Miso-marinated pork with pickled cucumbers
We love good pork, as opposed to bland, boring pork. Which intensively-raised piggy meat can be. It’s worth stumping up for decent quality pork, preferably pasture-raised, as it will have way better flavour and texture – the colour of the flesh should be rosy, not greige, and there should also be a decent amount of fat and marbling.
According to the NZ Pork website, 55% of NZ’s commercial pork herd is raised indoors. The rest is a mixture of ‘free-farmed’ (42%) and ‘free-range’ (3%) and you might be wondering what the difference is? Free-range pigs move about freely outside their whole lives, whereas free-farmed sows and boars can only move within their own paddock and weaned piglets are removed to be raised indoors in big barns. On their website, leading retailer Neat Meat claims that while free-farming is better than intensive pig farming, it’s still not 100% ‘free’ and that animals are less stressed, and make better eating, when they have spent their lives free-ranging. We’re not here to tell you what pork to buy, but if flavour, sustainability and 100% certainty around animal welfare are important, it’s worth knowing the difference. We don’t eat a ton of pork, but when we do, we want it to be great, so for our money it’s free-range all the way. The robust sweetness of free-range pork stands up well to the flavours going on in this Asian-inspired dish, which is lip-smacking with miso, soy, ginger, mirin, gochujang, honey and rice vinegar, and served with slightly sticky medium grain rice, a lightly pickled cucumber salad, and finely shredded cabbage. Which just begs for kewpie mayo if you ask us.
SERVES 4-5
2 tbsp grapeseed or canola oil
1kg pork loin chops, on the bone (3-4 chops)
¼ small cabbage, finely shredded
steamed medium grain rice, to serve
Japanese mayonnaise, to serve
Marinade
2½ tbsp white miso
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
4 tsp finely grated ginger
2 tbsp mirin
4 tsp honey
60ml (¼ cup) light soy sauce
Cucumber Salad
4 Lebanese cucumbers (about 500g), cut into 1.5cm chunks
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 tsp salt
100ml clear rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 tsp finely grated ginger
2 tbsp honey
1½ tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
For the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add the pork chops, turning to coat, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1½ hours or overnight.
For the cucumber salad, roughly peel the cucumber, leaving strips of skin intact, then cut the cucumber into 1.5cm chunks. Combine in a large bowl with the onion and salt, then toss to combine. Set aside for 15-20 minutes for the onion and cucumber to soften slightly. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine well. Drain any liquid from the cucumber mixture, then pour the vinegar mixture over and toss to coat. Stand for 1-2 hours for the flavours to develop.
Remove the pork from the fridge and bring it to room temperature. Drain well, reserving the marinade. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat, then add the oil. Cook the pork for 3 minutes on each side (depending on thickness), or until slightly charred and only just cooked through; the chops should still be a little pink in the middle. Remove to a plate and rest for 5 minutes, removing the pan from the heat. When you are ready to serve, return the pan to the heat, add the reserved marinade and quickly heat. Slice the chops to serve if you like, then serve with rice, cabbage, cucumber salad, mayo, the heated marinade and any resting juices poured over.
