Vietnamese BBQ Pork & Noodle Salad

This is a new one for us-trying Vietnamese flavors at home. Pork, delicate rice noodles and some great spice make for a light yet filling meal. The rice noodles are called "rice sticks" or "rice vermicelli" and can be found in most large grocery stories in the Asian food aisle. Don't be fooled by the actual rice noodles, which are flatter and a bit larger.

The recipe calls for pork loin, but we wanted to use chops for thrifty reasons (natch).

It's a great meal for the week as it stores separately and heats up great.

This is from the September 2014 issue of Cooking Light and has been adapted to take advantage of our pantry and tastes, which tend to run a bit spicier than most.

Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 60 mins + 1 hour marinate time

What you need:

• 5 teaspoons of sesame oil (not usually found with the other oils, but is in a smaller bottle in the Asian food aisle)
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sriracha paste (it's not the type with the squeeze top, but a screw top)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large shallot, chopped (or 2 medium shallots)
• 6 pork chops. thinly sliced 
• 1 package rice vermicelli 
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch of carrots, julienne cut
• 2 tablespoons chopped, dry roasted peanuts

What to do:

• Combine 1 tablespoon sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha paste, brown sugar, garlic and shallot in food processor until smooth. Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade.Place pork in ziptop bag and marinate with remaining sauce for at least an hour. 
• Cook noodles according to directions, toss with 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. 
• Pre-heat broiler and place pork on broiler pan covered in foil. Broil about 3 minutes on each side, until pork is no longer pink in center.
• To serve, plate amount of noodles desired with 1/2 cup lettuce, 1/4 cup cucumber, 2 tablespoons carrot and drizzle with 1 tablespoons of marinade. Top with pork chop and 1.5 teaspoons chopped peanuts and enjoy. 

Broiled Pork Chops Marinated in Mustard

We dream of summer grilling and backyard barbecues. But, living in a city, we have a tiny kitchen and no grill! We've found the broiler is a better than average substitute for that just-grilled flavor.

This recipe riffs off the marinated pork chops with green bean and grilled crouton salad in the June 2014 issue of Cooking Light. While the original recipe uses the extra dressing for the salad, we decided to increase the number of chops and substitute the salad with some roasted asparagus and yellow sweet potato fries. 

The mustard gives the pork a tangy flavor and marinating it overnight allows that flavor to permeate the whole chop. 

Prep time: 8-12 hours marinating time, 30-40 minutes actual active time
Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 heaping tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 6 boneless pork chops (thinly sliced)

What you need to do:
Whisk together the red wine vinegar, mustard and olive oil until well combined. 

Using a fork, pierce each chop on both sides.

Place the chops and marinade in a ziptop bag and shake to coat. Make sure each chop is coated evenly. Chill in the fridge for at least one hour before broiling.

When you're ready to broil: 
Pre-heat the broiler and line the broiler pan with foil. Broil each side for 4-5 minutes. We broiled the first side twice, just to brown the edges a bit, but once per side is enough. 

The Week's Favorite Meal: Barbecue Pork and Cheese Biscuits

We wanted to share one of the easiest menus that last a number of meals-it's pretty well balanced to boot. It's easy to reheat and initial preparation takes about 45 minutes. 

Menu:

• Barbecue Pork, with homemade barbecue sauce (prep time: 20 minutes)
• Baby spinach salad with thai vinaigrette (prep time: 5 minutes)
• Cheese biscuits (prep time: 25 minutes)

To prepare the barbecue pork, use thinly cut, boneless pork chops:

• Set the broiler
• Brush one side of the pork loin with the barbecue sauce and broil for 6 minutes
• Flip and brush the other side and broil for another 6 minutes

Barbecue Sauce With Six Ingredients

We're on a homemade kick and we blame the salad dressing. With Labor Day approaching, we wanted to try our hand at barbecue sauce. The base of all sauces is roughly the same: ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce. We wanted something a bit sweet and spicy and ended up with a six ingredient sauce:

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1.5 tablespoons sriracha (natch)
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Mix it all together and slather on your favorite meats!

The Weekend Meal: Tonkatsu

Who doesn't love fried things? Tonkatsu is fried pork cutlet usually served over cabbage, but I prefer some kind of starch or carb with some veggies. I find the veggies make me feel better about eating fried pork.

Tonkatsu:

• 4 thin sliced pork loin chops (seriously, thin. if you are using chicken and want to save some money, you can buy regular chicken breast and flatten it yourself by wrapping the piece in cling wrap and rolling over it with a rolling pin or something comparable)
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup panko (Japanese style bread crumbs. They're coarser than regular bread crumbs)
• Enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan (about 1 inch)
  

Heat the oil and set up the dredging station: flour, egg, panko.

Coat the pork/chicken in that order. Cook until brown, crispy, and delicious.