Colourful Sweet and Sour Pork
Sweet and sour Pork
The sweet and sour pork is one of the most popular Chinese dishes. It is a classic Cantonese dish and you can order this dish at almost every Chinese restaurant. In general the dish is deep-fried pork or chicken, vegetables and fruit stir-fried in sweet and sour sauce. I find this dish very tasty and I cook it repeatedly. That’s why I choose Colourful Sweet and Sour pork this time.
Ingredients
Recently I add lots of vegetables and fruit to make the dish healthier. As for the vegetables, I use colourful paprika ( green, yellow, red, orange), onion (white) and wood ear mushrooms (black). Then you will have a very colorful dish as above photos. If you like to add some fruits, tropical fruits (such as pineapple and mango) will fit the sweet and sour taste. Mostly I use fresh pineapple or canned pineapple.
Regarding meat, both chicken and pork are equally delicious for this dish. This time I used pork (pork ribeye) for the recipe, but I often use chicken filet as well for lighter taste.
To make the sweet and sour sauce, I use vinegar, sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, since these are available at local or Asian supermarket. If you can’t find Chinese rice wine, replace it with sherry.
Cook vegetabls in microwave
I noticed that stir-fry is not as easy as we think. It takes quite some time to cook through all of the vegetables unless you like raw and crunchy vegetables. Sometimes the vegetables steam and braise in the pan and become too soft. I started to use a microwave in order to clear these problems.
I cook vegetables in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes before adding them to the pan, then just stir vegetables with deep-fried meat and fruit in the sweet and sour sauce to finish the dish. This way cooking time becomes much shorter than normal cooking method.
When you cook ingredients in the microwave, you need to pay attention not to cook them too long. Set less time than expected and check if vegetables are just cooked.
I use the microwave cooking ware below. This is very handy item. If you would like to have one like this, you can find it easily at shops.
Although the microwave is a wonder machine, there are some disadvantages. We should know the features of microwave cooking and use it wisely. If you use the microwave in an efficient way, it will help you a lot. Please click links below for more information.
Let’s go to the recipe.
Colourful sweet and sour pork
Ingredients
- 300 grams Pork ribeye
- Salt and pepper
- 1 table spoon Chinese rice wine or Sherry
- 1 egg for batter
- 5 table spoons Corn starch for batter
- 2 – 3 Paprika in different colour cut into 2 cm sized pieces
- 1 Onion cut into 2 cm sized pieces
- 5 grams Dried wood ear mushrooms (optional)
- 1/4 Fresh pineapple or 1 small canned pineapples cut into 2cm cubes
- 4 table spoons Sugar for sauce
- 4 table spoons Ketchup for sauce
- 4 table spoons Vinegar for sauce
- 1 table spoon Chinese rice wine or Sherry for sauce
- 1 table spoon Soy sauce for sauce
- 1/2 tea spoon Salt for sauce
- 50 ml Water for sauce
- 2 tea spoons Corn starch for sauce
- Oil for deep-fry
Instructions
- If you use dried wood ear mushrooms, put them in a bowl and add lukewarm water. Wood ear mushrooms will rehydrate in 15- 30 minutes. Then trim hard part and cut into bite size.
- Pork preparation : cut a grid on one side of the pork and cut the pork into bite size.
- Put the pork in a bowl and sprinkle salt and pepper and add 1 table spoon Chinese rice wine and mix well. Leave the pork for 10 minutes.
- Make batter : mix well corn starch and egg in a bowl.
- In a wok or pan, add in the oil enough for deep-frying and heat the oil to 170 C degrees. Dip the pork in the batter and fry the pork for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown and pork is cooked through. Remove the pork from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
- While deep-frying the pork, put cut vegetables (paprika and onion) and wood ear mushrooms in a microwave cooking ware and cook for 4-5 minutes with 750w. It depends on the amount of the vegetable and watt. Set less time and check, if the vegetables are not cooked through, cook further 30 seconds or so and check it again. Repeat this until the vegetables is just cooked.
- Make sauce : put all ingredients for sweet and sour pork ( sugar, ketchup, vinegar, Chinese rice wine, soy sauce, corn starch, salt and water) in a wok or large frying pan. Heat the sauce ingredients over medium heat. Constantly stir the sauce until the sauce is boiling and thickened.
- When the sauce is thickened, add vegetables and fruits. Stir well until the fruit becomes warm. Then add crispy pork and stir gently a couple of times to coat with sweet and sour sauce.
Notes
Usually the rice is accompany with sweet and sour pork. Please click the link for the rice.
Hope you will cook colourful sweet and sour pork at home. Enjoy the dish!!