Com Tam Suon Nuong (Broken Rice with Grilled Pork Chop), No Added Refined Sugar
Vietnamese dishesRice DishesSouthern Vietnam2 hours marinating or overnight, about 25 minutes grilling
A familiar breakfast starts with com tam and a grilled pork chop. The chop is at its best with slightly charred edges and a juicy middle. The hard part is giving it enough time in the marinade, since a rushed one comes out bland and dry.
The chop roasts for 15 minutes at 180C to just cooked, gets brushed with honey and annatto oil, then goes back for another 5 to 10 minutes. The leftover marinade is boiled down in a pan and the chop is turned through it to soak up the flavor.
This batch weighs about 660g, at roughly 234 calories per 100g.
Method
Cut 500g pork ribs into long pieces as you like. Mix the marinade from 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 tablespoon seasoning powder, 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass, 4 tablespoons cooking oil, 1 tablespoon of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend mixed with unsweetened oat milk at 47 parts blend to 53 parts milk, and 1 tablespoon minced shallot and garlic. Rub it over the meat and marinate it overnight in the fridge or for 2 hours at room temperature.
Make the pickles: cut 1/2 carrot and 1 piece of daikon radish into batons. Mix 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and 2 tablespoons water, toss the vegetables through it and leave them for 1 hour.
Make the spring onion oil: put finely chopped spring onion in a bowl, pour over enough hot cooking oil to cover it and microwave for 2 minutes.
Cook the sauce: put 2 tablespoons kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 2 tablespoons fish sauce and 3 tablespoons water in a pot, bring it to a boil, let it cool, then scatter minced chili and garlic over the top.
Lay the chops in an air fryer and cook at 180C for 15 minutes until they are just done.
Mix 2 tablespoons honey with 2 tablespoons annatto oil, brush it over both sides of the chops and cook them for another 5 to 10 minutes at 180C.
Pour the leftover marinade into a pan, bring it to a boil and turn the cooked chops through it so they take on the sauce without drying out.
Spoon the broken rice onto plates and serve with the chops, pickles, spring onion oil and a bowl of the sauce.
Tips
An hour is right for the pickles, and for longer storage they need less vinegar.
Leftover chops are better simmered in a pan over low heat with cooking oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce and ketchup than reheated, which dries them out.
An overnight marinade lets the lemongrass and fish sauce reach right through the meat.
Take the chops out of the fridge and let the chill come off before grilling, since cold meat chars outside while the center stays raw.
The marinade is on the loose side, so chill it for 15 minutes to thicken before rubbing it onto the meat.
Honey is still a sugar, so measure the 2 tablespoons in the recipe and add none at the table.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.