We originally made this dish in our apartment—and it is still one of my favorites. When we went legit and served lunch, this quickly became one of the top three dishes we served over the wild 2 ½ years serving lunch in downtown Los Angeles. It’s amazing as a snack, over a rice, in a Banh Mi sammie . . . I never thought I could be so sentimental about pork!
2–4 SERVINGS
1 pound pork loin or pork chops (½-inch-thick-widthwise chops)*
1¾ teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons sake
¼ cup Chinese light soy sauce
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
6 tablespoons water
1 (14-ounce) pack Chinese sweet potato starch/flour
1 bunch Thai basil, cleaned and stemmed
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
40 pounds pork loin or pork chops (½-inch-thick-widthwise chops)*
1½ cups minced garlic
5 cups sake
10 cups Chinese light soy sauce
14⅓ tablespoons five-spice powder
15 cups water
40 (14-ounce) packs Chinese sweet potato starch/flour
1. Use a bowl or container big enough to fit the pork, but not so big that it won’t fit in your refrigerator. Add pork.
2. Combine garlic, sake, soy sauce, five-spice powder, and water in a separate bowl. Mix well.
3. Pour marinade over the pork, rubbing it into the meat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. When you’re ready to cook and serve the pork, fill a pot with 2 inches of oil and heat to 350°F. (Two inches may seem excessive, but if there isn’t enough oil, the starch will cloud up and burn up in the oil pretty quickly, way before you can fry each chop—eventually leading to a highly unpleasant burnt batter taste and irreparable flavor damage.)
5. While waiting for oil to heat up, empty sweet potato starch into a mixing bowl. Next, coat pork with sweet potato starch by firmly pressing and then pounding the meat into the starch to make the coating stick. Because this is an eggless coating, the starch won’t naturally adhere to the pork. It may seem barbaric, crude, and rudimentary, but that’s the best way to do it—a method we perfected after preparing this dish tens of thousands of times, for tens of thousands of people.
6. Once the pork is fully coated, fry for 5–7 minutes, or until it cooks through and turns a nice golden brown on both sides. Remove from pot, shake off excess oil, set aside, and let it rest.
7. Next, flash-fry basil in the same oil for no more than 5–10 seconds, or until the basil lightly crisps (but doesn’t become too translucent, which is a sign it’s been in the oil too long).
8. Remove from pot, shake off what you can (if you have a “spider” strainer, this will be much easier).
Serve with rice or make a really tasty Banh Mi with your fried pork, topped with flash-fried basil.
* When you go BIG, go pork loin—it’s hella easier!