Out of Cindy Pawlcyn’s restaurants in the Napa Valley, I have to admit that I like the mellow Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen more than the bustling Mustards Grill, but both have excellent food. So, until maybe a CBK cookbook comes out, I’m exploring her Mustards Grill cookbook.

Mongolian Pork Chops is a signature dish at Mustards, and although I really liked my incarnation, I’m curious about what it would taste like their heritage breed pork, as opposed to my Ralph’s (where I couldn’t find a single non-boneless pork chop).  Anyway, I think that the Mongolian aspect has to do with the bit of spicy bite they have, which is so well rounded out by the cilantro.  Like many recipes for a marinade, the experience can either be as easy as pulling these relatively common components out of your cupboard/fridge and augmenting them with some fresh seasonings, or as difficult as an all out jar and seasoning buying binge at the market — or in my case, binging at the market, assembling the marinade in an empty water bottle and flying it on down to LA, where my boyfriend and his grill reside.  At least many ingredients will keep for next time, and it’s a reliable marinade that can be used for other meats, like ribs or chicken, if you want.  And definitely baste while grilling — why not have as much flavor as possible?

Speaking of that, Mustards serves them with Chinese-Style Mustard Sauce and Braised Red Cabbage.  We just had grilled artichokes. They were steamed for about 30 mins first (until soft), and then grilled until they were a little charred on each side.  Something about grilling them makes them extra meaty and deep in flavor — no sauce necessary.
Here is a link to the Mongolian Pork Chops recipe with an article about it.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Highly Recommended, Recipes - Savory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.