Juicy, tender slices of smoky grilled pork tossed together with fresh herbs, toasted rice powder and a spicy, zesty fish sauce dressing, Moo Nam Tok is a quintessential Thai salad recipe you need to make.
Combine fish sauce, brown sugar, white pepper and cilantro (coriander) roots in a small mixing bowl. Mix until brown sugar is dissolved.
Add marinade mixture to pork neck and let it sit for at least 10 minutes
Preheat grill or BBQ to high heat. You can also cook the pork neck in the oven at 200°C or 400°F.
Grill pork neck for 25-30 minutes until cooked through and slightly charred. If you are using the oven, this might take up to 45 minutes. Flip to the other side halfway through.
Let the grilled pork neck rest before slicing into thin slices.
Salad
On a dry pan, toast raw glutinous rice until golden brown.
Remove toasted glutinous rice from pan and use a mortar and pestle to grind the rice into a fine uneven powder.
Thinly slice red onion into half moons.
Wash and roughly chop mint and cilantro (coriander) leaves.
Chop scallions (spring onion) into small rounds.
Salad Dressing
Combine fish sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl.
Mix until brown sugar is dissolved.
Add chilli flakes and lime juice to mixture. Adjust flavours according to taste.
Assembly
In a large mixing bowl, add sliced pork, ground rice, red onions and salad dressing. Mix.
Then add cilantro (coriander), mint and scallion (spring onions) and lightly toss together.
Transfer to large platter and serve.
Notes
If you can’t find pork neck, try other cuts of pork, such as pork jowl, pork scotch steaks or pork shoulder. If you use pork belly, I would thinly slice first and grill pork belly slices instead of a whole piece.
Use jasmine rice instead of glutinous rice if unavailable.
If you don’t feel like making toasted rice powder, premade toasted rice powder is available at Asian greengrocers or substitute with crushed roasted peanuts.
If you don’t like cilantro, you can omit it from salad or switch it with Thai basil.
This fish sauce salad dressing is typically quite spicy. If you prefer more or less spicy, adjust the amount of chilli flakes used in the dressing.
It is important to taste the flavours of the fish sauce dressing and adjust accordingly. Depending on which brand of fish sauce you use, the final taste can vary.