Sweet and Sour Pork
by Kylie Kwong
from Simple Chinese Cooking
(Viking Studio, 2007)
Serve as a meal for 4 with steamed rice
or as part of a banquet for 4 to 6

I find that marinating the pork overnight is a must for this dish — the flavour is so much more intense. I guess the main difference between my sweet and sour sauce and traditional recipes is that I use fresh tomatoes instead of tomato sauce out of the bottle, and fresh pineapple instead of tinned pineapple.

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1 Blend cornflour with water in a medium-sized bowl until dissolved. Add pork, egg yolks, soy sauce, sesame oil and salt and mix well. Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Make the sweet and sour sauce
1. Remove core from pineapple and finely slice into pieces. Using a vegetable peeler, finely slice carrot lengthways into ribbons. Cut cucumber in half lengthways, slice on the diagonal and set aside, together with the pineapple and carrot.

2. Place vinegar, wine or sherry, sugar and extra salt in a medium-sized heavy-based saucepan and stir over high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, add garlic and ginger, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add reserved pineapple, carrot, cucumber, pepper and tomato and simmer for a further 3 minutes or until pineapple is tender and tomato has broken down slightly. Stir in soy sauce, remove from stove and set aside.

Make the pork
1. Combine plain flour and extra cornflour. Add to the marinated pork and mix well. Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Deep-fry pork in batches over high heat for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium and fry for another 2 minutes, or until pork is almost cooked through.

2. Remove from wok and drain on kitchen paper. Gently reheat Sweet and Sour Sauce. Finally, return all pork to the hot wok and deep-fry for a further 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, crispy and cooked through. Remove from wok and drain well on kitchen paper.

3. Arrange pork on a platter and serve immediately with a bowl of warm Sweet and Sour Sauce.