About this recipe
A plate built on broken rice — grains fractured during milling, which cook up softer and slightly sticky — topped with a grilled pork chop and served with pickles, scallion oil and a dish of nước chấm. Saigon plates often add bì (shredded pork skin) and chả trứng (a steamed egg and pork loaf); both are given here as optional components rather than folded into the base recipe.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 30 minutes (plus 4 hours marinating)
- Cook
- 30 minutes
- Total
- 300 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Mild (heat at the table)
Allergens Contains pork and fish (fish sauce). Gluten-free if the fish sauce and seasonings are gluten-free.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The pork chops
- 4 bone-in pork chops, about 1/2 in (1 cm) thick, 6 oz (170 g) each
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) fish sauce
- 2 tbsp (25 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) neutral oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots, minced
- 1 stalk lemongrass, tender core only, very finely minced
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) honey
- 1 tsp (5 ml) dark soy sauce, for colour
- 1/2 tsp (1 g) freshly ground black pepper
The rice
- 2 cups (about 380 g) broken rice (cơm tấm), rinsed until the water runs nearly clear
- 2.5 cups (600 ml) water
Scallion oil (mỡ hành)
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) neutral oil
- Pinch of salt
To serve
- 1 cup (about 150 g) đồ chua (see recipe #17)
- 1/2 English cucumber, sliced
- 1 medium tomato, sliced
- 1 quantity nước chấm (recipe #26)
Equipment
- Rice cooker or heavy saucepan with a tight lid
- Charcoal grill, grill pan or broiler
- Small saucepan for the scallion oil
- Mixing bowl
Method
- Whisk the fish sauce, sugar, oil, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, honey, dark soy and pepper together.
- Add the pork chops, turn to coat thoroughly, cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Rinse the broken rice several times until the water runs nearly clear. Cook with the 2.5 cups (600 ml) water in a rice cooker, or bring to a boil in a covered saucepan, then cook on the lowest heat 15 minutes and rest, covered and off the heat, 10 minutes.
- Make the scallion oil: put the sliced scallions and salt in a small heatproof bowl. Heat the oil until it just shimmers, then pour it over the scallions; they will sizzle and turn bright green. Set aside.
- Heat the grill or grill pan to medium-high. Lift the chops from the marinade, letting the excess drip off, and reserve the marinade.
- Grill the chops 4–5 minutes a side, brushing once with the reserved marinade during the first side only, until well caramelised and cooked through.
- Rest the chops 5 minutes.
- Fluff the rice and mound it on four plates. Lay a chop alongside.
- Spoon scallion oil over the rice. Add đồ chua, cucumber and tomato to each plate, and serve with a small bowl of nước chấm to pour over.
Uses from this chapter
- Nước Chấm (Dipping Sauce) (Recipe #26) — Poured over the rice, not just dipped into
- Đồ Chua (Pickled Carrot & Daikon) (Recipe #17 / Foundations — Condiments) — On the plate
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Cơm Tấm (Broken Rice) sits in the Vietnam chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Vietnam chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.