Asian Smothered Pork Chops
Most peoples’ lives came to a screeching halt when COVID first hit back in early 2020. Can’t say that it’s been the same for us. Darryl and I wrapped up 2019 by pulling up our Vermont stakes and moved to Southern Florida. Right before everything shut down, we joined an excellent local Tai Chi studio in Stuart, FL – Internal Arts Institute. Darryl had practiced Tai Chi previously for several years; I was brand new to it, my previous martial arts experience is in Tae-Kwon-Do.
Why am I telling you all this? It directly influenced how this recipe came together. The practice of Tai Chi includes a routine called a form — the one we practice is the Yang-Style with 108 moves. With a lot of practice, patience, repetition, and a good Sifu — what we call our master — Darryl and I both feel we have come a long way from the early days. Now Tai Chi has become an integral part of our lives.
When all students do the form together, we were cautioned to not become too reliant on watching and copying someone else. You need to trust yourself and what you have learned, and if you mess up, just accept it, move on and know what you have to practice more.
Last night, after a 2 ½ hour Tai Chi session I made us dinner. I had taken some bone-in pork chops out of the freezer, and I had a head of Napa Cabbage in the house. Since we both love Asian food, I was about to look for recipe ideas like I usually do. And then it hit me — I was relying too much on others rather than trusting myself and my culinary instincts and just create something delicious. When Darryl looked in the pan during the process he was skeptical. The result knocked his socks off. May I present:
Yield: 3 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
3 bone-in pork chops
1 small head Napa cabbage
1 medium sweet onion
2 eggs
½ cup Matzoh Meal
1 can coconut unsweetened coconut milk
¼ cup hoisin sauce
Rice Vinegar
Vegetable Oil
Chinese 5-spice
Salt & Pepper
How is this sustainable ?
As always, I use organic ingredients whenever and wherever I can.
Instructions
Lay out pork chops and rub each side with salt, pepper and Chinese 5-spice
- Set pork chops aside
- Peel onion and cut in half, then thinly slice each half
- Wash and thinly slice Napa cabbage
- Heat some vegetable oil in a cast iron pan over medium-high heat
- Crack 2 eggs into a shallow bowl and beat with a fork
- Put Matzoh meal in a second shallow bowl
Dip pork chops in egg, then light coat them in matzoh meal
Add pork chops to hot pan
Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side (longer for thick chops)
Remove pork chops from pan and set aside
Add a little more vegetable oil to pan
Add onion to pan and sauté until almost caramelized
Add napa cabbage to pan
When cabbage has cooked down a little, add a generous splash of rice vinegar and stir
Add 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
Add ¼ cup hoisin sauce
Stir well
Return pork chops to pan and reduce heat to low
Cook just long enough for pork chops to be nice and hot
Serve over jasmine rice and enjoy
