Sweet and Sour Pork

Marinated pork fried twice and met by a red fruited sauce off the heat, so the coating is still crisp when it reaches the plate.

Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

For the pork

• 600 g pork shoulder, in 3 cm cubes
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 120 g cornflour, for coating
• 1.5 litres flavourless oil, for frying

For the sauce

• 6 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 100 ml water
• 2 teaspoons cornflour in 2 tablespoons water

To go in

• 1 green pepper, in 3 cm squares
• 1 red pepper, in 3 cm squares
• 1 onion, in petals
• 200 g pineapple, in chunks
• 1 tablespoon flavourless oil

Method

1. THE SAUCE MEETS THE PORK OFF THE HEAT AND IN THE LAST TEN SECONDS. Everything about the frying is aimed at a crisp shell, and a minute of tossing in simmering sauce undoes all of it. The sauce is finished and thickened in the pan, the pan comes off the heat, the pork goes in, two turns, and it is on the plate.
2. THE PORK IS MARINATED AND THEN FRIED TWICE. The marinade is why it tastes of something under the coating -- unmarinated pork in a sweet sauce is just texture. The first fry at a moderate heat cooks it through; the second, hot and short, is what makes it crisp and what keeps it crisp for the few minutes that matter.
3. Pork cubes mixed with the soy, wine, egg, salt and pepper. Left 30 minutes, or several hours in the fridge.
4. Sauce ingredients except the cornflour whisked together in a jug and tasted. It should make you wince slightly -- the pork and vegetables flatten it considerably.
5. Each cube lifted out of the marinade, shaken, and pressed firmly into the cornflour so it is thickly and completely coated. Laid out on a tray, not piled.
6. LEFT 10 MINUTES AFTER COATING so the cornflour hydrates and turns from powdery to pasty. Coated straight into oil, it falls off in the pan.
7. Oil to 160C. Pork fried in two batches, 5 minutes each, until pale gold and cooked through. Lifted out and drained.
8. Oil up to 190C. Both batches back in together, 90 seconds, until deep gold and hard. Out onto a rack, NOT paper -- paper traps steam against the underside and softens it.
9. A tablespoon of oil in a wok over a high heat. Onion and peppers in, 90 seconds, so they are blistered at the edges and still raw in the middle.
10. Pineapple in, 30 seconds. Sauce poured in and brought to a hard boil.
11. Cornflour slurry stirred in and boiled 30 seconds until it goes glossy and coats the spoon.
12. HEAT OFF. Pork in. Two folds with the spatula, no more, and straight onto the plate.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes