Sweet & Sour Pork

Sprinkle with soy sauce and bite into deliciousness!

On of my favorite Chinese food dishes is sweet & sour pork. However, I grew up in the Midwest in the '60's and my exposure to Chinese take-out was quite limited, partially because we lived outside the city limits at the time, Chinese take-out restaurants were few and far between in Columbia, MO, and delivery non-existent. A lot also had to do with the fact that my parents (and both sets of grandparents) had huge gardens that supplied not only most of our seasonal food, but was canned/frozen/dried for non-seasonal consumption. 

Eventually, when I was just about ready to head off to college, a very up-scale Chinese restaurant opened and I remember eating there with my family once or twice. Can't remember what I had, but I know it was several steps above your typical take-out. 

Funnily, I was exposed to Japanese cooking over the years as mom brought back cooking ideas from her and dad's time in Japan after dad was through serving in the Korean war, and there were several times we had Japanese exchange students visiting (don't think they lived with us...can't remember) and they would cook us a traditional Japanese dinner. 

When I went to college, I became good friends with Janelle our freshman year. During later college years, Janelle lived in an apartment and that was great, because she was quite the cook!  Sweet & sour pork was one of her specialties - and it was delicious! The recipe below is a bit of her original (40 years on!) recipe, a lot of it comes from a recipe I found on a favorite website of mine The Spruce Eats, and a I was making this with our friend, Alex, who had cooked in the food industry for at least 10 years and really knows his food and how to cook it a lot came from him.

I've always stir-fried the pork that has been cut in strips, but this time I followed The Spruce Eats instructions to chunk the pork, coat it and deep-fry it. Not as healthy, but man, was it good!

This is fantastically tasty!

Amounts and colors of peppers are to your taste, onions as well. 

for the pork and it's marinade: 

2 - 2 1/2 lbs. pork, cut into chunks (I used boneless chops)

4 T. soy sauce

2 T. rice vinegar

1/2 t. Chinese 5-spice powder, or substitute with (what I did): 1/4 t. each of ground ginger, ground cloves & ground cinnamon

1/2 t. white pepper

2 t. garlic powder or 4 cloves garlic, minced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

6 T. corn starch

2 T. white flour

Combine all ingredients through eggs in a ziploc bag and shake to mix well. In a small container, combine the egg, corn starch and flour and mix well - a stick blender does the trick nicely. Mix this into the marinating pork and shake and turn bag so pork is evenly coated with all the ingredients. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, shaking every once in a while. 

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for the sweet & sour sauce: 

1 C. water

1/2 C. Heinz catsup

1/3 C. rice vinegar in a 1/2 C. measuring cup

cider vinegar to the top of the 1/2 C. measuring cup of rice vinegar

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 heaping T. corn starch mixed with 1 T. water

cayenne to taste

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and mix well before you turn on the stove heat. Once heat is on, stirring constantly, bring sauce to a boil then turn heat down and simmer until sauce is thickened. Set aside. 

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for the deep-fry and final stir-fry: 

3 or so C. oil to deep-fry the pork (I used a Fry Daddy)

2 T. additional cooking oil for the stir-fry

3 cloves garlic, coarse chopped

1 medium onion, coarse chopped

1 red pepper, coarse chopped

1 1/2 green pepper, coarse chopped

1 fresh, cored pineapple, each ring cut into at least 8 chunks

soy sauce, to taste

2 C. basmati rice, cooked according to package directions

soy sauce for the table

Heat the Fry Daddy and when hot, slide the pork chunks in (in batches) and deep-fry till golden brown, but not cooked through, about 3 minutes. Line a plate or sheet with some paper towels and let pork drain there when done. Set aside.

Heat some oil in a wok or large skillet (what I used) and add the garlic and onion. Stir-fry for a minute or two and add the peppers, pineapple and pork. Mix all together and pour on all the sweet & sour sauce. Cook until pork is done, the veggies cook through and the pineapple hot. Serve over hot basmati rice w/soy sauce on the table. 

all that deliciousness just before the s&s sauce is added

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YUM!

'till we feast again!

xoabb