Pork. Rice Noodles. Lemongrass. Sriracha. Fish Sauce. Yum.
This recipe is super easy to make and very cheap. Below the recipe I give you a cost analysis of the dish, tips for finding the ingredients and what to do with the leftovers!
Serves 4
Ingredients
6 Center-cut pork chops
4 individual servings or 1 medium bundle dry rice vermicelli noodles
1 cucumber
1 bundle cilantro
4 carrots
2 c. water
spring roll sauce (Nuoc Cham) or your favorite sauce to taste
Marinade
1/4 c. hoisin sauce
1/4 c. fish sauce
3 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP rice vinegar
2 TBSP sriracha
1/2 c. oyster sauce
4 cloves garlic
4 TBSP freshly grated ginger
1.5 TBSP lemongrass paste
1 TBSP brown sugar
Trim the fat off of 4 of the pork chops. Leave the fat on 2 to add flavor and fat to the dish. To make the marinade mix all ingredients together in a large Ziploc bag and add the pork chops. Let marinate in the fridge for at least one day. If the pork is fresh, it can be left to marinate 3-4 days in the fridge to add more flavor.
After it's been marinated, dump the pork and as much of the sauce as possible into the Instant Pot inner pot. Add 2 cups of water and stir to fully mix the sauce with the water. Make sure the pork is fully submerged in the sauce. Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and select the "meat" button. Change the cooking time to 25 minutes and let it do its thing. When the cooking time is complete allow the Instant Pot to release the pressure naturally.
While the pressure is releasing bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a pot on the stove. Once boiling, add the vermicelli noodles and turn the heat to medium-low. Allow the rice noodles to soak until soft (about 6-7 minutes), then immediately drain and rinse.
While the rice noodles are soaking, wash the cilantro, carrots, and cucumber. Rough chop the cilantro until you have about 1 cup of chopped cilantro. Slice the cucumber into bite-size wedges. I do this by slicing the cucumber length ways, turning 90 degrees and slicing length ways again so you have 4 long segments of cucumber, then slice the short way into the bite-size wedges. Peel the carrots with a peeler, then rinse the peeler and use to shred the carrots into long, thin strands.
By the time you have finished with the vegetables and the rice noodles, the Instant Pot pressure should be nearly released. Once it fully releases, remove the lid slowly and carefully (there will still be steam!), place a serving of rice vermicelli noodles in the bottom of a bowl, add a pork chop to the bowl, top with a handful of cucumber wedges, a large pinch of carrot strands, about 1/4 of the chopped cilantro, and then dress with spring roll sauce to taste.
There will be leftovers- I save mine and use it the next day for ramen. That recipe is below.
Happy Eating!
Cost Analysis:
This dish is cheap! It costs about $9.30 to make all four servings. That's $2.33 a bowl!
6 pork chops- $5*
1 cucumber- $1
4 carrots- $.68
1/3 cilantro bundle- $.50
4 servings rice noodles- $1.12
Sauces- $1
*found on sale at Stop & Shop; budget tip- grocery stores mark down meat once it's getting close to it's sell-by date. Snag it then, and if you aren't planning to use it right away, wrap it in freezer paper, seal in a large Ziploc bag and freeze!
Where to Find Ingredients:
I cook with Asian flavors often so I always keep these sauces in my kitchen, except the lemongrass paste which goes bad quickly. While most of these sauces including hoisin, soy, sriracha, oyster, fish sauce, and spring roll sauce can be found in your local grocery store, they are usually much cheaper at an Asian market. Dry rice noodles can now be found in many grocery stores too but again, are usually cheaper from your local Asian market. I haven't been able to find lemongrass paste at an Asian market, but have found it at Stop & Shop and Market 32.
Ginger root is incredibly cheap and you can get it at any grocery store. However, it goes bad quickly. In order to keep it constantly around and available to use I put the root in a Ziploc bag in my freezer. Whenever I need fresh grated ginger, I pull it out of the freezer and grate it with a microplane grater while it's still frozen.
Sometimes, a cheaper alternative to buying pork chops is buying a full pork loin. You can usually get a full pork loin at a grocery store for less than $20, and often the store will slice it into chops and package it for you for free. If they won't, you can slice it at home, wrap in freezer paper, seal in a Ziploc and freeze it.
Leftover Remix:
You will have leftovers with this recipe, so what to do with them? I save all the liquid from cooking the pork and the leftover pork chops in the fridge. The next day on the stove I mix the liquid from the Instant Pot pork with equal parts water. Add the pork and bring it to a low boil. I add dry ramen noodles and cook until the noodles are soft (about 3 minutes). Then I divide the soup into bowls, top with a soft-boiled egg, cilantro, and diced green onions.
If you want to take this ramen to the next level, you can also try making a ramen egg (they are delicious!!). I like this recipe for ramen eggs from Closet Cooking.
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