Vietnamese Pork Chops

The boy normally doesn’t like anything done to his pork chops, preferring them plain, but a new Asian cookbook has arrived through the post and he has been busy bookmarking all the things he would like to try. This is a simple recipe to start with.

1tbsp sugar

2tbsp Nam pla (fish sauce)

4 garlic cloves, bashed

1tbsp oil

4 butcher’s pork chops, fat-on

Nuoc Chanh (see below)

2 carrots

3 small cucumbers

2 tomatoes

1 lime

Jasmine rice

Chopped coriander to garnish

Mix the sugar, Nam pla, garlic and oil in a shallow bowl. Slash the chops with a knife and mix well with the marinade and let it sit for half an hour.

The boy is getting the rice on. Even though Jasmine rice is meant to be sticky he’s rinsing it three times before getting it going in the rice cooker.

In a hot frying pan, cook the chops well. Use tongs to hold them fat side down in the pan so it crisps up nicely. There isn’t a diet version of this. It will take about 10 minutes. The chops should look caramelised, not flabby and white.

Prepare the veg – it’s all raw. Cut the carrot into very fine julienne (or grate longways if you haven’t the patience). The boy seems to think we have a julienne-ing machine. For this reason our julienne may end up more like carrot ‘french-fries’ as he attempts to do it himself.  If the cucumbers are small, quarter them lengthways. If not, keep going until they look elegant. Cut the tomatoes into eighths.

Rest the chops. Add any leftover marinade to the pan and bring to the boil. Tip any of the resting juices into the pan.  Place the chops on plates, pour the marinade over and serve with the rice. Add the prepped veg as a kind of deconstructed salad, sprinkled with fresh lime and a little salt.

Garnish the plate with coriander and serve with dipping sauce in tiny bowls on the side. The boy likes this as it seems to him quite sophisticated. It is too.

Nuoc Mam Chanh

This is a Vietnamese dipping sauce- it’s less heavy on fish sauce than Nuoc Cham.

2tbsp lime juice

25g sugar

5 red chillies

4 garlic cloves

1 tbsp nam pla

Grind everything but the lime and nam pla in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Add the lime and nam pla. Add a tbsp. of rice vinegar if it is too thick. It improves with a rest in the fridge. Serve to dip bites of pork chop into.