I recently saw an article praising an upcoming book Cha Chaan Teng: Comfort Food from Hong Kong’s Iconic Diners, and one of the comfort foods mentioned was Baked Pork Chop Rice. I found a recipe for it at www.thewoksoflife.com and made it for dinner last night. The recipe is a bit elaborate, but each of the steps is simple. The final product is a 4-layer casserole, with fried rice on the bottom layer, topped by pan fried pork chop strips, then by a tomato sauce, and finally by grated cheese.
There are two advanced preparation steps:
1) Steaming rice and then cooling it. Fried rice is best made with rice that has had some time to dry out. (I made a batch in the morning in our Japanese rice cooker using 2 measuring cups to make 4 US cups of cooked rice.)
2) Marinading the pork chops.
This makes 4 generous servings.
For the pork chops:
- pounds boneless pork loin chops (center cut or end cut, bones trimmed away)
1 tsp. sugar
0.75 tsp.salt
0.5 tsp. black pepper
0.125 tsp. five spice powder
1 Tbs. oyster sauce
2.5 tsp. Shaoxing wine
0.5 Tbs. soy sauce
1 egg
0.5 cup all-purpose flour
neutral oil (such as canola oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil, for frying)
For the sauce:
0.5 Tbs. neutral oil
1 Tbs. salted butter
0.5 small yellow or white onion (diced)
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. ketchup
0.5 tsp. chicken base/bouillon paste
1 cup crushed tomatoes
0.25 cup water
0.25 tsp. sugar
0.5 tsp. soy sauce
0.5 Tbs. oyster sauce
Salt (to taste, optional)
For the rice:
4 cups cooked long grain rice (like Thai jasmine rice – I cooked 2 measuring cups worth to get the 4 US cups cooked rice)
1 Tbs. neutral oil. divided
2 eggs (beaten)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
0.25 tsp. sugar
0.5 tsp. salt
0.5 tsp. sesame oil
0.5 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. Shaoxing wine
0.5 cup frozen peas and carrots
3 ounces shredded cheese (such as mozzarella, provolone, and/or mild white cheddar; 2½ – 3 cups)
Prepare the pork chops by cutting 4 small slits on the edge of each pork chop to prevent curling when the cook. Put the sugar, salt, pepper, five spice powder, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, and soy sauce in a gallon ziplock baggie. Add the pork chops and massage them to coat all the surfaces with the marinade. Squish the air out of the baggie, seal, and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
Prepare the sauce in a large skillet. Begin by adding the oil and butter to the skillet over medium heat. Sweat the onions until translucent. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Stir in the ketchup and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the remaining sauce ingredients. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Make the fried rice. Put ½ Tbs. of oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the eggs and quickly scramble them, cutting them into small pieces. When done, put the cooked eggs in a bowl.
Add the remaining ½ Tbs. of oil and fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the rice, breaking it up. Add the sugar, salt, sesame oil and soy sauce. Add the peas and carrots and stir fry to combine. Add the Shaoxing wine and the eggs and stir well to mix. Put the fried rice in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare the pork chops: Scramble an egg in one wide shallow bowl and put the flour in another wide bowl. One by one dip the pork chops in the flour, in the egg, and then back in the flour.
Wipe out the large skillet and add about ¼ inch of oil. Heat over high heat until nearly smoking. Add half of the pork chops, cooking them for about 1 minute on each side, until golden brown. Remove the cooked pork chops to a cutting board and cook the second batch of pork chops.
Cut each cooked pork chop into ¾ inch slices and spread the slices on top of the fried rice. Add the tomato sauce on top of the pork chops. Finally, sprinkle the cheese evenly over the tomato sauce. Bake for 15-20 minutes until everything is heated through and the cheese is golden brown.