Recent hot weather forced me out of the kitchen and to the grill. But instead of opting for the more traditional fare of hamburgers and hot dogs, I wanted to boost the wow factor and turned to this pantry-friendly marinade to impress a few dinner guests.
Filled with garlic, scallions, brown sugar and fish sauce, this marinade combines sweet, savory, salty and sour in a delicious combination. I don’t cook with fish sauce too often, as I’m a bit intimidated by its strong flavor. But I found there was enough flavor from the other ingredients to temper the sometimes overwhelming presence of the fish sauce.
Typically, my husband adds fish sauce to noodle dishes like pho, or spicy papaya salad. I normally reach around it in the pantry to grab anything else. I thought this recipe would be a good use of a rarely used ingredient in my cooking and was happy to be right. This marinade would be perfect to keep in mind when you’ve purchased some of these ingredients for other recipes and then find yourself stuck with entire bottles left over and little idea of how to utilize them.
Like most marinades, this one came together quickly. A few whirls in the blender was all it took before it was ready to go. I followed the recipe almost exactly, only using bone-out pork chops instead of bone-in. I left the meat to marinate in the liquid for about two hours, but the recipe suggested it could stay in for up to 12 hours.
Garlic and scallions added a fresh element, followed by sweetness from brown sugar, saltiness and sourness from soy sauce and fish sauce, respectively, and a bit of oil helped stretch the volume of the liquid to adequately cover the pork chops. Finished with a bit of salt and pepper, this marinade was as simple as it was delicious. Finally, the char from the grill helped seal in even more flavor. And overall, this marinade was a winning combination of flavors.
The source of the recipe, Bon Appetit, suggested the pork be served with a fresh herb salad and provided a recipe for a tantalizing plum and mint salad. I opted to keep it even simpler and served the pork with a family favorite, sticky rice.
Ultimately, this recipe resulted in a simple and flavorful marinade. It helped ease me into cooking with powerful flavors such as fish sauce, and best of all it was pantry-friendly. — Lauren Mifsud
