I found the basis for this recipe in an old little Chinese cookbook, added some of my own and here you go : No additives Crispy Sweet and Sour pork recipe, kid friendly ☺
What you’ll need for 4 persons:
For the Crispy pork:
– 350 grams pork fillet
– 1 large green pepper
– 1 large red pepper
– Slice of fresh ginger
– 1 garlic clove
– 2 spring onions
– 1 onion
– 3 pineapple rings (from a can)
– Dash of white wine
– La Choy Soy sauce
– Maizena mix (1 part Maizena/ 2 parts water)
– Plain flour for dusting
– Salt & Badia black pepper to taste
For the Sweet ‘n Sour sauce:
– 150 grams white sugar
– 1 small can Hunt’s tomato puree
– Hunt’s tomato ketchup
– 100 mls white vinegar
– Maizena mix (1 part Maizena/ 2 parts water)
– Salt & Badia black pepper to taste
I’m using pork fillet, as this is the most tender and lean part of the pig. Frying the pork in small pieces in small batches ensures that the pork gets cooked through yet it stays moist and tender. Start by slicing the fillet, then cubing the slices into (organic) cubes of about as large as the tip of your thumb. Marinade the meat in the white wine, about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, about 50 mls of water, a teaspoon of Maizena, a teaspoon of (vegetable) oil, salt and pepper. Leave it to marinate for about 30 minutes.
In the mean time you can get your Sweet ‘n Sour sauce on the stove:
Bring ½ liter water, the vinegar and the sugar to the boil, stir until the sugar has dissolved completely. Combine the tomato puree with the tomato ketchup and add to the water mixture. Bring the sauce back to the boil, add the Maizena mix while stirring, just enough to bind the sauce to the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Toss the meat from the marinade through the plain flour, make sure it coats the meat on all sides. Heat the wok and add some oil. When the oil has heated you can start crisp frying your marinated pork. Ensure that your batches are small, too much at once will take away the heat in the pan. Fry the pork until it gets crispy and a light brown colour, remove from the wok and let it dry on a paper towel or in a colander. You might have to add a little more oil to fry the last bit of meat. Once all the meat is fried, you can remove the oil from the wok. Please be careful with this hot oil, make sure no water gets in it as it will splatter all over the place and you could get nasty burns from it. I put the used oil in a ceramic bowl to cool off and then I pour it into an old plastic bottle to be recycled or thrown away.
Peel and divide the onion in four parts and take it them apart.
Wash and remove the seeds from the peppers, divide into six parts lengthways and slice each part into bite size triangular shapes.
Clean the spring onion and drain the pineapple slices into 2 cm pieces.
Dry wipe your wok with a paper towel to remove some of the residue of the frying. When your wok is clean, you can add fresh oil. Once the oil is at the right temperature, add the slices of ginger and the split garlic, fry until you can smell the fragrance and remove from the oil.
Add the onion, pepper and spring onion to the wok, fry for about a minute on high heat. Add about half of the Sweet & Sour sauce and bring to the boil.
Add the pineapple and crispy pork.
To bind the sauce even more you can add some of the Maizena mixture, this really depends on the thickness of your sauce.
Enjoy this additives free Sweet ‘n Sour pork simply with some white rice!
The rest of the Sweet and Sour sauce can be frozen until the next time.