Pork with Sweet & Sour Sauce

This Chinese recipe is a treat! Pork chunks in a doughnut batter, fried twice for an extra-crispy texture! The slightly acidic and sweet sauce tickles the taste buds. A simple recipe that can be prepared in advance and finished at the last second.

First of all I would like to clarify a point about one of the ingredients: the ketchup. For the American sauce detractors (which I can understand!), I just want to remind you of the ingredients of ketchup: sugar, tomatoes, vinegar. Exactly what we are looking for in this recipe, sweet and sour! And during one of my trips to Canton I asked about the recipe for this pork, and well it’s a sauce equivalent to ketchup that they use, or a tomato paste to which we add vinegar and sugar anyway. Good recipe!

Recipe for “pork in sweet and sour sauce” for 4 people:

-400g of pork tenderloin
-1 teaspoon of cornstarch
-2 teaspoons of Chinese wine
-1 teaspoon of clear soy sauce
-1/4 teaspoon of “five spices
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dough
-55g of flour
-55g of cornstarch
-1 egg white
-1 tablespoon of oil
-hot water
Sauce
-105g of sugar
-90g of ketchup
-200g of pineapple juice
-135g white vinegar (rice or alcohol)
half a teaspoon of salt (1/4+1/8 of an American teaspoon)
-1 tablespoon of cornstarch diluted in 4 tablespoons of water
-50g of water
Vegetables:
-1/2 green bell pepper
-1/2 red bell pepper
-1/2 onion
-200g pineapple chunks (canned!)

If you want to prepare the recipe in advance, I suggest to cook the sauce, and start the first cooking of the pork fritters. Then at the last second, finish with the second fry and pour the sauce to coat everything!

Start by cutting the roast pork into pieces suitable for two bites. Add the clear soy sauce, Chinese wine, five-spice powder, baking soda and cornstarch. Leave in a cool place for at least one hour.

Pour in all sauce ingredients except cornstarch and water.

Add vegetables, peppers, onions and pineapple. Put on low heat for about ten minutes to cook the onion and peppers. So you can cook a little more or a little less.

After 10 minutes, add the diluted cornstarch and the 50g of water if the sauce thickens too much.

Let cook for one minute and turn off the heat. Make a reservation.

Prepare the doughnut dough for the pork. Mix the flour, cornstarch and egg white.

Add hot water little by little to obtain a smooth paste. Neither too dry nor too liquid.

Pour this paste over the pork.

Heat oil in a wok or pan. When the oil is hot, add the pork pieces one by one. Do not put too much pork in the pan at once. Cook in two or three batches!

Turn the pieces over so that they are browned on all sides.

Set aside each time on paper towels while the other pieces cook.

Once everything is cooked, let the oil heat up a bit more and then add everything at once. We’ll fry the pork a second time to make it extra crispy! Yummy!

Drain the oil from the wok into another container (an empty pan) and return the fried pork pieces to the wok. Pour the sweet and sour sauce over the fritters.