Sweet Sour Pork
My comfort food as a child, the flavor of sweet sour pork is even more delightful with the addition of plum sauce and oyster sauce to the basic sweet sour sauce.
Ingredients
Pork
- 500 grams pork, cut into one-inch cubes (see notes after the recipe)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 teaspoon potato starch, or tapioca starch or corn starch BUT NOT all-purpose flour or any wheat-based flour
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda, (to tenderize the pork)
To fry the pork
- cooking oil, for deep frying
- 1 small egg
- ¼ cup potato starch, or tapioca starch or corn starch BUT NOT all-purpose flour or any wheat-based flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder, (to create a very light crust)
Vegetables
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
- 2 to 4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 large red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 large green bell pepper, deseeded and diced
- ¾ cup pineapple chunks
Sweet sour sauce
- 6 tablespoons white sugar
- 6 tablespoons rice vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon grated garlic
- ¼ teaspoon grated ginger
- 2 heaping tablespoons plum sauce, (see notes after the recipe)
- 1 heaping tablespoon oyster sauce
- ¼ teaspoon sesame seed oil
Instructions
Marinate the pork
- Place the pork in a bowl.
- Stir together the soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, starch and baking soda, and pour over the pork.
- Mix well.
- Cover the bowl and marinate in the fridge overnight.
Fry the pork
- In a wok, start heating enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least three inches.
- Mix together the egg, starch and baking powder, and stir into the pork to coat each piece evenly.
- Drop the battered pork cubes one by one into the hot oil and cook at 325F for seven to eight minutes or until cooked through.
- Scoop out the pork and transfer to a strainer.
Cook the vegetables
- In a large wok, heat the teaspoonful of oil.
- Stir fry the shallots and bell pepper for a minute.
- Add the pineapple chunks and stir fry for another fifteen seconds.
- Scoop everything out and transfer to a plate.
Make the sweet sour sauce
- Into the same wok, pour in the sugar and rice vinegar.
- Over medium heat, boil until the sugar is almost dissolved.
- Stir in the salt, grated garlic and ginger.
- Add the plum sauce and oyster sauce.
- Set the heat to medium-low and continue cooking the sauce until reduced and thick enough for a canal to form when you drag a spatula across the bottom of the pan.
- Stir in the sesame seed oil.
Finish your sweet sour pork
- Dump the pork, vegetables and pineapple into the sauce.
- Cook, tossing, until the pork cubes are coated with the sticky sweet sour sauce.
Notes
Pork with a good marbling of fat is ideal. Shoulder is a good choice. So is butt. Pork tenderloin is the WORST choice ever.
Plum sauce is available in Asian groceries.
No, there is no need to thicken sweet sour sauce with starch. Just boil it down to a syrup.
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