This dish has its origins in China’s Guangdong Province and is a comfort food. It was traditionally made with crispy fried pork tenderloin and a sauce of rice vinegar and fruit based flavors. The addition of pineapple, green peppers, and onions to this dish in the late 1800’s was to help it appeal to the western palate. Today’s American version uses a thicker batter for the pork and a ketchup based sauce.
Sweet and Sour Pork
Sauce
Pork
Instructions
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Mise en place
Gather all ingredients before starting to cook. This will save frustration and missing ingredients later.
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In a container, mix together the pineapple juice, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, red food coloring, and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Set aside.
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Heat the cooking oil in a medium pot or wok.
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In a medium bowl combine the 1/2 cup cornstarch, flour, and eggs. Mix to form a batter. If the batter is too thick, stir in water. The consistency should be similar to pancake batter.
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Once the oil is at 350 degrees, dip the pork in the batter and it to the oil in batches. Cook until golden and crispy, then drain and set aside. Continue cooking the pork in batches until all the pork is cooked.
For extra crispy pork, return the pork in batches to the oil and cook until the color is a deep golden brown, then drain and set aside.
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In a wok or skillet, heat 1 Tbsp oil. Then add the green pepper, and onion and cook until they are tender crisp.
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Add the pineapple and the sauce to the veggies and cook until the sauce thickens.
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Once the sauce has thickened, add the pork and toss to coat, then serve.
Alternatively, you can ladel the sauce over the crispy pork when you serve it, giving the crispy pork less time to get soggy.
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