Vietnamese Shallot-Garlic Marinated Grilled Pork Loin

This is a version of marinated Vietnamese pork. I’ve been hitting the Asian infused recipes hard, but that is just what intrigues me these days. I’ll mix things up as we go along with the blog.

This easy marinade creates a distinct sweet, smoky flavor for grilled pork that can be served with rice noodles and a Asian infused salad. I paired the grilled pork with the Sweet Tahini Dressed Broccoli-Raab Salad and rice noodles from the cookbook Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. It was an amazing meal that didn’t require much time. It is an easy to impress dinner.

To create this authentically Vietnamese grilled pork, get the following items together from the fridge and the pantry:

• 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped shallots

• 1/2 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic or fermented garlic

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1/4 vegetable oil (I use avocado oil)

• 1-2 2 pound pork loins

Place the shallots, garlic, fish sauce, brown sugar, soy sauce, salt sugar, and oil in a food processor and process until well blended, about 15 seconds. Rinse the pork loin in cold water and pat dry. Place it in a shallow dish, poke it all over with a fork or the point of a knife, and pour the marinade over the top of the pork. Marinade the pork loin, flipping every 2 hours, for 6 to 24 hours. The longer the pork is marinade the more flavorful it will be.

Prepare the grill, sear each side of the pork (about 2 minutes per side), and grill until the internal temperature at the fattest part of the loin reaches a temperature of 145 F. To not over cook the pork, immediately remove the meat from the grill once the temperature is reached and wrap tightly in foil. Let the pork rest in the foil for 10 minutes. Thinly slice the pork and serve while hot. It is also really good cold.

We ate the leftover meat the next night in an Asian salad. Asian salad is basically rice noodles, sprouts, cucumber, basil, cilantro, mint, a savory/semi hot sauce (usually lime, chillies, fish sauce, shallots or a variation), thinly sliced meat, and whatever else you like. All the ingredients are in bowls on the table and you layer it on your plate (starting with noodles on the bottom) and enjoy. The meat was a perfect topper for the Asain Salad. .

This marinade creates a sweet, flavorful, and tender piece of meat. Make sure to poke the meat with a knife before marinating to allow the liquid to seep into the meat and infuse it with flavor.

Tender, juicy, and delicious.