Sweet & Sour Pork

Sweet & Sour Pork

12 oz lean boneless pork
2 Tbsp mirin or dry sherry
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup rice vinegar
4 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Cooking oil or shortening for deep-fat frying
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, thinly bias sliced
1 medium green pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium red pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 green onions, bias sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 8-oz can pineapple chunks, drained
3 cups hot cooked rice

1. Trim fat from pork. Cut pork into 3/4-inch cubes; place in a bowl. For marinade, stir together sherry, the 2 Tbsp soy sauce, and sesame oil. Pour over pork. Toss to coat. Cover; let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. For sauce, stir together the 1 cup broth, sugar, vinegar, the 4 tsp cornstarch, and the 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Set aside. In a wok or large saucepan heat 1 1/2 to 2 inches of cooking oil to 365F. Meanwhile, for batter, in a bowl stir together egg, the 1/2 cup cornstarch, flour, and the 1/2 cup broth until smooth.
3. Drain pork; pat dry. Dip pork into batter, swirling to coat. Fry a few pieces of pork at a time in hot oil for 4 to 5 minutes or until golden and no pink remains. Remove from oil. Drain on paper towels. Keep pork warm in a 300F oven while frying remaining pork.
4. Pour the 1 Tbsp oil into a large skillet. (Add more oil as needed during cooking.) Preheat over medium-high heat. Cook and stir garlic in hot oil 15 seconds. Add carrots, peppers, and green onions; cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove vegetables from skillet. Stir sauce; add to skillet. Cook and stir until bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Stir in pineapple and cooked vegetables. Cook and stir about 1 minute or until hot. Stir in pork. Serve over rice.

This week I decided to try one of my most complicated recipes yet. It's one I found in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook long ago but just never had the motivation to actually try. This would be the week. It's not a super-difficult recipe but it does require the ability to multitask (which as you will see is not my strong suit).

The ingredients:

The marinade is simple to make but involves sherry and sesame oil which are both things I didn't have in my kitchen already. I found a cooking sherry in with the sauces and marinades and the sesame oil with the asian foods at Walmart.

After the pork was done marinading, I drained it and started to fry it. In my haste I forgot to batter the first batch. Oops! Between no batter and the oil being way too hot, this is what the first batch ended up looking like.

I had never deep-fat fried before this recipe and you could definitely tell. I had quite a bit of difficulty getting the oil to 365F. I overshot at first and then spent a long time trying to get it back down only to have it too cold for a while. I finally got it stablized and at least fairly close to 365F but it took a lot of trial and error.

Here is all the pork after it is done frying.

The sauce looks nothing like the pink stuff you always see in fast-food restaurants but it definitely smells good. In this picture I'm still waiting for it thicken up a bit.

Here is the lovely ensemble as it heats just before serving. The carrots and peppers adds some nice color to this meal (and they taste great).

The final product: it looks nice and tastes really good. I'll make this again... just not any time soon. It takes much more effort and concentration than my two kids will generally let me pay it.

I do still have one question though. What do you do with the used cooking oil?