焗骨飯 (Macanese Style Pork Chop Rice Casserole)

I am behind updating my blog. But it's only because I've been cooking more plus it's the playoff season. I am just too busy cooking and watching sport during my spare time. Good news is I got so much to post and the teams I like still doing good so far in the playoffs.

Last week, I blogged about Plate Meal and a friend post a comment to request this "home style" pork chop rice casserole recipe. She asked just the prefect time. I made this dish last weekend. This dish is a common "Plate Meal" in Macau. Yes, it is not a typical Chinese dish. It's another fusion cuisine. It's a common dish but not every cafe/diner prepared it well. The best place is actually the cafeteria of a community sport center at downtown (工人球場). However, the community sport center was relocated due to all these casino business blooming. Now, the site is a brand new casino. As for the cafeteria of the new community center, people just keep telling me the the pork chop rice casserole is not as good as before.

The way we prepared this pork chop dish is a bit different from other places, such as the HK version. We used pork chop with bone instead of the boneless pork chop. And, of cause, we used the Macanese favorite spice - bay leaf. Thus, we called the Macanese version as "焗骨飯" instead of "焗豬扒飯" (sorry non-Chinese speaker, I just don't know how to translate the name differently).

An important element to a prefect pork chop casserole is the baking condition. After a brief research on the community sport center pork chop rice casserole, the reason their dish taste so good is because of the special stainless steel baking dish & the low temperature baking. Since I don't have that "special stainless steel baking dish", I used my cast iron pan instead of the normal China baking dish. Results? I can't really tell the difference between the baked wear but it definitely easier to clean on the cast iron pan!

Serving Size: 4 servings

Serving utensils: Spoons & forks

Ingredients:

• 2 thin cut pork chop with bone
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 4 teaspoons sugar (2 for marinate, 1 for the fried rice & 1 for the sauce)
• several dry bay leaves
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk (the egg in U.S. contain more egg white so I added 1 yolk)
• oil for deep fry
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup jasmine rice 
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste (2 for fried rice & 1 for the sauce)
• 1 tablespoon corn starch 
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• salt to taste

Cooking Direction:

1. Marinate the pork chop with the light soy sauce, sugar and bay leaves for at least 1 hour. I personally prefer marinate overnight in the fridge.
2. Cook the jasmine rice as direction. You can pre-cooked the rice a day before and store in the fridge until use.
3. In a medium pan, heat some oil. Add 2 tablespoons tomato paste and cook for 30 seconds. Stir frequently. Add the cooked rice and stir fry until the tomato paste and the rice are fully mixed. Add salt to taste. If you are using a cast iron pan, you can just keep the fried rice on the pan. Otherwise, transfer the fried rice to a deep dish bake ware.
4. Beat the egg with the egg yolk. Drain the pork chops and remove the bay leaves. Deep in the egg and then in the flour. 
5. Deep fry the pork chop in hot oil until golden brown. 
6. Slight drain the oil from the pork chops and place the fried pork chops on top of the fried rice.
7. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. 
8. Prepare the sauce by mixing 1 cup of cold water with the corn starch, the Worcestershire sauce, the remaining tomato paste and sugar. Pour into a small sauce pan, cook in medium heat and stir frequently. Cook until sauce is clear and thick. 
9. Pour the sauce on top of the pork chops and rice. Bake at the pre-heat oven fro 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce is slightly dry.
10. Dig in and enjoy!