Lettuce Wraps with Pacific Rim Grilled Pork Loin Chops

This is a Pacific Rim recipe for lettuce wraps incorporates ingredients from several cultures and cuisines. Very tasty, a little spicy and can be a fun appetizer dish too. We used nice thin sliced boneless pork loin chops, marinate them, and then grill them on nice hot grill. Served up with cool lettuce wraps and condiments. 

Four appetizer or two or three entrée servings

1 pound ¼ to ½ inch thick sliced boneless pork loin chops. These should be nicely trimmed with no more that a ¼ fat on any edges.

Marinade & Sauce

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup dry sherry

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

¼ cup Thai fish sauce

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon black pepper

3 tablespoon chili sesame oil

5 garlic cloves finely chopped

3 tablespoons ginger finely chopped

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

¼ cup peanut or canola oil

2 tablespoons corn starch

4 tablespoons cold water

Garnish

1 head lettuce, butter, iceberg or romaine leaves washed and separated.

1 red bell pepper cut thin julienne

6 green onions sliced fine at 45 degree angle

¼ cup cilantro roughly chopped or optional mint or Thai basil excellent

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Prepare your marinade, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Let stand for around a half hour and mix again divide the sauce into two parts, one will be the marinade and the other the sauce.

Place the pork chops in the marinade for 4 hours.

Prepare a hot grill for direct heat. While the grill is heating prepare your garnishes, wash and separate the lettuce wrap leaves.

Take the half of the sauce that has been reserved and place in a non stick sauce pan, bring to a simmer. Combine the cornstarch and cold water stir well and then pour into the simmering sauce. Whisk and simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce thickens. Turn off heat and reserve.

Remove the chops from the marinade. Place on a place or tray and oil them a bit so they will not stick on the grill.

When the coals are uniformly covered in gray or your gas grill is nice and hot, grill the pork chops putting nice grill marks on them. Since these are thin and there is some sugar in the marinade keep a close eye on the chops so they don’t burn or over cook.

Place the chops on a cutting board and slice the chops at a 45 degree angle around ½ inch wide. Place divide them onto a platter for the center of the table. Place and arrange the lettuce wrap leaves and garnishes on the platter so that the diners may select them and build their wraps. Top the pork with a couple of teaspoons of the sauce, sesame and some of the green onions. Place the remaining sauce in a bowl on the side for the diners to put on their lettuce wraps.

Serve it up!

For an entrée I like to serve either steamed basmati or jasmine rice with this. I like a nice dry Riesling or Gewürztraminer with this dish. Beer works to, Singha or Sapporo draft!

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