Snails braised with green banana and pork

Ingredients

• 2 kg of freshwater snails
• 5 green bananas
• 200 g of thinly sliced pork belly
• 5 pieces of tofu
• 50 g of rice starter (or starter culture)
• 1 tablespoon of fermented shrimp paste (mắm tôm)
• 5 tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 fresh turmeric rhizome, grated and squeezed
• 50 g of ginger, grated
• Fresh perilla (also known as “tía tô”)
• salt, sugar, garlic, dried chili peppers, fish sauce

Soak the snails in rice water for 1 hour, then rinse them several times. Steam the snails, remove the shells, rub the meat with salt and vinegar, rinse, and drain.

Peel the green bananas, cut them into 5mm thick diagonal slices, and soak them in lemon water.

Combine the minced pork belly with the chopped garlic, galangal, shrimp paste, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar, and mix well for 10 minutes. Then, brown the mixture and add water, allowing it to simmer.

Marinate the banana slices with turmeric, rice vinegar, shrimp paste, salt, and sugar, then briefly brown them.

Combine the snails with galangal, rice vinegar, shrimp paste, nuoc-mâm, sugar, and dried chili peppers, then briefly sauté.

Add the bananas, snails, and tomatoes to the pork stockpot. Adjust the seasoning, then sprinkle with perilla.

Serve with rice vermicelli or plain rice.