Cantonese Pork Chops from Hong Kong Kitchen

Serves 4

4 x 200–250g (7–9oz) pork chops

1 red onion

Vegetable oil, for frying

Fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, to garnish

For the marinade

2 cloves of garlic

½ a thumb-size piece of ginger

1 spring onion (scallion)

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon pure sesame oil

1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)

For the sauce

1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons tomato ketchup

4½ tablespoons Chingkiang black

rice vinegar

4½ tablespoons sugar

1½ teaspoons Chiu Chow chilli oil

Slice the pork chop meat off each bone in one long sweep, keeping each chop as one whole piece of meat and reserving the bones, as they are great to cook too.

Turn your cleaver upside down and, using the blunt end (careful not to hold the blade!), bash across the meat as many times as possible to flatten it out, making indentations along the pork and creating as much of a surface area as possible. This will begin to tenderize the chop and allow the marinade to really flavour the meat. Keep each pork chop in one large piece at this stage.

Once the pork is flattened, a similar thickness to an escalope, mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl and massage them into the bashed-out meat and the bones until they are completely coated. Leave to marinate in the fridge, ideally overnight, and for a minimum of 1 hour.

When ready to make the dish, finely slice the red onion and set aside. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and stir well until the sugar has fully dissolved.

Half-fill a medium pot, wok or deep-fryer with vegetable oil and heat to 180°C (350°F), or use a wooden skewer or wooden chopstick to test by placing the tip in the oil: if the wood starts to fizz after a second or so, the oil is hot enough. Using a slotted spoon or a Chinese frying skimmer, first lay the marinated pork chop bones in the oil and deep-fry them for 5 minutes. Remove the bone  and drain well on kitchen paper, then lay the marinated pieces of pork in the fryer one by one, so they don’t stick together. Deep-fry the pork for 2–3 minutes on a high heat, until crispy and brown on the outside, then remove and drain with the bones.

At this point, roughly chop the fried pork meat into bite-size portions (roughly 3cm/1¼ inch squares). Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok to a high heat. Once smoking hot, add the finely sliced red onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so. Pour in the sauce and bring to a vigorous boil, then add the bones and the pieces of fried pork meat and toss 2 or 3 times. Serve immediately, garnished with coriander (cilantro) leaves.