SWEET & SOUR PORK

Sweet & sour pork image

Don't call the takeaway - cook your own sweet & sour pork using a vibrant marinade and tinned pineapple. Swap the pork for chicken or prawns if you prefer

Provided by John Torode

Time 1h

Number Of Ingredients 26

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Ingredients

1 pork fillet (about 500g), trimmed and cut into 3cm chunks
sunflower or vegetable oil, for deep-frying
cooked rice or noodles, to serve
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp shoaxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 garlic clove, grated
thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
50g cornflour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp celery salt
2 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
thumb-sized piece ginger, chopped
1 green or red pepper, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
300g can pineapple chunks
1 tbsp sesame seeds
100g rice flour
100g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder

Steps:

Mix the pork with the marinade ingredients and leave to sit for at least 15 mins, or chill for a few hours. In a separate bowl, mix all the coating ingredients. Drain any excess liquid off the pork and toss the pork in the seasoned coating. Can be done 1 hr ahead.
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a shallow saucepan and gently fry the garlic, ginger and peppers until just starting to soften. Now drop in all the rest of the ingredients except the sesame seeds. Bring everything to the boil and cook for a few mins until thickened, then take off the heat. To make the batter, whisk the flours and baking powder together with 200ml water to a smooth paste.
Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer, large saucepan or a wok to 180C or until a drop of batter sizzles and browns in 20 secs. Dip the marinated pork in the batter mix (do it in two or three batches) and let any excess drip off. Fry the pork in batches for about 5-6 mins or until golden. Remove and drain on kitchen paper until all the batches are done. Make sure you bring the oil back to the correct temperature between each batch. Coat the crispy pork in the sauce, then sprinkle over the sesame seeds, coriander and serve with rice or noodles.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 650 calories, Fat 23 grams fat, SaturatedFat 4 grams saturated fat, Carbohydrate 75 grams carbohydrates, Sugar 20 grams sugar, Fiber 3 grams fiber, Protein 31 grams protein, Sodium 3.7 milligram of sodium