This dish came about after I realized I still had 2 whole heads of romaine lettuce, and I was sick of eating a chopped salad. When it comes to lettuce, I had some semi-traumatic experiences as a child since my mom would serve us boiled lettuce. What you don’t think about when it comes to cooking lettuce like that is that the leaves take on an unpleasant, grassy flavor that is reminiscent of a wheat grass shot. So I am always hesitant to cook lettuce. But I remembered a long, long time ago when I was watching Chopped: All Stars in high school, Claire Robinson made this gorgeous dish of venison loin with polenta and grilled lettuce. It was well-received(she still got Chopped for forgetting an ingredient) and I figured, why not try a play on that dish, but using pork loin? And that’s where the initial inspiration for this recipe came from. However, I did not just want to copy her dish one for one. So I made a ton of tweaks to it, beyond just swapping the protein, to truly make this dish my own. When it came to the lettuce, I find that brown butter makes everything taste amazing. So I figured, why not brush the lettuce with brown butter, and grill that? And I was not wrong to go that route. The brown butter was nutty and smoky, and that with this crispy, smoky lettuce was such an addictive combination. Brown butter-grilled lettuce has honestly cured my cooked lettuce trauma – it was THAT good.

For the other components, since I was going with a pork loin, I wanted to do something with apples. Green apple on its own, while nice, might be a little boring. So to add more flavor to the apples, I went with a Vietnamese dipping sauce called nuoc cham. Nuoc cham is garlicky, punchy, sweet, salt, and a bit spicy. One of my favorite ways to eat romaine is with Vietnamese banh xeo, which is a turmeric pancake that is stuffed with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts, and wrapped with lettuce and herbs, and dipped in that nuoc cham. So I figured, why not go that route, and make an apple nuoc cham to dress my grilled romaine with? And in lieu of a polenta, I went with a coconut-turmeric corn pudding, as a homage to a banh xeo, but with freshly pureed corn that is thickened over heat into a luscious, creamy puree. And to finish it all off with, I took the leftover brown butter, and made a soy sauce-brown butter, just to give a nutty, salty, smoky sauce to play off of the grilled pork loin. This dish was very refreshing and embraced cooking in the summer so nicely, between the lighter cooking applications on the garnishes and the grilled pork!

For the turmeric-coconut corn pudding:
2 ears yellow corn, shucked and cobs reserved
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup coconut milk

In a pot, bring all of the ingredients, including the corn cobs, to a simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Scrape the contents of the corn cob back into the pot and then remove the cobs. Transfer the contents of the pot into a blender and puree until smooth. Pour the puree into the pot and bring to a boil, then stir for 2-3 minutes until thickened substantially – you want this to be as thick as mashed potatoes.

For the grilled pork loin:
1 pork loin
5g salt
2g black pepper
1g paprika
1g allspice

Roll the pork loin in the spices. Grill the pork loin on each side for 2 minutes on high heat(4 sides in total). Then transfer the pork loin to the oven and bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes. Allow the pork to rest before slicing.

For the green apple nuoc cham:
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 red chili, seeds removed and minced finely
2 tbsp lime juice
a pinch of salt
1oz palm sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 green apple, peeled and cut to small dice

In a bowl, start by mixing the garlic, chili, lime juice, and salt first. Break apart the palm sugar and stir that into the aromatics as well. Then pour over that the warm water, just to help the palm sugar dissolve. Then add to that the fish sauce. Then mix into that the green apple to finish.

For the brown butter-grilled lettuce:
2 heads of Romaine lettuce
3 tbsp brown butter
a pinch of salt

Cut the Romaine lettuce in half, lengthwise, Brush both sides of the lettuce with brown butter and salt. Grill the lettuce on high heat for 2 minutes on each side.

For the brown butter-soy sauce:
3 tbsp brown butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water

In a pan, heat up the ingredients together on low heat until emulsified.