One of the good things that came out of our kitchenless year of remodeling were a few ideas for making food taste exciting with relatively few ingredients. And the one that shall last, that I made last night even though I now have the luxury of a well-stocked pantry back at my fingertips, is this marinade for pork. Using thinner cuts and pounding them thinner if neccessary, the meat will take on a substantial amount of flavor in just 30 minutes and grill in about six minutes--meaning that you can walk in the door with a sack of groceries at 6:00 like I did last night and have a platter of spicy pork in front of your hungry SO about 40 minutes later. Of course, you will be rewarded for allowing the pork to spend even more time in the marinade, but 30 minutes will actually do quite nicely thankyouverymuch.
I served ours with white rice, pan seared eggplant braised in plum wine and grilled bok choy.
The ingredients are just pork, soy sauce, sesame chili oil, brown sugar and, when I'm feeling extra adventurous, chopped fresh rosemary. The quantities are one tablespoon of soy sauce per pork chop/sirloin filet/shoulder slice, and one tablespoon of chili oil for every two pieces. Sprinkle each pork piece with a big fat pinch of the brown sugar, and layer in a bowl with the liquids. The sugar lends a mild oriental sweetness to the meat and assists in attracting flames for more grilled flavor and color during the meat's short trip to the grill. Grill 5-6 minutes.