Authentic Sweet and Sour Pork (凤梨咕老肉)

“My signature dish – Sweet and Sour Pork, for the kids and family!”

Unlike curry or sambal paste, you do not require blending and extra frying process for the sweet and sour sauce. Even though the readily packed sweet and sour sauce is easily available in the market, but you might be even happier to know that delicious sweet and sour sauce is very easy to prepare at home. Cook an authentic sweet and sour pork dish at home, in minutes. I used 10 min to prepare this dish (excludes marinating time of 15 min).

As mentioned before, making sweet & sour sauced dishes are my forte. I hope you try, and like my recipe. By the way, I used button mushroom in this recipe, and went without the green capsicum as my family does not like it. Mama loved button mushroom, and hence, I added it, just for the family. The dish turned out absolutely well! Also, I did not add carrot slices when I cooked this on Friday. Reason being, carrot needs more time (extra 5 min) to cook and soften. Since I had the carrots in my soup, it was fine to forgo it in this recipe.

Ingredients
300g lean pork (shoulder part), cut into cube-sized
2 small fresh tomatoes, wedged (choose not so ripe ones)
2 wedges of honey pineapple, thin sliced
1 small onion, cut into small pieces
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 cup of cornflour
1 cup of oil (for frying purpose)

Marination
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of Shao Hsing Hua Diao Wine
1 large egg

Sauces
6 tablespoon of tomato sauce
3 tablespoon of sugar
4 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon of white vinegar
Pinch of salt

Method
1) Season pork cubes with light soy sauce and Hua Diao Wine. Add in egg, and combine well. Keep in the refrigerator, and marinate for at least 15 min. I marinated the pork since morning, before I left for work.

2) Prepare sauce in a bowl. Add all sauce ingredients in the bowl. Stir and mix well. Set aside.

3) Coat marinated pork cubes with cornstarch. Make sure all sides of pork cubes are well covered with thick flour.

4) Heat wok with oil over high heat or use deep-fryer. Deep-fry pork for 5 min, or until crisped and golden browned. Remove from wok, and drain on kitchen towel. Reserve for later.

5) Clean wok. Heat wok with 1 teaspoon of oil, stir-fry chopped garlic till fragrant. Add spring onion, tomatoes and pineapples, sauté for 2 min.

6) Return fried pork cubes to the wok, and pour in sauce mixture. Stir-fry to combine well. Fry all ingredients briefly over high heat, for 1 min. Serve.

Calories of this dish count 380kcal for a decent portion. If you like more fatty meat like 3-layer pork, expect 550kcal.

Tips: If you do not like watery gravy, use cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, like I did. See tips no.20 for directions.
* If you have time, double fry the pork cubes over high heat for 1 – 3 min to obtain more crispiness.
*Do not over-cook the side ingredients to retain its freshness and natural colours. No worries, I assured you the ingredients will be cooked and tender enough to taste.
*Make sure the oil is hot heated at correct temperature and enough to cover the flour-coated pork. Otherwise, the outer layer of pork will turn soft and gluey, and not crisp. Keep the flame in medium – high throughout the frying process in order to yield effect of ‘moist inside and golden brown outside’. It should take no more than 5 min to do so. *Also, make sure the pork cubes are cut in uniform size to better control when frying.