Best Mah Haw Recipes

MAH-HAW (THAI SEASONED PORK ON PINEAPPLE)

Steps:

• Place peppercorns in a mortar and pound with a pestle until finely ground. Add cilantro root and garlic; pound until everything is mashed together well. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook garlic paste until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add pork and cook, stirring often, until pork is cooked through and mixed well with garlic paste, about 5 minutes. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar and stir until well combined. Mix in peanuts. Taste pork; it should taste savory with a hint of sweetness. Adjust seasonings if necessary.
• Peel, core, and slice pineapple into 1-inch slices. Cut slices into bite-sized pieces and lay onto a serving dish. Top pineapple pieces with pork mixture. Garnish each pineapple piece with a cilantro leaf and a sliver of red chile pepper.

MAH HAW

Steps:

• First, make the pesto by: Using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, crush or grind the peppercorns into a fine powder.
• Combine the pepper, cilantro and garlic and work into a fairly smooth paste in the mortar or in a small blender or food processor.
• 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.
• 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.
• Heat a wok or medium skillet over medium heat.
• Add the oil, and swirl to coat the surface of the pan.
• When oil is hot, add the Cilantro Pesto.
• Stir-fry the pesto until quite fragrant, about 2 minutes.
• Increase heat to medium high and crumble in the ground pork.
• Stir-fry the pork until it breaks up into small lumps, renders some of its fat, and is no longer pink, approzimately 2 minutes.
• Add the fish sauce and sugar and continue cooking, stirring and scraping often to brown and coat the meat evenly.
• 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.
• If needed add more fish sauce and/or sugar and return pan to heat in order to reduce the additions.
• Remove from the heat, transfer to a medium bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Peel the pineapple and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch-thick slices.
• Remove the hard core from the center of each slice and cut into 1-inch squares.
• You should have about 2 cups of squares.
• To serve, mound a spoonful of savory pork onto pineapple square.
• Garnish each mound with pepper strips and cilantro leaves.
• Transfer to a platter and serve at room temperature as a finger food.