Sweet and sour pork
Prep 20 mins
Cook 15 mins
Serves 4 as a shared meal
Difficulty 3
“Who doesn’t love sweet and sour pork? It’s a Chinese-Australian dish that we have grown to love growing up in Australia,” says Louis Tikaram. “When we opened Stanley we had to have sweet and sour pork on the menu, so and it took lots of trial and error to get this perfect crisp batter and tangy-sweet balance of sauce.”
250g diced pork loin or neck
1 cup corn starch
1 litre canola oil, for shallow frying
¼ red capsicum, diced
¼ green capsicum, diced
¼ white onion, diced
50g diced pineapple
SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE
2 tsp canola oil
½ white onion, diced
½ small tomato, diced
50g pineapple or off cuts
25g (about ¼) red capsicum or off cuts
110g caster sugar
125g tomato ketchup
2 tsp Worcestershire
125ml white vinegar
1. For sweet and sour sauce, sweat onion, capsicum, tomato and pineapple in oil in a saucepan over medium heat until tender (5 minutes). Add sugar, 125ml water, Worcestershire and ketchup and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add vinegar, stir to combine and season and season with 1 tsp salt. Strain sauce and discard solids.
2. Heat oil to 180C in a saucepan. Combine ½ cup cornstarch and ½ cup water in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Keep remaining cornstarch in a separate mixing bowl and set aside. Add diced pork to the cornstarch slurry and mix until completely coated, then roll in the remaining dry corn starch. Shake off any excess and lower into the hot oil (be careful of oil spitting) and fry, stirring occasionally so the meat doesn’t stick together, until golden-brown (3 minutes). Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and cool on absorbent paper.
3. Sauté the capsicum and onions in oil in a wok or a large frying pan over medium heat for 1 minute, then add pineapple and continue to cook for another minute.
4. Add cooked pork and sweet and sour sauce and stir or toss until sauce glazes the pork and reduces to a sticky consistency (2 minutes). Serve with steamed rice or as part of a shared meal.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
Recipe by Louis Tikaram. Image by Eatable.