Sweet and Sour Pork
Crisp nuggets of pork lacquered in a sauce that hits sweet, sharp and savoury in that order, with pineapple doing its divisive best. Vastly better than the neon version you remember.
- Total time
- 18 min
- Serves
- 3
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 3 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Toss the pork with the beaten egg, then with the 4 tbsp cornflour, until each cube wears a dry powdery jacket.
Heat the oil in a deep pan to 180C, or until a cube of bread browns in 40 seconds, and fry the pork in two batches for 4 minutes per batch until golden and cooked through to at least 63C in the centre.
Lift the pork onto a rack, raise the oil to 200C, and fry all of it again for 45 seconds for a shatteringly crisp shell.
Pour all but 1 tbsp of oil out of a separate wok, stir-fry the pepper over high heat for 90 seconds, then add the pineapple for 30 seconds.
Add the vinegar, ketchup and sugar, bring to a fast bubble, then stir in the cornflour slurry and cook 30 seconds until glossy.
Tip in the pork, toss twice so it is just coated, and serve immediately before the crust softens.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Sweet and Sour Pork is sitting in the Chinese kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Chinese kitchen
Wok breath you can taste from the doorway.