Thai Pork Chops

This Thai-flavored pig meat has a distinct flavor, with or without the herbs on top.

Here’s a quick way to make Thai-spiced pork chops. You’d be surprised how flavorful these are. If you look at the ingredient list for the marinade, you’ll notice that it is a bit like that of a rendang.

What you’ll need:

• 1 stalk, lemongrass, outer sections of the stalk removed, internal section cut up
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• Fresh ginger (or grating) or alternatively, ginger paste
• A few fresh lime leaves (some lime peel zest can also work)
• Lemon juice, to taste
• Mirin, to taste (if not using, use more lemon juice or add lime juice)
• 1 Thai pepper, stemmed and chopped (watch out, these are very hot)
• 1 shallot, peeled and chopped
• 3 or 4 boneless pork chops, about .75- to 1-inch thick, fat scored, if you like, to prevent curling during cooking

What to do:

Put all ingredients, except for the pork, and chop in a food processor. You could use an immersion blender for a finer chop.

Put pork on a plate and spoon marinade over it. Let sit in refrigerator for a full- or half-day.

Chops with herb-marinade.

If you like, after a half-day, scrape the herbs off the pork, turn over and add them to the other side.

Remove herbs to a pan and cook pork on a grill, grill pan or cast iron pan until just no longer pink inside.

While pork is cooking, cook herbs thoroughly at a moderate temperature (in the interest of food safety—they’ve been sitting on raw pork).

These could be served with Thai fried rice or cellophane noodles.

Serve pork chop with the herbs on top. If you don’t want the herbs on them, they’ll still be delicious.