BBQ Pork And The Lost Art Of Throwing Whatever Is Handy In The Marinade

There are a million and one recipes for BBQ pork if you google it. Every one seems to have their own version. I won’t claim that it’s the best, or the ultimate grilled meat, or even that it’s in the top 5 recipes. Oh no, I’m way too afraid of Caitriona Redmond for that. 

What this BBQ pork recipe happens to be is simply a very happy accident. I opened the press, picked out the ingredients I thought might work together, got to work and hoped for the best. 

For this grilled meat fest I used porl steak which is lean by nature. I thought it might end up a bit dry but it kept its moisture really well.  As I was working the marinade into my chunk of love, I was worried about the overall smell of vinegar from the marinade, thinking it might turn the meat sour, but instead it simply served as a tenderising agent. 

I prepared the steak about an hour before grilling it and it was plenty of time for the marinade to work its magic. This really is a quite handy little dish.  This was enough BBQ pork for 4 hungry hippos, sorry I meant adults. 

Ingredients

• 1 pork steak
• 1 heaped tablespoon of white miso paste
• 2 tablespoons of good cider vinegar (I used the gorgeous one I got during my visit to Highbank Orchard)
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

Method 

• Take a sharp knife and insert it in the pork steak in several spot. Try and not to pierce through. Turn the steak and repeat.
• Slice your garlic finely and stick a slice of garlic in each hole you have made. 
• In a bowl, mix all your ingredients (apart from the garlic which you’ve just used and the fresh thyme). 
• The marinade is a thick liquid. 
• Coat your meat with it and massage it so everywhere gets covered. 
• Remove the leaves of the thyme from the sprigs and sprinkle them on the meat.
• Cover the meat and let it rest at room temperature for an hour. 
• Light up your barbecue and once your flames are gone and the ambers are glowing that white ash put your meat on.
• Given that there are no two barbecues alike and that food safety is incredibly important when it comes to raw meat, I will recomment that you ensure the meat is cooked through. This took a good 20 min for min on a searing hot charcoal grill.  Turn it often so it doesn’t burn. 

If you need more inspiration  for barbecue food, here’s a grilled chicken I’ve been making.