Last Night's Dinner #116: Pork Chops with Saté Sauce and Mom's Pickled Cucumber

Alright, I got my cooking mojo back... thanks to the arrival of Gourmet, I was inspired to make Pork Saté (or Satay) with my Mom's Pickled Cucumber Salad!



You'll need:
1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
1/2 cup well stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 tbs of roasted red chile paste (preferebly Thai Kitchen)
2 tbs fish sauce
1 small shallot chopped
1 tbs cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
4 thin bone-in pork chops
lime wedges for garnish

Mom's Pickled Cucumber Salad:
Cucumbers cut into 1/4" slices
three pinches of salt and two pinches of black pepper
equal parts of white vinegar and water
3 tbs sugar


step 1. Take peanuts, coconut milk, chile paste, fish sauce, shallot, vinegar, and sugar and purée in a blender or food processor.


step 2. Transfer to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. The sauce will be quite thick, so you can add about 3 tbs of water to it. More if you want it thinner - but you might have to add more fish sauce + sugar to adjust the flavoring. At this point, you might want to squeeze a tiny bit of lime juice to give in an extra zing. I made the sauce a couple of hours before dinner so that the flavors introduce themselves to each other and have time to mingle. I reheated it right before serving.
*it will be a little grainy because of the peanuts. If you want it a little less grainy/chunky, maybe you can substitute half of the peanuts with peanut butter? I haven't tried but I'm sure it would work. Or you could mortar and pestle the peanuts before adding into the processor. I personally didn't mind the texture.


step 3. In the meantime, marinate the cucumbers (I used Kirby) in vinegar/water, salt, pepper and sugar mixture. Make enough of the mixture so it covers the cucumbers. Allow to sit for minimum of 20 minutes. OH and cook the rice!

My mom used to make this all the time, I love it. It's very similar to the pickled carrots and cabbage you sometimes get at Vietnamese restaurants. Sweet and tangy. The crunchy texture is a perfect accompaniment to the pork and rice. Yummy.


step 4. Wash and pat dry the chops then season well with salt and pepper. If you're lucky enough to have a BBQ grill then go ahead and grill as you would normally. If not, use a ridged pan like mine and cook until cooked through or however you like your pork done. It took me about 11 minutes to cook the chops. Depending on how thick your meat is, cooking time will vary. If you don't have a ridged pan, no worries, I'm sure it will taste the same if you cook it on a regular pan!

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Gourmet