Sweet and Sour Pork

Happy Sunday!  Is time for me to share another recipe to all my blog readers.  This dish is something that I have missed for so long - Sweet and Sour Pork  (咕噜肉).

Sweet and Sour Pork is a Chinese dish that is particularly popular in Cantonese cuisine and am sure it can be found in all over the world.  Being a pure Cantonese myself, I was introduced to this dish since I was young.  This is one of the dishes that my late mom won't missed during all occasions or any festivals.....the taste of her cooking still deep in my memory.  Even though I was familiar with this dish but I have not try to cook it myself.  This is my first trial and am satisfied with the result.  

Sweet and Sour Pork are consists of deep fried pork in bite sized pieces, and next you have stir-fried in customized sweet and sour sauce that normally mixed with sugar, ketchup, plum sauce, soy sauce and others seasoning with additional of varieties of vegetables like bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, etc.  Most of the time from my experience from most of the restaurants, the sweetness of the sauce over covered the sour taste of the sauce.  So, to enhance the sour taste  I substituted the plum sauce with lemon juice.   And the meat, I marinated with Chinese Five Spice Powder for almost half an hour before I fried them to ensure the fragrant of the meat stays even it has stir-fried with the vegetables.

You may use spareribs instead of the pieces of meat and for those who does not have a desire with pork, you may alternate it with chicken meat or fish to become Sweet and Sour Chicken or Fish.  This dish is perfect to serve with rice, hope you like this recipe and enjoy your weekend!


INGREDIENTS

500 gm pork belly meat, cut into bite-size pieces

1 medium size green pepper, cut into bite-size pieces

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

1/2 cucumber, cut into cubes, removed the center part

1 red onion, cut into cubes

1 red chili, cut into bite-size pieces

Marinade

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp Chinese Five Spice Powder 

1 egg, beaten

3-4 tbsp of flour or all-purpose flour

Oil for deep frying

Sauce (combine)

4 tbsp tomato sauce

3 tbsp chili sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

4 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp salt

1 tbsp corn flour

A dash of ground pepper

200 ml water

2 tbsp oil

2 garlic, chop finely

DIRECTIONS

1.   Marinate pork and refrigerated for 30 minutes.

2.   While waiting for the meat to be ready for frying, cut all vegetables and all others
      ingredients.

3.   Heat-up oil in wok or big pan.  Beat egg and pour on the marinade meat and mix well.

4.   Dip pieces of meat into the flour and being sure they are fully covered.

5.   Deep fry the meat pieces, flip the pieces to cook and the pieces should be in golden brown.

6.   Remove and drain.

7.   Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok or pan, fry garlic and onion for almost a minute and add in
      combined sauce ingredients.

8.   When the sauce begins to boil,  add in the fried pork pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes.

9.   Lastly, add in pepper, tomatoes, onion, cucumber, chili.  Stir well to mix.

10.  Dish out and serve immediately.