally up to you.
6. Use it for your salad or eat with cooked rice.The sauce is for the rice.  It goes exceptionally well with fresh cucumber.
7. You can cook once and live with rice and thịt bằm for a whole week.  Just put the leftover in a plastic container and save it in the refrigerator.  When you’re hungry, just take it out, mix it with cooked rice, put it in the microwave for a minute or so.  Add a little fish sauce and few slices of fresh cucumber.  One of the quickest meal ever, and yet very tasty.
8. Note: I didn’t add fish sauce while cooking so as to avoid the smell; but if you’re going to finish it all in one serving, add the fish sauce toward the end of simmering.