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Sweet Sour Pork

Recipe by Connie Veneracion
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, available in Asian groceries, is added to the sauce to give it a subtle fruity flavor.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Marinating time 12 hours
Total Time 12 hours 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 4 people
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

Pork

  • 500 grams pork cut into one-inch cubes
  • 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
  • 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.
    Adding batter to marinated pork
  • 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.
    Frying marinated and battered pork
  • 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.
    Stir frying shallots and bell peppers
  • 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.
    Boiling sugar, salt, rice vinegar, grated garlic and ginger to make the basic sweet sour sauce
  • Stir in the salt, grated garlic and ginger.
  • Add the plum sauce and oyster sauce.
    Adding plum sauce and oyster sauce to sweet sour 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.
    Tossing pork, bell peppers and pineapple in sweet sour sauce
  • Cook, tossing, until the pork cubes are coated with the sticky sweet sour sauce.
Keyword Pork, Sweet Sour Sauce