How to make Shanghainese pork chop and vegetable rice, an easy all-in-one dish
- Packed with protein, starch and vegetables, this should satisfy every craving
- The longer the meat marinades, the better it will be
Shanghainese pork chop and vegetable rice is an all-in-one dish: you get everything you need on a plate (or in a bowl) – carbs, vegetables and meat. I make the rice with as much vegetable as grain, so it is lighter than what you find in restaurants. I also like to mix in a bit of lard (or rendered chicken fat) at the end, which makes the rice more fragrant and delicious. If you don’t have either fat on hand, mix in a small amount of sesame oil.
Shanghainese pork chop and vegetable rice
Marinate the pork chops for at least an hour, although longer (three to four hours) is better. To tenderise the pork, you need a meat mallet (also called a meat tenderiser), a heavy, handheld implement made of metal or wood (metal is better) that resembles a large hammer with dull spikes on one side and a flat surface on the other.
Some people claim you can use other hard objects, such as a rolling pin, small metal panor wine bottle, as a substitute. They are wrong. Both surfaces of the meat mallet are small enough to get into the contours of most bones, unlike a rolling pin or metal pan. And unlike a wine bottle, you don’t have to worry about it breaking. (Do you really want to pound something with glass?) I use both sides of the mallet to pound the chops – the spiked surface, which tenderises, and the flat surface, which tenderisesand also flattens the meat so it cooks quickly.
Of the several types of coating I have tried for the pork chops, my favourite is Gogi (or Kogi) powder from Thailand. On the label it states that it is tempura flour, but it is not the same as Japanese tempura flour. Buy the unseasoned type that contains just plain flour, tapioca flour and leavening. I also like water chestnut starch, but that is difficult to find outside Chinese markets. Panko – Japanese breadcrumbs – are good too, as is cracker meal. Flour and cornstarch are acceptable in a pinch.
For the pork chops:
8 bone-in pork chops, about 8mm (3/8 inch) thick and weighing about 125 grams each