MAH HAW

savory minced pork on pineapple from real thai:the best of thailand's regional cooking by nancie mcdermott copyright 1992. mah haw translates from vietnamese as "horses of the haw people", although it doesn't contain horse meat (although, i suppose, if you can't get good pork for whatever reason - or you don't eat pork for whatever reason - it probably could be made with any other type of ground meat, including horse). can be used as an appetizer for 8 to 10 people or as a main course for 3 to 4 people.

Time: 16 minutes

Number Of Ingredients: 10

Ingredients: vegetable oil,pork,fish sauce,palm sugar,pineapple,sweet red peppers,fresh cilantro leaves,white peppercorns,fresh coriander,garlic

Steps:

1. first , make the pesto by: using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder , crush or grind the peppercorns into a fine powder
2. combine the pepper , cilantro and garlic and work into a fairly smooth paste in the mortar or in a small blender or food processor
3. if you opt to use a blender or food processor , you may need to add a little vegetable oil or water to ease the grinding
4. to keep the pesto for later use , put it in a glass jar , pour a little oil on top to cover it and seal tightly
5. heat a wok or medium skillet over medium heat
6. add the oil , and swirl to coat the surface of the pan
7. when oil is hot , add the cilantro pesto
8. stir-fry the pesto until quite fragrant , about 2 minutes
9. increase heat to medium high and crumble in the ground pork
10. stir-fry the pork until it breaks up into small lumps , renders some of its fat , and is no longer pink , approzimately 2 minutes
11. add the fish sauce and sugar and continue cooking , stirring and scraping often to brown and coat the meat evenly
12. after approximately 4 minutes , when the meat is nicely browned , remove the pan from the heat and taste the sauce for a pleasantly salty-sweet balance
13. if needed add more fish sauce and / or sugar and return pan to heat in order to reduce the additions
14. remove from the heat , transfer to a medium bowl and allow to cool to room temperature
15. peel the pineapple and cut crosswise into 1 / 4 inch-thick slices
16. remove the hard core from the center of each slice and cut into 1-inch squares
17. you should have about 2 cups of squares
18. to serve , mound a spoonful of savory pork onto pineapple square
19. garnish each mound with pepper strips and cilantro leaves
20. transfer to a platter and serve at room temperature as a finger food