This recipe is from one of the best chefs I know, Sandra Sim, aka LadyBoss Dining Club's founder and Chef. She lived abroad for the bulk of her 20s, in HK and Shanghai, cities that inspire her cooking at LadyBoss today. This HK baked pork chop rice is one of her favourite dishes she enjoyed when she was living there. Her recipe for this really produces one of the best versions of this dish around. Its base consists of golden and fragrant egg fried rice, which are topped with marinated and pan-seared pork chops, which are then draped with a ketchup-based sauce, topped with cheese and then baked. It's basically cheesy baked rice taken up another notch. You really can't go wrong with that.Excerpt below is taken from my second cookbook.

Ingredients

• 500 g pork chops, about 4 chops

• 4 Tbsp canola oil or any other neutral-tasting oil

• 160 g mozzarella cheese

  Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced 1 tsp minced ginger

• A dash of ground white pepper

• 2 tsp cornstarch

• 1 tsp white sugar

• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

• 1 Tbsp sesame oil

• 1 Tbsp Maggi seasoning

  Egg fried rice

• 350 g cooked rice, left overnight 3 eggs

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp chicken powder Ground white pepper to taste 2 Tbsp cooking oil

• Light soy sauce to taste

  Tomato Sauce

• 8–10 Tbsp ketchup, or to taste 1 tsp Maggi seasoning

• 1 tsp light soy sauce

• 2 Tbsp white sugar

• 1 tsp chicken powder

• A dash of white pepper

• 1 yellow onion, peeled, halved

• and each half cut into 3-4 chunks lengthwise

• 3 tomatoes, cut into chunks

Directions

• We start by tenderising and marinating the pork chops. Using the back of a knife, a rolling pin or a meat mallet, you wanna pound the chops until they’re slightly flattened. Combine all the marinade ingredients and pour it over the chops. Combine all the marinade ingredients and pour over the pork chops. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or, ideally, overnight.

• For the egg fried rice, place rice in a large mixing bowl and add eggs, salt, sesame oil, chicken powder and pepper. Mix until well combined.

• Heat a wok or large saucepan over high heat and add the cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the rice mixture and stir- fry until lightly golden brown and charred. Add soy sauce according to taste. Transfer to an ovenproof baking pan — a casserole or cast-iron pan would work as well. We’ll get back

• to this in a bit.

• To a large sauté pan, add 4 tablespoonfuls of oil and heat over medium-high heat until the oil is hot. Using a pair of tongs, place your chops in the pan. Sear on both sides until nicely golden. You don’t have to worry about them being fully cooked at this point, since they'll be finished off in the oven. Arrange the seared chops on top of the egg fried rice.

• To make the tomato sauce, mix the ketchup, Maggi seasoning, soy sauce, sugar, chicken powder and pepper together in a bowl. In the same pan used for searing the chops, heat onion chunks over high heat. Stir them around before adding the tomatoes and cooking for about 45 seconds.

• Add ketchup mixture and about 150 ml water. Let the mixture come to a boil and reduce until it thickens, about a couple of minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning. If you want a stronger tomato flavour, add an extra 1–2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup. If you want a thinner sauce, splash in more water a little at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved.

• Smother the chops with the tomato sauce and top generously with mozzarella cheese. You can make this ahead of time and leave it in the refrigerator overnight or a few hours until you're ready to serve.

• To serve, preheat the oven to 175°C. Bake for 8–10 minutes, until the cheese gets all bubbly, golden and burnished.

• Serve and dig into your bowl of gooey, cheesy carbs.