Directions
Sweet and sour pork is the emblematic dish of Chinese cuisine, owing its uniqueness to its signature sauce that grants the dish an exceptional appearance and flavor.
This recipe traces its roots back to the Cantonese region, now known as Guangdong, a coastal area in southern China. Despite countless adaptations worldwide, it remains one of the few dishes that has successfully traversed Chinese borders without significant alteration.
Today, we present to you the authentic recipe for sweet and sour pork, originating from an ancient Chinese dish of pork cooked with sugar and vinegar. This version is lighter and healthier compared to the heavily caramelized dish often served in restaurants, which can overshadow the pork tenderloin’s delightful crunch.
Tips
There are no secrets to crafting the perfect dish; just remember to strike a balance between sweetness and sourness. Assemble your dish neatly and colorfully, or risk presenting a shapeless mess likened to a ‘lava flow’, an unwelcome and intimidating sight.
This Sweet and Sour Pork recipe, with pineapple and peppers, follows the tripartite approach common in Chinese meat recipes: marination, sauce preparation, and cooking. This process tenderizes, flavors, and reinvents the pork, creating a dish of remarkable taste from simple pork chunks.
Ingredients for Chinese sweet and sour pork
6 servings
- 600 grams of pork (fillet or shoulder are the most suitable cuts)
- fry oil
- oil for sautéing the meat
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium sized red pepper
- 1 medium sized green pepper
- 2 slices of pineapple in syrup
- 3 spring onions cut into 3-4 cm strips
For the marinade
- 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons of Chinese rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of corn starch
For the breading
- 80 grams of sieved flour
- 50 grams of corn starch
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 20 grams of oil
- 100ml of water
- salt
For 250 ml of sweet and sour sauce
- 80 grams of ketchup
- 2 teaspoons of Chinese rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 13 grams of sugar
- 120 grams of water
- 2 teaspoons of corn starch
- 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
- 30 grams of plum sauce (optional)
How to make Chinese sweet and sour pork
Let’s start with the sweet and sour sauce: put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix carefully. Do not cook it now, but only when you add it to the meat.
Cut the pork into chunks or strips as you prefer, just remember to keep the same “cut” for the vegetables as well.
Marinate the meat in a bowl by mixing it with starch, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Cover and leave to rest, room temperature, for 45 minutes.
Now prepare the batter for frying, and here a lot of attention is needed because we need a perfect crust, crunchy on the outside and with the pork juicy on the inside, for the dish to be successful.
For the batter, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and dip in the pork bites, mix and cover everything carefully.
Heat the wok with plenty of frying oil and throw the morsels to fry, using a fork to separate the pieces of meat.
When the pork is ready and golden brown to perfection, drain it with a ladle and place it on absorbent paper, pat dry and in the meantime prepare the vegetables.
Cooking vegetables and pineapple in the wok, ingredients for making sweet and sour pork Wash and cut the peppers and spring onions (or an onion) into strips, crush the garlic and dice the pineapple.
Put a few tablespoons of oil in the wok, brown the crushed garlic, add the vegetables and sauté them for 6-7 minutes. They must remain crunchy enough, in order to create contrast in the mouth.
At the last minute, throw the pineapple into the wok and sauté again for a couple of minutes, then add the sweet and sour sauce. When the sauce has thickened and has a slightly honeyed consistency, throw the pork into the wok as well, mix and blend all the ingredients. Serve immediately.
As you have seen, the recipe is simple, but this too is laborious, long and full of steps, but it’s a matter of ingredients, doses and timing: the fundamental part is frying the pork, otherwise you’ll go as smooth as oil.
What wine to pair with Chinese sweet and sour pork?
We choose a sumptuous and aromatic wine such as the Gewurztraminer from the Brunnenhof winery, rich in returns of pineapple and spices, but above all with the right freshness to balance the sweetness of the dish.
