We are singing the Chinese national anthem today……..Sweet and Sour Pork! This dish has to be the most significant Chinese cuisine ever known outside of China. Other than using pork, you can use spare rib, chicken, prawn, or fish to make this recipe. From north to south, there are many regional recipes to make this dish by using different vinegar, and sugar. The recipe you are seeing here represents the most popular Cantonese style of sweet and sour pork.
Note:
- Use pork butt
- Use Chinese rice vinegar
- Use cane sugar
Ingredients:
Pork butt ½ lb cut to small strips
Egg x1
Corn starch 1 teaspoon mix with one teaspoon of water
Soy sauce 1 teaspoon
Kosher salt ¼ teaspoon
Sugar ¼ teaspoon
White pepper 1/8 teaspoon
Cooking wine 1 teaspoon
*Marinade the pork butt strip with the above ingredients for 30 minutes, drain excess liquid
Flour 1 cup
Oil 4 cups
Red pepper ½ cut to triangle shape
Pineapple ½ cup – fresh or canned, cut to chunks
Onion ½ cut to chunks
Tomato ½ cut to chunk
Lemon x2 slices
Green onion
Sweet and sour sauce:
Rice vinegar ½ cup
Water ¼ cup
Cane sugar 1 ½ pieces
Ketchup 1 tablespoon
Kosher salt 1/8 teaspoon
Corn starch 1 ½ teaspoon mix with two teaspoons of water
Method:
After marinating the pork butt strips for 30 minutes, add ¼ cup of flour and mix well. It’ll turn into a gluey mixture. On separate bowl or plate, spread the rest of the ¾ flour. Coat the pork strip individually with dry flour and set aside.
Heat up oil in wok till 80% hot. (Just before smoke coming out from the edge of the wok) Drop pork strips to hot oil and separate them quickly. Add cold oil if oil temperate is too hot. Turn pork over so it cooks evenly. When pork strips are floating on top of the oil, turn off heat to allow cooking for another two minutes. Take pork out quickly and drain excess oil and set aside.
Remove oil from wok but leave two tablespoons in it. Turn heat to high and quickly stir fry the red pepper and onion. (If you use fresh pineapple, put it in after the pepper and onion are half-cooked) Remove pepper and onion, set aside.
Pour rice vinegar and water in wok and bring to boil, add cane sugar, lemon and a pinch of salt. Stir well and allow sugar to dissolve, add ketchup. Remove lemon slices after a minute. Return pepper, onion, pineapple, and tomato back to the sauce and mix well. Once you see the sauce is boiling again, add corn starch mixture to thicken the sauce. Put the already cooked pork strips back to the sauce and mix well. Add green onion at the end and dinner is served!
eddy's kitchen 