Pork marinaded in garlic, ginger, soy and red chillis #TastyTuesdays

Bit of a late addition to the Tasty Tuesdays here but I had to cook this for my dinner so I couldn’t take the photos til I was in the throes! (I know bad planning on my part – should have had it for dinner last night!).

This is a dish that I chanced upon last summer when I was looking for an addition to my somewhat limited dinner repertoire. We often have beef or chicken or even fish but not often pork. I was put off pork as a child by my (very well-meaning and lovely) Nana who used to cook pork chops to within an inch of their life! It was a bit like eating the sole of someone’s shoe unfortunately (she was more a pudding person).

This particular pork dish allows you to create the most wonderful, soft, melt in your mouth meat (or old boot leather – whatever your preference…) and it also gives me the opportunity to whip out my George Forman (any excuse!) for a lovely low fat meal.

Now, I’m not by any means a lover of spicy hot food – I’m good for a medium curry but not much beyond. For that reason the red chillis in this dish work just fine for me – a nice heat on the palate afterwards.

What you will need is:

Some pork. I like these nice lean medallions, or a pork fillet cut up into medallions – not the cheapest but often on offer if you don’t mind buying extra for the freezer. I would say about three medallions per person is about right. You need to create a marinade by grating about a thumb-sized piece of root ginger, chopping one red chilli pepper, crushing a large clove of garlic and adding all these ingredients to a freezer bag along with a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, a couple of tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce and a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar (this adds a delicious caramelisation to the cooking meat).

Chuck the ingredients plus medallions into the bag, squish about a bit and leave to marinade for, I’d say at least an hour but I left mine all day in the fridge.

When you’re ready to cook, heat your grill and chuck the meat on.

Soon it should start looking a bit like this:

 

I’d say give it at least 20 minutes, turning regularly, depending on the thickness of the pieces of meat. I cut sideways through to check that they aren’t still raw in the middle, but I like them just cooked so that they retain that softness which is just such a beautiful texture.

I ate mine with some brown rice and a little salad, but this would probably be quite nice shredded up with salad in a sandwich or flatbread or with some crushed new potatoes and green beans.