PETALING JAYA, May 25 — While having dinner at my local dai chow, I was admiring how crispy and delicious the sweet and sour pork dish was. Be it chicken, fish or any kind of meat, sweet and sour is the way to go.
It is so popular that almost every time I eat out, someone at the table would order the dish. So, what is the secret to really good sweet and sour pork? Is it the batter in which they fry the pork? The cut? The secret ingredient in the sauce? I was determined to find out.
The only way to do so is to start cooking it myself. I’m not a really good cook but give me a recipe and I do what I can. So I trawled the Net for the perfect sweet and sour pork recipe.
It had to be simple and easy to execute. Also, the ingredients should be readily available at my local market. One fine day, I found the perfect recipe. It was straight to the point and the picture of the sweet and sour pork looked promising.
I bought the ingredients I needed at the market. I made sure that everything was fresh. One thing I learned about cooking is that fresh ingredients are a must. If you skimp on that, you may not get good results even if you have the best recipe.
Somehow, I felt rather pressured to make a good sweet and sour pork dish. I wanted it to be perfect the first time around!
As I went along, it got easier. It didn’t seem daunting anymore. The tedious part was frying each piece of pork after soaking it in the marinade and batter. If you had a lot of meat then it would take some time to fry each piece. But as soon as the wonderful smell of pork wafted through the kitchen, I got excited.
It took me an hour to finish everything. Add another hour to eat and wash everything up. For my first time, the meat wasn’t crispy enough but overall, it was good. I even got compliments for the dish.
I’m happy with my sweet and sour pork but I’m still far from my local dai chow’s standard.
Sweet and sour pork
Ingredients:
240 grams pork tenderloin (cut into bite size pieces)
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 green bell pepper (cut into pieces)
1/2 red bell pepper (cut into pieces)
2 stalks scallions (only the white part, cut into 5cm length)
Oil for frying
Marinade:
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon corn flour
1/2 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
Sweet and sour sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon plum sauce
1/8 teaspoon Chinese rice vinegar (transparent in color)
1/2 teaspoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
Frying Batter:
125ml water
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 egg
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1 small pinch of salt
Method:
1. Cut the pork tenderloin into pieces and marinate with the mixed ingredients for 15-20 minutes.
2. Mix the sweet and sour sauce ingredients well and set aside.
3. Sift the dry ingredients of the frying batter into a bowl. Add in the egg, water, and cooking oil and mix to form a thick batter.
4. When the pork is well-marinated, transfer the pork pieces into the batter and make sure they are well coated. In a deep skillet, add in the cooking oil enough for deep-frying. Once the oil is hot, deep fry the pork pieces until they turn golden brown. Dish out and drain on paper towels.
5. Heat up a wok and add in some cooking oil. Add in the chopped garlic and stir fry until light brown, then follow by the bell peppers. Stir fry until you smell the peppery aroma from the peppers and then add in the sweet and sour sauce. As soon as the sauce thickens, transfer the pork into the wok and stir well with the sauce. Add in the chopped scallions, do a few quick stirs, dish out and serve hot with steamed white rice.
