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Sweet and Sour Pork

Elizabeth Anderson

Sweet and sour pork is such a classic Chinese dish. Once you have all the ingredients together it is, like all these recipes, very quick and easy. The pork is perfect in an air fryer, but if you don’t have one, do not be afraid of cooking the pork it the traditional way in a wok as it is very simple - just get the oil really hot and use a slotted spoon to add and remove the pieces, making sure they are well coated with the batter. Do a few at a time and it doesn't take long. Serves 3-4

Ingredients

For the marinade:

  • 450g lean pork, cut into 2cm cubes

  • 1 tsp ground white pepper

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 2 tbsp corn flour

  • 2 tbsp chinese rice wine

  • 2 tsp sesame oil

For the sauce:

  • 2 tbsp brown sugar

  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup

  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar (or white vinegar)

  • 1 tbsp brown sauce

  • 1 tbsp chinese rice wine

  • 1 chicken stock cube

  • 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

  • juice from a small can unsweetened pineapple pieces (use the pineapple below)

Other ingredients:

  • 1 bell pepper (or 2 different coloured halves), chopped

  • 1 medium, carrot, cut into small sticks

  • 1 medium onion, roughly chopped

  • 2 cloves garlic with a thumb-sized piece of unpeeled ginger, blitzed together

  • pineapple pieces from the tin

For the batter:

  • 1 egg, beaten

  • 4 tbsp corn flour

  • oil for deep frying, if using this method

Recipe

  1. Combine the ingredients for the marinade and leave for several hours.

  2. Mix together the sauce ingredients.

  3. Add the egg and extra corn flour for the batter to the pork marinade and mix well until sticky.

  4. Heat some oil in a small wok or pan, to a depth of 5cm. When the oil is really hot (drip a bit of batter in it and watch till it rises to the surface and goes golden), fry the pork pieces in about 4 batches, turning over during the cooking process so they are uniformly a golden brown, and place in a medium oven to keep warm.

  5. In a different pan or wok, flash-fry the onion with the garlic and ginger in 1 tbsp oil until the onion is soft. Add the other vegetables and pineapple, cook for a couple of minutes and then add the sauce and bring to the boil. The sauce will thicken.

  6. When ready to serve, place the pork in a serving dish and pour the sauce over.

  7. Serve with plain rice or a simple fried rice.