Re-entering the Kitchen: Hainanese Pork Chop Revisited

Yang has been asking for this dish for a while since last year but I’ve been reluctant to cook Hainanese pork chop as deep frying will be involved. Imagine the oily splatter, big volume of cooking oil required, and the cleaning up later. However, I was in the mood to revisit this dish and managed to cook it for dinner recently. And boy, I must say it tasted better than before.

I didn’t have any cream crackers at hand and hence used leftover panko in the fridge. Unlike my previous attempt, I had the potato slices this time. I also let the pork marinate longer. The result was tender, flavourful and crispy pork chop over a bed of lovely onion-cum-tomato sauce. Oh yes, I reduced the amount of oil for frying and it was fine too.

We had this pork chop dish with black bean lotus soup and steamed white rice. It was such a satisfying meal! :D

Below is the recipe I tweaked from my previous attempt:

Ingredients

250 g pork loin – sliced into 1 cm thickness

1/2 cup plain flour

1 egg, beaten

1 cup panko

1 tomato – cut into wedges

1 onion – sliced

1 Russet potato – peeled and sliced

Marinade for pork loin:

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp rice wine

A dash of ground pepper

A dash of five spice powder

A few drops of sesame oil

Sauce mixture:

1/2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

6 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tbsp vinegar

1/2 cup water + 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in it

Method

1)     Place the pork loin slices in a single layer in a sandwich plastic bag. Beat them with a meat mallet or the spine of a cleaver to flatten and tenderize.

2)     Mix pork with marinade well, cover with cling wrap and set aside in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

3)     Fry potato slices until lightly browned. Set aside.

4)     Coat marinated pork slices in flour, followed by egg and then panko. Make sure the pork is thoroughly covered with panko crumbs.

5)     Heat up cooking oil (roughly 1 cm height) in a frying pan and fry the pork chops until golden brown, turning them as necessary with a pair of long wooden chopsticks or tongs. Drain the excess oil from the fried pork chops and let it cool before cutting into long strips and arranging on a serving dish.

6)     In a non-stick pan, sauté sliced onions until fragrant, then add tomato wedges and sauté further. Add water + cornstarch mixture, stir, and then add the rest of the sauce mixture (i.e. chilli sauce, tomato sauce, sugar, light soy sauce and vinegar). Add fried potatoes. Stir and allow the sauce to thicken slightly.  Adjust seasoning if needed and pour everything over the pork chops.

7)     Serve immediately with steamed white rice.

Bliss! :D