For this dish, I like to use whole, unpeeled fresh shrimp with the heads intact, because they have a lot more flavour and stay juicier when cooked than peeled shrimp. If you do prefer to remove the heads and shells, use them to make a shrimp stock: put them in a saucepan with 200ml of water, bring to the boil then lower the heat, cover the pan with the lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid through a colander into a bowl. Instead of using the plain water this recipe calls for, use 150ml of the shrimp stock.  

Clay pot shrimp with glass vermicelli, fresh green peppercorns and Thai basil

150 grams medium-sized fresh shrimp about 10cm from head to tail
100 grams glass vermicelli (also called mung bean noodles or fen si)
15ml cooking oil
100 grams skin-on pork belly
1/4 of a large onion
2 garlic cloves
3 small branches (about 3cm-4cm long) fresh green peppercorns, divided
30 grams Chinese fermented yellow bean sauce
5ml soy sauce
5ml rice wine
5ml fish sauce
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
A small handful of Thai basil leaves
1-2 spring onions

Use kitchen shears to trim off the antennae, legs and pleopods (swimming limbs) from the shrimp. Soak the glass vermicelli in warm water for 15 minutes, then drain. Cut the pork belly into strips approximately 1cm wide. Slice the onion and garlic cloves. Take the individual peppercorns off two of the branches; leave the other branch whole. Put the yellow bean sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, fish sauce and sugar in a bowl and stir together. Cut the spring onion into 3cm lengths.

Place a sand pot (one that holds about 1.3 litres) over the medium-high flame of a gas burner and add the cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the whole green peppercorn branch and fry it for about a minute, turning it over as needed, until it darkens slightly. Take it from the pot and set it aside. Add the pork belly to the sand pot and cook, stirring often, until the meat loses its pink colour. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion starts to soften. Stir in the individual green peppercorn and the yellow bean mixture. Add the drained glass vermicelli and stir to coat with the ingredients, then pour in 150ml hot water (or the shrimp stock). Stir again, then cover the pot with the lid and cook for five minutes over a high flame. Uncover the pot and stir in the shrimp. Put the lid back on and cook until the liquid is fully absorbed (you'll hear it when it's ready - the ingredients will start to sizzle). Uncover the pot and stir in the Thai basil leaves and spring onion, then garnish with the whole green peppercorn branch. Serve immediately.