Chops prepared with an Asian flair.

Byline: $10 Gourmet by Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

ANDREW TRIEGER'S meal for today's edition of The $10 Gourmet can be cooked in about 30 minutes after the thick-cut pork chops have marinated for an hour.

His quick and easy menu features chops seasoned by an Asian marinade, basmati rice flavored with cilantro and lime, and stir-fried bok choy that echoes the soy sauce, garlic and ginger flavors used with the chops.

Trieger is the executive chef at the Broadway bistro, wine bar and market at the corner of Broadway and Charnelton in downtown Eugene. He has been cooking professionally for 25 years.

"The pork loin chops I bought from Mike Long down at Long's meat market. I like to use a local butcher, fresh products," Trieger said before he started cooking the meal.

"I'm using a center-cut, bone-in chop. The bone-in helps to really develop the flavor in the roasting process. I'm doing a very short marinade because pork has a tendency to get overly marinated and the flavors of the pork don't actually come through, just the marinade."

Trieger purchased other ingredients at the market where he works, and he performed the cooking there. The two cash-register receipts totaled $9.48. That cost does not include the 1/4 cup of sherry, the 6 tablespoons of soy sauce and the small amounts of peanut and sesame oils that he used from his pantry.

The $10 Gourmet is a biweekly feature that allows professional chefs to offer menu ideas to home cooks. The chef is asked to cook a meal for two that costs no more than $10, excluding small amounts of staple ingredients commonly found in a home kitchen.

Trieger began cooking by placing the pork chops on a heated grill. He had marinated the meat for an hour previously in a mixture of ginger, garlic, sherry, soy sauce and sesame oil, which he described as "the standard five ingredients of classical Chinese cooking."

After he had seared grill marks onto each side of the chops, he placed the chops into an oven to finish cooking.

He brushed the meat with marinade as it grilled and during the roasting to develop a crust of Asian flavors on the chops.

"One of the things I do is reapplication of the marinade through the cooking process to build up layers of the flavor, allowing the natural sugars that are in the marinade ingredients and in the meat and the vegetables to caramelize through the cooking process," he said.

"At home when I do this cooking, I have a Ducane natural gas grill out in my back yard which I use all the time," he said. "It has a lid cover on it which develops a Dutch oven or oven effect. This grill I'm using here at the restaurant doesn't have a cover to it, so I'll be finishing these in the oven, using a hot oven to replicate that."

Meanwhile, Trieger cooked the rice by bringing basmati rice and water to a boil and then turning the flame down so the mixture would simmer and steam. He had the meat and rice timed so that each needed 17 minutes of cooking and would be done at the same time.

He preheated the pan for the stir-fry while the rice was cooking.

"When you do stir-frying or sauteing, you always want to get your pan really hot," he said. "Keep your pan dry so that when you're ready to do your cooking, you can introduce your oil, immediately introduce your vegetables - and you get a quick sear action, giving a little browning action on the vegetables."

He added cilantro and lime juice to the rice at the last moment and arranged a chop and helpings of rice and bok choy on each plate to serve.

Trieger found his calling as a chef while working for nine months in a kibbutz kitchen in Israel after graduating with a psychology degree from Temple University in 1979. He spent until 1984 working on the East Coast, then moved to California, where he worked for 1 1/2 years at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

After that, he worked for the California Cafe Corp. for seven years, starting as a line cook in San Francisco and ending as an executive chef in the Napa Valley before moving to Eugene in 1992.

Trieger opened The Grapevine restaurant in Eugene and operated it for two years in the location on Broadway that has been remodeled into Adam's Place. He then spent five years as the executive chef for the Oasis markets, where he developed his expertise in prepared foods to go, and then moved to his present job two years ago.

"We offer a very wide variety of prepared foods - it includes some foods made to order - ranging from cold salads and sandwiches to full entree meals and small plates," Trieger said. The wine bar offers a tapas menu with both regular items and specials. Trieger produces a four-course wine dinner for 20 guests once a month that usually costs $65 per person, including wine.

Here are his recipes:

Marinated Pork Loin Chop With Cilantro-Lime Rice and Stir-Fried Bok Choy

For the chops:

2 thick pork loin chops (bone in)

1/4 cup sherry

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

3 tablespoons minced ginger

1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

One hour before cooking, place chops in a nonreactive container.

Mix all of the other ingredients together and pour over the chops, coating all sides. Continue marinating until ready to put the chops on the grill.

Mop the chops with marinade and grill on both sides over the hottest area of the grill, turning to create a crosshatch pattern of grill marks, approximately 5 minutes. Mop with marinade and move the chops to the area of lowest heat, cover the grill and bake for approximately 15 minutes. (You also can use a grill pan to mark the chops and then roast them in a 375-degree oven.)

To check for doneness, chops should feel firm, not soft, when poked with a finger.

For the cilantro-lime rice:

1 cup basmati rice (see note)

1 1/2 cup water

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped (1 cup loosely packed)

Place rice and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 17 minutes (while the pork chops are cooking). Remove rice from heat, then mix in lime juice and chopped cilantro.

Serve with pork chop and stir-fried bok choy (recipe follows).

Note: No salt is added to this rice because it will be used to absorb the salty juices from the bok choy and pork chops.

For the stir-fried bok choy:

1 tablespoon peanut oil 

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

1 pound bok choy, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1/2 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Heat wok or large frying pan as hot as possible.

Add peanut and sesame oils, and immediately add bok choy.

After 10 seconds, add ginger and garlic.

Continue cooking and stirring until the bok choy is wilted and some of the stem pieces have browned. Add soy sauce to deglaze the pan.

Stir and serve.

SETTLING THE BILL

2 pork loin chops (with bone in): $4.94

1 bunch cilantro: 99 cents

1 head garlic: 56 cents

Fresh ginger: $1

1 bok choy (1 pound): $1.49

1 cup basmati rice: 50 cents

Total: $9.48

CAPTION(S):

Andrew Trieger has some fun with a photographer by igniting oil as he prepares bok choy. (Flames are not necessary to prepare this dish!)