Sweet and Sour Pork
Published June 23, 2021
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus at least 2 hours’ marinating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¾pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1¼-inch chunks
- 3tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
- 1teaspoon soy sauce
- ½teaspoon salt
- ½teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼teaspoon ground white pepper
- 2tablespoons neutral oil, such as rice bran or canola
- 2teaspoons minced ginger
- 1teaspoon minced garlic
- 1½tablespoons tomato paste
- 1¼cups rice vinegar
- 1cup pineapple juice
- ¾cup honey
- 1tablespoon dried hawthorn berries (can be purchased in Asian groceries or online)
- 2teaspoons sambal oelek
- ¼teaspoon five-spice powder
- ½teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 1tablespoon cornstarch
- 1quart neutral oil, such as rice bran, for deep-frying
- 1bell pepper (any color), cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½medium yellow onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 8ounces fresh pineapple, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
- Pinch of salt
- Steamed rice, for serving
- ⅓cup sweet rice flour (preferably Mochiko brand)
- ⅓cup cornstarch
- ¼teaspoon baking powder
- ¼teaspoon ground white pepper
- ⅛teaspoon salt
For the Pork and Marinade
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce
For Frying
For the Batter
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the pork: Combine the pork with all the marinade ingredients, mixing well. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Step 2
Make the sweet and sour sauce: Heat the oil, ginger and garlic in a medium saucepan over low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute, stirring. Add the rice vinegar, pineapple juice, honey, hawthorn berries, sambal oelek and five-spice powder; stir to combine while bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the solids; return to the saucepan.
- Step 3
Reduce the sauce to about 1 ¾ cups over medium-high heat, uncovered, about 5 minutes. Season with ½ teaspoon salt, adding more as desired.
- Step 4
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water. Bring the sauce up to a boil again, then stir in the cornstarch slurry. Stir as it thickens and bubbles, about 1 minute, then remove from heat. (Note: This sauce recipe may produce more than needed for your pork stir-fry; use as much as you desire and the rest can be saved for another use, such as a dipping sauce for crab rangoon.)
- Step 5
Prepare to deep-fry: In a large wok (or deep skillet), heat the quart of oil to 350 degrees.
- Step 6
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the batter; add ½ cup water and whisk to combine. Drain any excess liquid from the marinated pork and discard. Working quickly in two batches, carefully dip each piece of pork into the batter one at a time, shaking off any excess, and drop into the oil. Fry the first batch of pork until golden brown, about 6 to 7 minutes. Using a spider or slotted spoon, transfer the fried pork to a wire rack-lined baking sheet to drain. Repeat with the remaining pork, mixing the batter thoroughly before coating the meat. After frying, carefully discard the oil, reserving 1 tablespoon.
- Step 7
Return the reserved 1 tablespoon of oil to the wok or pan and heat over high. Once the oil is popping, about 1 minute, add the bell pepper, onion, pineapple and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly charred in spots.
- Step 8
Scrape the vegetables into a large bowl and toss with the fried pork and enough sweet and sour sauce to coat (about 1 to 1 ½ cups). Arrange on a serving dish and serve with steamed rice.
Private Notes
Comments
Both this and the cashew chicken recipe require deep-frying marinated, battered meat in 2x its weight of neutral oil. These are clearly restaurant recipes: no doubt tasty (and I don't object morally to frying). But the question, for home cooks, is what to do with ~1qt leftover oil, which quickly turns rancid. (Restaurants, by contrast, reuse frying oil 6-8 times in <1 day before discarding.) I would have liked to see a home-cook-friendly version, e.g., for air fryers, or using sauteing.
You can definitely keep the oil. Just strain it. I keep frying oil, after cooling and straining, for multiple uses. It does not go rancid. Depending on how often and what they are frying, restaurants keep the oil anywhere from a day to a few weeks.
I'm a recipe developer, former restaurant owner who deep fat fried a lot. I don't do that at home. I would use enough oil to come halfway up the side of the pieces of meat or the cauliflower, which should be cut to enable the whole piece to crisped with only one turn. Heat the oil until a haze forms over it, gently put the battered pieces in and cook until browned, turn gently, repeat. Drain on a wire placed on top of paper toweling or a brown bag. Keep warm @250 in the oven until all cooked.
I only used the sauce in this recipe but it was amazing! I air fried the pork with potato starch and then finished it in the sauce. If I had more time I might try the whole thing, but you could do just the sauce and have a really good sweet and sour dish.
cut way back on the 5 spice -even at 1/4 teaspoon it tends to totally dominate the flavors. I liked cooking the pepper/pineapple/onion separately, that gave really nice consistencies...
I appreciate the professional profile of the prep methods and ingredients. It is easy enough for me to shift from deep fry to sheet pan or to go to a different type of asian chili garlic paste than the sambal olek listed. But I have made a new sauce label Acquaintance and when I do visit a good asian food store i may recognize that acquaintance and add to my collection. For today i am the queen if my own sweet and sour pork which better satisfied my tastes and supplies than any takeout dine out
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