You haven’t had a true melt-in-your-mouth pork belly experience until you’ve tried Grandma’s Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste. A winning combination – lemongrass and shrimp paste – gives this dish an incredibly deep flavour full of fragrant fall apart pork.
Simple and easy, this is a recipe you can make using only one dish!
For a dried version, try our Thịt Kho Mắm Ruốc (Pork with Shrimp Paste)!
Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste recipe
Grandma’s dinner spreads have always been out of this world, but her Steamed Lemongrass Pork with Shrimp Paste is one that excites us every single time.
You know you’ve got a winning recipe when the extended family asks you to make extra for them or when it’s the ONLY dish your friends request for when they come over!
But here’s why we love it so much:
- You can make it all using 1 dish. Put everything in the one dish and let the flavours melt into one another.
- You only need 4 main ingredients. Pork belly, lemongrass, shrimp paste and garlic. Most of the items you’ll already have in your pantry!
- Steaming means extra sauce for your rice. All that fragrant pork juice becomes liquid gold.
- We use the ingredient that makes all the difference – add a little shrimp paste for the most memorable melt-in-your-mouth pork belly affair.
Let me say it once more: melt-in-your-mouth pork belly.
Need I say more?
Why you have to try Grandma's steamed version
I’ve been to friends’ houses where their Mums would make this dish as a stir fry.
While enjoyable, I find that it makes the pork quite salty. You can only have a bit at a time. Plus, there’s very little sauce to go around!
But when I eat rice, I like to have it soaking up every drop of flavour. With Grandma’s steamed version, it’s a lot less salty, your rice can be SMOTHERED in lemongrass shrimp sauce and you can enjoy larger quantities of pork belly!
What IS shrimp paste?
Shrimp paste is a popular thick sauce that stars in Southeast Asian cuisines. I won’t lie about the smell – it is really quite pungent, which is why we generally open all our kitchen windows when we use copious amounts of shrimp paste.
While it can be a scent that needs some getting used to, the flavour that it adds to homecooked dishes is unmatched.
It’s basically shrimp that has been dried in the sun then mixed with salt. From this, the shrimp break down while the mixture thickens. It is then ground into a paste and left to ferment until ready to be sold.
Ingredients for Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste
The ingredient list to this family favourite is so simple! If you’ve cooked many Asian dishes, you’ll likely have most of these on hand already!
- 750 g / 1.65 lb pork belly
- 5 stalks lemongrass, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 4 tsp fine shrimp sauce (we buy it from the local Asian supermarket)
- 1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 chilli, finely chopped (optional)
How to make Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste
Preparing the lemongrass
Our lemongrass needs to be finely chopped and you can do it in one of two ways:
(1) Using a knife, cut off the bulb of the lemongrass, slice the stem thinly and chop it until it becomes fine.
(2) If you have a food processor, thinly slice the lemongrass then blitz it until it is fairly course. Food processors are much more powerful than chopping by hand, so make sure the lemongrass does not become too fine. We still want some lemongrass texture as we eat the pork belly.
Otherwise, you can buy frozen chopped lemongrass in the Asian section of the supermarket. Just let it thaw before use!
How to prepare the pork belly
Use a sharp knife to remove the outer skin of the pork belly.
Make a slit between the meat and the skin, grab a hold of the skin and run the knife between the two parts, pulling the skin toward you as you separate the flesh from skin.
If your pork belly comes with bone, remove it by slicing across from just under the bone.
Hold the pork still with one hand (bone side up), turn the blade to the side and cut from right to left until the bone is detached.
Preparing the Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste
Set up the steamer. The set up is identical to the way we cooked our Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Black Beans.
Meanwhile, cut the pork belly into 1 cm x 1/2 cm x 2 cm (1/2″ x 1/4″ x 1″) chunks.
Try to get both fat and meat layers in each piece so that when eaten, there’ll be a different texture from each part.
Put the pork belly, lemongrass, chilli, shrimp paste, sugar and chicken bouillon powder onto a steamable dish.
Mix all the contents until the pork belly is covered.
When the water is boiling on a high heat, put the dish into the steamer for 1 hour. Be careful not to burn yourself from the steam!
Tip: When steaming, use thin metal dishes. They’re steam-safe and help to cook the meat mush faster.
Serve hot with rice!
More family-friendly pork belly dishes
Love the melt-in-your-mouth pork belly experience? Here are the ones our family treasure:
- Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce (豉汁蒸排骨)
- Steamed Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens (梅菜扣肉)
- Steamed Pork Belly with Salted Radish
- Taiwanese Pork Belly Bao (Gua Bao)
- Vietnamese Braised Pork Belly and Eggs in Coconut Water (Thịt Kho)
- Bun Thit Nuong (Grilled Pork Noodle Salad)
You’ll have the best time eating these with a big bowl of steaming hot rice!
Lots of Love,
Jeannette
Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste
Ingredients
- 750 g / 1.65 lb pork belly
- 5 stalks lemongrass, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 4 tsp fine shrimp sauce (we get it from the local Asian supermarket)
- 1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 chilli, finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preparing The Pork Belly
- Use a sharp knife to remove the outer skin of the pork belly. Make a slit between the meat and the skin, grab a hold of the skin and run the knife between the two parts, pulling the skin toward you as you separate the flesh from skin.
- If your pork belly comes with bone, remove it by slicing across from just under the bone. Hold the pork still with one hand (bone side up), turn the blade to the side and cut from right to left until the bone is detached.
Preparing the Steamed Lemongrass Pork With Shrimp Paste
- Set up the steamer
- Meanwhile, cut the pork belly into 1 cm x 1/2 cm x 2 cm (1/2″ x 1/4″ x 1″) chunks. Try to get both fat and meat layers in each piece so that when eaten, there’ll be a different texture from each part.
- Put the pork belly, lemongrass, chilli, shrimp paste, sugar and chicken bouillon powder onto a steamable dish.
- Put the pork and lemongrass mixture onto a steamable plate and add the lemongrass, garlic and chilli in.
- Mix all the contents until the pork belly is covered.
- When the water is boiling on a high heat, put the dish into the steamer for 1 hour. Be careful not to burn yourself from the steam!
- Serve hot with rice!
SHARE YOUR CREATION!
If you recreated this authentic recipe, I’d love to see it! Tag @wokandkin on Instagram with the hashtag #wokandkin! See you there!
WANT MORE HOME COOKED RECIPES?
Subscribe to our email list and be the first to get recipe updates as soon as they’re posted. You can also follow Wok & Kin on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!
This sounds so flavorful! I just love lemongrass. 🙂
Thanks, Carrie!
My husband loves pork belly so I know he will devour this steamed lemongrass pork.
That’s great to hear, Kelly!
Just made a batch of this and the flavors are so good! I already love lemongrass, so when it’s mixed in with pork and the shrimp paste, it’s a winning dish.
This sounds really good. Lots of flavor packed in there. I love lemongrass too!
Such great flavors in this dish!
Thanks!
Oooo!! Wondering if this can me made in the instant pot?!
You certainly can! I would suggest cooking it on High Pressure for 20 minutes 🙂
Hi! I’m Filipino and my husband is Vietnamese, so i have two types of shrimp paste in my pantry (Filipino bagoong and Vietnamese mắm tôm), and they taste quite different! I’m assuming, due to your Vietnamese influences, mắm tôm is a better choice for this recipe?
Hi, Meme! Yes, ideally the Vietnamese version would be more suited to this recipe. But as always, adjust to preference 😉