Yang’s mother cooks great dishes. Matt can attest to that :) Recently, Yang missed Hainanese pork chops and asked me to try whipping up the dish.
I bought too much pork (~450g) and hence had to remove the potato slices from the recipe. Otherwise we’ll have trouble finishing up the food. The traditional recipe calls for potato. I’ll do that the next time. :)
I learned two new methods while preparing this dish: 1) Using crushed Hup Seng Cream crackers as bread crumbs, and 2) tenderizing the meats using the blunt spine of my chopper. Yang had fun creating the crumbs by pressing them in a ziplock bag while I enjoyed ‘boxing’ the meats with the back of my chopper. :P
The result was terrific. The pork chops tasted hmmmm juicy and tender and the sauce complemented well. The only thing about cooking anything deep fried is the lingering smell and oilyness of the kitchen. The cleaning up always require more time and energy. It’s time to check out those deep fryers.
Below is the recipe for those who are interested. :)
Ingredients (serves 2)
250 g pork chops / pork loin
1 small potato, sliced
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1 onion, quartered
Frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas), 4 tbsps
9 Hup Seng cream crackers, crushed into fine crumbs in ziplock bag (alternative: panko)
1/4 cup plain flour
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)
Marinade for pork chops
a pinch of salt
rice wine, 1 tbsp
a dash of pepper
a dash of 5-spice powder
a few drops of sesame oil
cornstarch (1/2 tbsp)
Sauce Mix
water (1/2 cup)
cornstarch (1/2 tsp)
light soy sauce (2 tsps)
sweet chilli sauce (1/2 tbsp)
tomato ketchup (6 tbsps)
sugar (2 tbsps)
rice vinegar (1/2 tbsp)
a few drops of sesame oil
Method
1) Sandwich the pork chops between 2 sheets of cling wrap and beat lightly with the blunt side of chopper knife or a meat mallet to tenderize them. (Note: thick chops must be sliced to at least 1 cm thickness)
2) Mix pork with marinade, wrap and set aside for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
3) Pan fry potato slices until lightly brown. Set aside.
4) Get ready the flour, beaten egg and crumbs in 3 separate plates. Dip pork into flour, then egg and finally crumbs. Make sure pork chops are thoroughly coated with crumbs before deep fry until golden brown.
5) Let the chops cool before cutting them into strips. Arrange them on a serving dish.
6) In a non-stick pan, saute onion. Add tomato wedges and frozen mixed vegetables and stir-fry for 2-3 mins.
7) Add water & cornstarch mixture. Next, add sugar, chilli sauce, ketchup, light soy sauce and vinegar. Stir to mix evenly.
8) Add fried potatoes. Allow sauce to thicken. Add a few drops of sesame oil. Adjust seasoning if needed.
9) Pour over the pork chop strips and serve immediately with steamed white rice. Enjoy! :D
oohh… have u guys tried chin chin coffeeshop at purvis street? not bad, we quite like their hainanese pork chops ^^ and fried tow gay.
oh, deep fryers use A LOT of oil n the cleaning up is not easy too =( might as well get air-fryer. heard there is such a thing. fry in AIR. yeah.
Yang is not the coffeeshop type. He’ll melt before the dish is served. :P
Air fryer sounds healthy! :D
I just like eating in very clean environments.:)
hahaha, but sometimes, can’t deny that some good food are in the most lok kok places! when the food is good, don’t look at the kitchen =P cos u may lose your appetite sometimes, if u do.
oh when i want to fry chicken wings n don’t want my kitchen to get dirty, i lay them on a baking tray, spray with oil (use an oil sprayer) then bake. tastes quite the same nei. n kitchen won’t become smelly. healthier too cos use teeny bit of oil.
Hi Ann, can your method of alternative-deep-frying be applied to the pork chops recipe by Ling?
hi orpisai *can’t help but LOL at your nick*
i donno nei… never tried before…
hi ann, thanks. don’t know how shocked-out chek yang was when i submitted my first post under this nick..:) we tried baking the drumsticks according to your suggested method and yes, it tasted good but would have preferred the pong deep-fried skin anytime. your suggested method to bake the chicken won’t give the same pong fried skin like the KFC type is it?
Orpisai and I go back a loooooooong way, right? We were on the predecessors of online forums in NTU, and also at the first ever Meet-Up session at my place for those forumers 14 years ago.:)
ya lah, long time already….now you have spilled the beans on my age..!!! *sob*
Hi! I just made these too. Yours is very similar to the version my mother used to make but the one I made this time is without ketchup :)
The version with ketchup is lip-smackingly good. Couldn’t imagine having this dish without the sauce.:)
I just tried your recipe (with agar-ation) today and it was delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Huay Wen,
I’m glad to know that you liked this dish too :) Thanks for letting me know and you’re welcomed! :D