Sweet & Sour Pork

A throwback to old school 90’s Chinese takeaway dinners, this dish takes a little time with the marinade, coating and batter for the pork, but is worth the effort and a joy to eat. Serve with steamed rice and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Ingredients

• 300g Pork shoulder, cut into 2cm cubes

• Vegetable oil for deep frying the pork

• Jasmine or Japanese rice

For the Pork Marinade:

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp dry sherry

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

For the Pork coating:

• 50g Cornflour

• 1 tsp fine sea salt

• 2 tsp celery salt

• 2 tsp caster sugar

For the Pork batter

• 100g plain flour

• 100g cornflour

• 1 heaped tsp baking powder

• 200ml water

For the Sauce:

• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

• 1 green pepper

• 1 red pepper

• 2 tbsp ketchup

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 350g pineapple chunks

Method

In a medium bowl, combine the marinade ingredients, and put the pork cubes into it, stirring with a spoon to ensure all pieces are coated. Set aside for between half an hour up to 1 day.

To make the sauce, in a medium skillet on medium heat, fry the garlic, ginger and peppers in 2 tbsp of oil. Stir continuously until the peppers have softened slightly and the garlic and ginger is fragrant (about 3 minutes). Add the rest of the sauce ingredients, stirring to combine fully, and bring the mixture to a low boil. Reduce the heat to low, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Cover with lid and set aside.

In a bowl or roasting dish, combine the coating ingredients. Drain excess marinade liquid from the pork, and toss the pork pieces in the coating, ensuring each piece is well covered.

In a a large bowl, combine all of the batter ingredients, whisking until a smooth thick batter forms.

Fill a large heavy bottomed pan with the vegetable oil, ensuring the oil does not go higher than 3 or 4 inches below the rim of the pan. Heat the oil on high heat until a couple of droplets of water dropped into the oil sing and crackle. This means the oil is ready for deep frying.

Working in batches (I like to divide the pork into 3 batches), drop each marinaded and coated pork piece into the batter, then once it’s fully coated in the batter drop it into the hot oil. Work your way one by one until the first batch is frying and bubbling continuously in the oil. Keep an eye that they do not stick to each other whilst they fry. The pork is ready when the batter is crispy and golden brown. Each batch should take between 7 and 10 minutes to fry.

Once golden, take out of oil with a slotted spoon, and place on a baking sheet covered in kitchen roll to drain excess oil.

Reheat sauce to a simmer.

Once all of the pork has been fried and rested on kitchen roll, pour the pork pieces into the sauce, stirring carefully to coat every piece in the sauce.

Serve immediately in bowls with steamed Jasmine rice, and sprinkled with sesame seeds.