You could say this is no restaurant dish but it is a quick and very simple dinner. Marinated Pork Steaks with Nam Jim makes dinner in around 30 minutes for the perfect weeknight flavour bomb.
During the week, I find it extra hard to whip up dinner. This recipe gets a 10 for flavour and simplicity.
Do you love Asian flavours? Me too. I got you. Here’s a recipe to get those big flavours into dinner real fast.
What are optional ingredients?
I have written the recipe with lots of optional* ingredients. It’s up to you how many of these *optionals you add.
Each extra ingredient will add a step more flavour. I know that sometimes weeknights mean we have to use what we have. If that happens to be you then don’t stress, you don’t have to add all the optional ingredients. BUT if you do it will be a bangin’ night. All those little extra bits will just knock it out of the park.
Pork loin is the perfect steak for home cooking. It marinates well and cooks very quickly, never becoming tough.
Buy Pork loin steaks in a ready cut pack or buy a whole pork loin and slice them up yourself. Slicing the steaks yourself means you can slice them the thickness you want. We are, however, making a quick dinner so let’s buy them already cut.
The speediest marinade ever
The steaks are marinated in the speediest marinade ever. This was passed onto me by a Thai chef I used to know, who showed me how to do this extremely easy flavour hack. The marinade works equally well with beef steaks and chicken too.
Yes, fish sauce and garlic and a little oil are the only ingredients you’ll need for this straight forward marinade. This easy marinade is also known for the speediness that it can penetrate into a steak. Leave it for 5 minutes to up to 30 minutes
The secret to an extra quick dinner
What’s the next hack? Well, I like to buy a bag of finely sliced mixed salad and add a super delicious dressing to go with it. Nam Jim dressing is the way to go. It is sweet, salty, sour and perfect because it is so quick to make.
The guidelines for choosing the right salad are to find one with a good mix of sliced cabbage, carrots and preferably no large leaves. The salad is also even better if you can slice up your own. The best thing about this salad is the amazing Nam Jim (or Nahm Jim) dressing, it will lift any salad and make you feel like you are having a night out!
What’s in Nam Jim Dressing/ dipping sauce?
It’s an effortless and delicious dressing | sauce from Thailand. Actually, Nam Jim refers to a wide variety of dipping sauces in Thai cuisine, with many of them a combination of salty, sweet, spicy and sour.
The ingredients are very simple and substitutes for ingredients can easily be made. Some of the standard ingredients to make Nam Jim are:
- Fish Sauce
- Palm sugar
- coriander roots
- chilli
- lemon or lime juice
- garlic
You will notice I have used most of the standard ingredients but I have substituted white sugar for the palm sugar. Brown sugar is never a substitute for white sugar or palm sugar in Thai dressings. brown sugar is too caramel flavoured.
Fish sauce can be substituted with light soy.
What if you want to make this for a vegan salad? Try to find a vegan fish sauce. This is available at most supermarkets. Or you can make it!
There are many ways to make this delicious dressing. Pound it up in a pestle and mortar or pop it into a food processor or just chop up all the ingredients and mix them together. The important thing is balancing those sweet, salty and sour flavours. You can do it, just make sure the dressing is not too lemony. Add more sugar!
Can you keep this dressing or make it ahead?
Glad you asked. Yes, you can!
Make the dressing up and leave all of the chopped ingredients in it. Put it in a non-metallic covered container in the refrigerator. Sieve all of the chopped and crushed ingredients when you are ready to use the dressing.
The dressing will last 2 to 3 days. After this, the lemon juice starts to lose its fresh zesty flavour
Can I use this dressing for anything else?
Absolutely yes you can.
- Use it for Thai Beef Salad.
- A roasted bought chicken tossed with salad and crunchy cashews? (with a bag of prepared salad- like above )
- BBQ fish- even salmon
- Vegan salad with fried sesame Tofu
- On BBQ steak
- Tossed through roasted vegetables or any salad you like
- Rice noodle salad
- As a dipping sauce
Why not try these recipes too?
Marinated Pork steaks with Nam Jim dressing, fast dinner
Marinated Pork Steaks with Nam Jim make a delicious and easy Thai inspired dinner that you can make in 30 minutes
Ingredients
Pork steaks
- 40 ml olive oil 2 Tablsp
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- 5 ml fish sauce 1tsp teaspoon
- 4 Pork Loin steaks nice and thick
Nam Jim dressing
- 125 ml lemon juice 1/2 cup
- 50 gm sugar, white 3 1/2 Tabsp
- 15 ml fish sauce 1/2 Tblsp
- 2 ea coriander root with some stem cleaned, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 small chilli *optional chopped
- 1 teaspoon ginger sliced* optioanal
Salad
- 1 bag salad mix 400gm (Asian salad mix or fine-cut slaw) /14.10 oz
- 1 bunch coriander, picked from the stems
- 1/4 red onion, sliced *optional
- 1 bunch mint, picked optional*
- 12 cherry tomatoes 1/2’d * optional
Steamed rice
- 1 cup Jasmine rice any size cup, full
- 1 1/4 cup water same cup as yiou used for the rice
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Salad and Nam Jim Dressing
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Nam Jim is often made by crushing all the ingredients together in a food processor or in a pestle and mortar then all of the ingredients used. For this dressing though I just roughly chop all of the ingredients and strain them out laterPut the lemon juice, sugar and fish sauce into the bowl and stir well to dissolve. Taste the sauce. It should have a good balance of lemon, sugar, and salt. Adjust if necessary.Clean the coriander roots of any dirt. Chop the garlic, ginger, coriander roots and chilli. Put all into the lemon juice mixture. Set aside.Strain the dressing before using
Steamed rice
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Put the rice into a bowl and add cold water. Stir well then pour into a drainer and shake to get rid of any extra water. This just takes a little bit of the starch out of the rice.
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Put the rice, salt and cold water into the pot and bring up to a boil
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As soon as it boils, stir, put on the lid and turn it to the very lowest setting. ( If you have a ceramic cooktop you probably should turn it off). Leave on the stove without opening the lid for 12 to 15. After this open the lid and stir. Put the lid back on and set aside.This will make enough rice for 4 but if you love rice and you want more than a spoonful then double this recipe
Grilled the Pork Steaks
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This is the perfect way to cook a Pork steak. This method is taken from the Australian Pork website. Follow for the perfect steak
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For 2cm thick steaks use our 6-2-2 method: Preheat a pan, griddle pan or BBQ plate just like you would for any other steak. Shake off any excess marinade. Cook it on one side without turning for 6 minutes. Turn it over once and allow it to cook for 2 more minutes. This method will cook the steak to just white. If you prefer a little bit of pink just reduce the cooking time. If your steak is thicker than 2cm, adjust the cooking time on the second side.Take the steak straight out of the pan without flipping over and place on a plate to rest for two minutes. That allows the juices to settle and it will be lovely and tender. That’s how simple it is: 6 minutes on one side, 2 minutes on the other and 2 minutes to rest = the 10 minute pork steak!
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Toss the salad, herbs, onion and tomatoes together pouring over the dressing and tossing well. Put a little rice on each plate, top with a Pork steak, and finish with the salad on top and any dressing in the bottom of the bowl onto each plate. Garnish with extra coriander
Notes
Add as much or as little chilli as you like
You can also use precooked rice here too, if you like it
Visit Australian Pork for more hints on cooking Pork steaks
( disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Australian Pork)
https://www.pork.com.au/cook-pork-steak/
