Spicy Rice Noodles with Crispy Pork

I’ve been out of town for quite some time (hence the lack of posts recently) and so my home cooking opportunities have been few and far between. But I have been able to come home every other weekend and usually try to make something that will yield some leftovers for my poor husband to eat while I’m gone. I thought this spicy Thai dish would be a good one. And it turned out to not only be good the day we made it, but the reports from my husband were that it was also good a few days later. The original recipe, which I found on The Kitchn, called for glass noodles but we were unable to find them and substituted rice noodles, which turned out quite tasty!

1 pound ground pork
1 package rice noodles
3 green onions, sliced into thin rounds
Handful roughly chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice (from 1 lime)

Optional (we omitted since Steve doesn’t like peanuts)
2 tablespoons peanuts, roughly chopped
Extra chopped peanuts for garnishing

Heat a teaspoon of canola or vegetable oil in a skillet over medium high heat, and then add the pork. Cook for 5 minutes and try to break up the pork as much as you can to get tiny crumbles. Ours was still probably a bit too big. Then cook for another 3-5 minutes while stirring infrequently to get a nice golden crispy crust on the pork. Set aside on a paper towel.

While you’re cooking the pork, put the rice noodles in a bowl of hot water to soften up. Read the instructions on the box and follow them but this should take just 5-10 minutes. Then you’ll want to use kitchen shears to cut them into smaller more manageable noodles. Bring water to boil and finish cooking (according to package instructions) before draining and pouring them into a large bowl.

Stir together the pork and noodles plus green onions, cilantro, red pepper flakes and the optional peanuts. In a smaller dish combine the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. The original recipe called for more lime juice, but I ran out and was actually ok with the final mix. But taste it and adjust if you want. Pour the sauce into the bowl with everything else and gently toss to combine. The noodles are subject to pack mentality and want to stay together and reject everything else, but try your best to combine them. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or so and then retoss and serve! It is a nice summery dish, light and cool but with a good Thai heat.