This popular staple of Chinese restaurants, and probably the most well-known of Cantonese dishes, started life a long, long time ago – in the far away Jiangsu region – as simply Pork In A Sugar And Vinegar Sauce. After traveling all around the world, it hasn’t changed much from the original. However, we’ve added a touch of devilish elegance to this old workhorse.

The secret of a great Sweet And Sour Pork lies in the perfect balance of sweet and sour. The Ying and Yang. The two flavours should play perfectly off each other. In this adaption, honey provides the “sweet” and rice vinegar provides the “sour”. If you find the sauce a little tart for your tastebuds, add a little more honey.

In this adaption, as we are going for a taste of elegance, we don’t deep fry the pork. Instead, it’s lightly floured and stir fried, which allows pork’s own fantastic flavour to shine through. To add an extra touch of elegance to the dish, slices of buttery shiitake mushrooms are added to the original recipe.

Enjoy this tasty dish on its own or over a bed of rice.

 

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 tbsp flour

¼ tsp pepper

1 dash salt

¾ lb (340 g) pork, cut into bite-sized chunks

1 tbsp olive oil

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

1 onion, coarsely chopped

¼ cup rice vinegar (or other vinegar)

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp honey

1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, coarsely chopped

4-5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 can pineapple rings (packed in juice – not syrup)

2 tsp corn starch

 

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, pepper, and salt. Add the pork chunks and toss them in the flour mixture until well coated.

 

2. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil on medium-low heat and add the pork. Fry the pork until the pieces are very lightly browned. Don’t worry about any coating that sticks to the pot, as you’ll deglaze the brown bits when you add the liquid in Step 4.

3. Add the carrot and onion to the pork. Stir fry for about 5 minutes.

4. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, ketchup, and honey. Add it the pork and vegetables. Use a wooden spatula to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pot.

5. Turn the heat to low and add all the bell peppers and shiitake mushrooms. Stir to combine and put a lid on the pot. Simmer for 20 minutes.

 

6. Cut the pineapple rings into 6 pieces each. Measure 1 cup of the pineapple juice. If your can has less than 1 cup of juice, add some water for the balance and add a little extra honey for sweetening. In a small bowl, combine the juice and cornstarch.

 

7. Turn the heat back up to medium-low, and add the pineapple and juice/cornstarch mixture. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce thickens.

Enjoy!

BTW, if you’re cooking for two, this dish is also delicious the next day for leftovers.