Pork spare rib chop marinated in Pineapple & Soy
This definitely isn't a pretty, or photogenic, dish, but what it lacks in looks it more than makes up for in taste! Using a pork spare rib chop keeps the cost down and allows you to get a more substantial quantity of meat in the meal, though I suspect that it would work equally as well (with cook time adjusted accordingly) with a pork loin fillet sliced and pan fried rather than oven baked.
Stats
Serves: 2
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 1/2" thick pork spare rib chops
- 300ml of pineapple juice
- 2 hot green chillis
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 75ml dark soy sauce
- 1 heaped tsp of all purpose seasoning
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 heaped tsp cornflour
- 1 tin of pineapple rings (containing 4 rings of pineapple) in juice (not syrup!)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season
Method
- Slice the chillis in half, lengthways and put them in a plastic bag large enough to contain the chops
- Mix together the pineapple juice, tomato puree, dark soy and all purpose seasoning, then add to the bag
- Put the pork chops in the bag and then seal it well, making sure that they're submerged in the liquid
- Leave this in the fridge for three hours to marinate
- Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius, fan-assisted
- Put the pork chops into a metal roasting tray (non-stick ideally) that's just large enough to contain them, without them touching
- Spoon two tablespoons of the marinade over each of the chops and put in the oven for 20 minutes
- Add the pineapple rings to the pan (on top of the chops) and return to the oven for another 30 minutes
- At the same time, put the remaining marinade into a saucepan, minus the chillis, (reserving two tablespoons of the marinade for later), along with the juice from the pineapple rings and simmer gently to reduce
- When there's ten minutes of the chops cook time remaining, mix the reserved marinade with the cornflour then add to the pan with the honey, whilst stirring, to thicken the sauce
- Serve the pork chops, along with the pineapple rings and some of the sauce
When I served this, I accompanied it with stir-fried noodles into which I'd worked some fresh ginger, garlic and green chilli along with a generous amount of dark soy, yellow pepper, red onion and mange tout. It would probably go equally well with rice and some steamed veg.