Recipe: Vietnamese-Style Pork Chops with Fried Eggs & Rice

Recipe courtesy of our friend Luisa Ormonde of Luisa’s Catering. She’s an avid Sigona’s shopper and we love to post her recipes on our blog and in our stores. She uses our Wattle & Comb pastured eggs for this dish.

For Pork Chops:

• 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoon nam pla (asian fish sauce) or soy sauce, to taste (We carry Red Boat Fish Sauce, which would be great)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops (or country-style ribs)
• 8 green onions, drizzled with peanut oil

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (nuoc mam pha):

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup fish sauce or soy sauce (We carry Red Boat Fish Sauce)
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 of a lime, juiced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic , minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
• 1 Thai red chili pepper, minced

Accompaniments:

• cooked jasmine rice (4 servings)
• carrot, radish and cucumber, thinly sliced (use a mandoline)
• 4 organic eggs, fried in a little peanut oil, sprinkled with pink Himalayan sea salt

Directions

Nuoc mam pha sauce: In a small sealable jar, combine water and sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add fish sauce, vinegar and lime juice and mix. Adjust flavors to taste. Add garlic and chili pepper. The sauce can be stored at room temperature, if served the same day. Otherwise, store it in the refrigerator.

Pork: With a morter and pestle, grind lemongrass, garlic, shallot and jalapeno into a paste (you can also do this in your food processor). Rub pork chops with paste and pour soy sauce and honey over chops. Turn pork to coat; let stand while you preheat grill and make sides.

Steam rice and slice veggies for salad.

On charcoal grill, grill pork, about 12 minutes, flipping every 3 minutes.

During the last 3 minutes, place green onions on grill to get lightly charred.

To serve: Place a pork chop, 2 grilled green onions and some salad on each serving plate, sprinkling a little nuoc mam pha sauce on the salad. With a small bowl, make mounds of rice and place on each plate. Top with fried egg. Serve with additional nuoc mam pha sauce on the side.