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Sunday Supper: Vietnamese-Style Pork Chops with Caramel Sauce

Posted by Adam Kuban, March 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM

Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.

If you've been following along this week, you might know that I picked up a panini press for the office and have been using it to cook lunchtime sandwiches like a madman. Well, this crazy appliance also doubles as an electric grill, so I'm eager to try my hand at some recipes that require the use of either an outdoor grill or a grill pan on the stove. I figure the press/grill/griddle will work almost as well as a grill pan, which is what I would have to use (if I had one) on such a cold and rainy weekend. This recipe is for a dish that I'm going to try this week—Vietnamese-style grilled pork. While the first half of it requires the use of a stove, it's one that I've only ever finished over coals. The new electric grill worked like a charm for panini, so it's time to force it into some new territory.

Vietnamese-Style Pork Chops with Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

6 quarter-inch-thick boneless pork chops
1/3 cup sugar
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt

Procedure

1. Place the pork chops between two sheets of plastic wrap, leaving a large margin or wrap around chops. Pound pork flat with a meat pounder or rolling pin until about 1/8 inch thick. Halve the chops lengthwise and place them in a bowl.

2. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, dry and without stirring, until it starts melting. Keep cooking, now stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it melts into a caramel.

3. Add the shallots, lime juice, fish sauce, and salt. The caramel will harden, but keep cooking, now stirring constantly, until it dissolves and the shallots soften, about 2 minutes. Pour this sauce over the pork, tossing until meat is coated.

4. Lightly oil a grill pan and heat it over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking (or, in this case an electric grill press). Cook the pork in batches, turning once, until just cooked through, about a minute a side.

Note: Don't be ladlin' that caramel sauce over the chops while grilling or after. Cross-contamination and all, you know?

1 Comment | Tags: Asian, pork, pork chops, Sunday Suppers, Vietnamese

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