Vietnamese Caramel Pork

I made this recipe last night and the sweetness of the brown sugar in the sauce was just too much.  Luckily I tasted it prior to dumping all of the sauce into the wok (I only used part of the sauce, just enough to glaze)  or we wouldn't have been able to eat it. The fish sauce gets lost in the brown sugar sauce, so next time I'll do less brown sugar and a bit more fish sauce.  The recipe allows for no seasoning of the meat so I added a mix of a dash of salt, white pepper, and galangal powder which perked it right up.  Once I made those little changes, it came out okay.

We loved this dish.  Super easy, healthy and delicious! http://determinedwwmomma.blogspot.com

We loved this.  Not difficult at all to make and every bit as good as what you'd get from a Chinese restaurant.  Will definitely make this often.  We had a Thai-inspired cucumber salad along side.  Perfect.  I would definitely make this for guests - but a double batch of course.

This was excellent. Loved the combination of flavors with all the garnishes. Will definitely make again!

I love so many CL Asian recipes but this just wasn't one of them. As someone else referenced, it was rather bland and I tasted no "caramel" flavor. It looked great on paper but I will not be making this again : (

We have made this many times and my 3 children love it. I did not use the carrot or cabbage because we do not care for either and do not have it on and and still felt it was perfect. Served with rice and edamame.

Made pork to recipe. Subbed thin coleslaw mix instead of buying head of Napa cabbage. Followed contentedgirl's suggestion & served with CL's sushi-rice-and-green peas. Also fresh pineapple spears. Very good supper.

This dish is as delicious as it is easy. After quickly inhaling his first portion, my husband proclaimed that this was his new favorite recipe! I made it exactly as written and it turned out perfectly. It's a great new addition to our regular rotation of weekday meals.

I was really disapponted in his one. It took me more like 50 minutes to prepare and was nothing special. I have lots of tastier stir fry recipes. Will not make this one again.

I thought this was delicious. Mixed reviews from the family though, so dropped a star. The only change I made was to use thick cut pork chops instead of pork tender loin (They were on sale), other than that I made it exactly as written and served over white rice. Great combination of sweet and spice. So here were the families comments: Daughter (12) - Too sweet. Son (8) - Too bland and too spicy (I'll let YOU try and figure out what that means) and the Wife just said that it had a little too much ginger. Overall I thought it was delicious and would make it again. I'll have to tweak it a tad and try and sneak it back in the rotation.

I made this recipe the other night for my husband & step son who was visiting. They both raved & said that this was the best pork tenderloin they'd eaten! Quite the praise for this recipe. The only difference I made was that instead of just putting it over the plain rice, I used the recipe for the rice with green peas and rice vinegar from the CL Caramel Pork recipe. Other than that, I followed it exactly. Definitely one I will make again - especially with those kind of praises!

I too used matchstick cut carrots and added some sugar snap peas. I didn't want the veges to boil to nothing so I removed them before adding the sauce so I could boil it down to a sticky, glossy glaze. I also used sambal olek instead of red pepper flake. My husband pronounced it excellent!

I was picturing this recipe as having a really thick caramel-y sauce, almost like a glaze, but I just couldn't get the sauce thick enough even after simmering for 10 minutes. Next time I might try some extra sugar and cornstarch. Otherwise, it wasn't bad-- just not better than any other recipe in my stir fry repertoire.

We had to make a few substitutions, so I'm interested to see if this comes out better if I follow the recipe exactly. Will try it again!

Awesome recipe! Just the right amount of sticky sweet heat. We prepared with jasmine rice. Stir frys always seem to take longer than expected so it was more than 40 min for me but once the prep was done it whizzed by. This is a keeper recipe!

Really enjoyed the spice level and the flavors in this quick and easy recipe. I used pre-cut matchstick carrots, which made it even quicker. Will definitely make again.

This is an excellent recipe with a lot of flavor. Stuck to the recipe and it really delivered.

Real good. I followed the directions except I added the cabbage into the mix at the end when the pork gets added back in so it would be heated up a little bit instead of raw. Ill make this one again for sure.

This was a bit bland for our taste. The carrot was overpowering (maybe I threw in more than a cup?) and we detected no "caramel" flavor. It WAS fast, though, which I appreciate - but there are other Asian CL recipes we like much better that are just as fast. Szechuan Green Beans with Ground Pork (April 2006) is one we've enjoyed dozens of times.

Hit will the whole family (including a 2 yr old). The recipe was just as fast as the cooking light magazine said it would be, which is a huge help for a busy weeknight. Can't wait to make it again!