Dad’s Sweet and Sour Pork
This is another of Dad’s recipes. It was one of his favourites as a child, it was (still is) one of mine and is now the most requested dish by Alex. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?
The aroma is almost intoxicating to me – reminding me of cold, pitch black, Winter evenings full of barely restrained excitement. That would be because when I was a kid, Dad used to do a Chinese banquet for my friends as my birthday party.
Even now, I only have to smell this cooking on the stove and I’m flung back to that great memory. Chopsticks poked into the sides of glasses, rice and noodles everywhere, fighting for the sweet and sour and the danger of the toffee apple and bananas being plunged into iced water. The sheer exhilaration of unidentifiable wrapped presents.
All that comes back with one sniff of this.
How does it taste? Well, it’s a bit sweet and a bit sour. Put to one side the thought of the average restaurant orange gloop – unspeakable stuff. This is the real thing.
First, grate your ginger; you will need around 1 tsp. I have a revelation though. I read somewhere that you could freeze your root ginger and that it is easier to grate it still frozen.
Easier? Easier?! Easier doesn’t come close! It is like a miracle! My life has been changed beyond all recognition! That stuff gliiiiiiiiiiides across the grater. It’s like grating mountain air!
…
… So, yes, erm, you might like to freeze your root ginger.
Then get a green chilli. I am sporting gloves in this picture because I prepared the sauce shortly before giving Alex his bath.
” My Mother always prepared chillis with her bare hands before she bathed me”. There’s the title for your autobiography right there. Hence the gloves.
Slice it in half, remove most of the seeds and membrane, unless you like it very hot, and very finely dice one half. Put the other half in the freezer if you like. Not sure what would happen, but I daresay it would be fine. Disappointingly, this chilli turned out not to be that hot and I could have added the whole thing; but isn’t that the thing with these milder chillis? You have no idea until you cook the thing. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.
So, into your jug (I use a jug because Dad always uses a jug – you could start a new ‘bowl’ trend if you like) put:
1 tsp grated root ginger
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
1 yellow (or green or orange, whatever) pepper, deseeded and chunked
1 small tin of pineapple, drained and chopped into chunks
your half of a green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 heaped tsp cornflour, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp salt, 4 tbsp cold water, 4 rounded tbsp ketchup, 3 mean tbsp vinegar, 3 tbsp sugar
Stir it around with a chopstick (it’ll combine – be persistent),
Clingfilm the top and leave it overnight for the flavours to come together. You do have to leave it to sit – sniff it now and you will think ‘huh?! What kind of a recipe is this?!’. Wait.
Sniff it in the morning and you’ll be counting the hours until lunchtime.
To prepare the pork. Dice some pork – leg, shoulder, rib steaks, whatever you fancy – into bite-sized pieces.
Into a bowl, put one egg, 2 tbsp soy sauce, mix that together and turn the pork in it. Sprinkle over enough cornflour to achieve a kind of light coating – in the region of 3+ tbsp
This kind of sticky light coating
Heat oil in a large saucepan or a deep fryer, should you possess such a thing, and fry in batches until lightly browned. Drain on kitchen towels. See how it’s coloured, but still undercooked in the middle.
Fry it all again until it’s deep, deep brown. That way it’s nearer to being crunchy and cooked through.
At that point, you can cool and freeze the meat if you like – it’s handy to have a batch in the freezer and also makes sense to cook a large batch in one go.
If you’re cooking it straight away, keep the pork to one side whilst you heat the sauce. If you’re using your frozen pork, you’ll obviously have to defrost it, then heat it in the oven until it’s hot all the way through.
Pour your sauce into a large saucepan and heat, stirring, until it thickens and the colour clears.
It glistens when it’s there
Tip the hot pork into the sauce and stir to combine. That’s it! Serve with rice. My mouth is watering at the memory of it.
Enjoy.
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Dad’s Sweet and Sour Pork
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Sauce:
1 tsp grated root ginger
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
1 yellow (or green or orange, whatever) pepper, deseeded and chunked
1 small tin of pineapple, drained and chopped into chunks
1/2 a green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 heaped tsp cornflour
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp salt
4 tbsp cold water
4 rounded tbsp tomato ketchup
3 mean tbsp vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
500g pork cut into chunks (or as much as you like if you want to cook and freeze some for another time)
1 egg
2 tbsp soy
cornflour
Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a jug or bowl. Stir thoroughly to combine, cover and leave to sit overnight to allow the flavours to develop.
Cut the pork into chunks.
In a bowl, mix the egg and soy sauce. Stir in the meat and sprinkle with enough cornflour to achieve a light, sticky coating – start with around 3 tbsp.
Heat oil in a large saucepan or deep fat fryer.
Fry the pork in batches until it is brown, but not too dark because we’re going to fry it again in a minute. Rest each cooked batch on kitchen towels.
Once you have fried it all, return – in batches – to the oil until it is the deepest brown.
Now you can either keep the pork warm whilst you heat the sauce, or cool and freeze the pork for later.
(When you want to use the pork you had frozen; defrost it and re-heat it in an oven until piping hot, then combine with the sauce as normal.)
Pour the sauce into a large frying pan and heat, stirring, until the sauce thickens and the cloudiness clears.
Stir in the hot pork to coat and serve with rice.
Leftovers will heat well in the microwave the next day!
I feel that ” My Mother always prepared chillis with her bare hands before she bathed me” will be appearing in the ‘Please mummy no’ section of bookshops near me before too much longer.
This sounds fabulous and I suspect I may have eaten it at one of the wonderful banquets. I also vividly remember my introductin to glass noodles! x