Vietnamese pork chop with lemongrass

With Pietra Di Pinot Grigio 2021

This is a nostalgic dish to me. When I was a teenager, I always had a glass of refreshing iced “limenade” with it. Now I decided to recreate this dish to remind me of my teenage years but with a matching wine.

This is a nostalgic dish to me. When I was a teenager, there was a restaurant closed to where I lived called Mini Paris Vietnamese Restaurant (小巴黎越南餐廳). Its lemongrass dishes were particularly popular. This lemongrass pork chop was one of them. I always had a glass of refreshing iced “limenade” (lemonade but made from lime) with it. Now that I am living abroad, I decided to recreate this dish to remind me of my teenage years with a matching wine.

Vietnamese pork chop with lemongrass

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of pork chop or shoulder, approximately 400g

• 2 gloves of garlic, chopped

• 1 shallot, sliced

• 1 bunch of spring onion, diced

• 1 chilli, sliced (optional)

• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

• Crispy fried onion, for garnish

Marinades:

• 1 lemongrass, crushed and chopped

• 1 tablespoon of lime juice

• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon of corn starch flour

• Salt and peppers

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce

• 2 teaspoons of sugar

• A dash of sesame oil

Methods:

1. Sprinkle a generous pinch of fling salt and few turns of pepper to both sides of the pork chops; blend the ingredients of the marinades and mix evenly with the pork chops. Let it marinate for 45 – 60 minutes or overnight in the fridge

2. Heat a non-stick pan in high heat, add 3 tablespoons of oil after the pan is hot. Insert a chopstick to the oil, if bubbles form around the tip of the chopstick, it is hot enough. Add the pork chops and pan fry for 7 – 8 minutes each side until cooked and golden. Take the meat out and rest them on a plate lined with kitchen paper

3. In the same pan, scrap off the crump from the pork, add another tablespoon of oil and heat with high heat. Do the chopstick test again. Add the garlic and shallots. Keep frying so that they don’t burn. Once the garlic and shallots have released aroma, add back the pork chops and the ingredients of the sauce. Keep stir frying until blended evenly

4. Sprinkle a generous bunch of ready-made crispy fried onion; serve warm with a lovely bowl of jasmine rice

Wine pairing:

The dominant flavour of this dish is lemongrass which gives a distinctive fresh, citrus and grassy flavour. It also has a savoury and umami flavour from the fish sauce. The fried spring onion and garlic give a hint of sweetness to wrap up the dish. Combining with the grassy flavour of the pork, this dish brings the beautiful river scenery and its fresh grassy breeze of Vietnam in front of you.

To replicate the matching of “limenade” with this dish, I have chosen a young Pinot Grigio. It is a light fruity wine with high acidity. The high acidity matches well with the savoury and pan-fried oily texture of the pork, just like the limenade did. It has flavour characteristics of peach and melon which matches well with the sweetness from the spring onions and garlic. The citrus flavour which is very common in Pinot Grigio naturally matches well with the lemongrass flavour.