Sweet and Sour Pork

My absolute favorite dish to get at Asian restaurants is sweet and sour chicken or pork.  This sweet and sour pork is fairly easy to make, and it is definitely easy to eat!




Ingredients:

• 1 pound of pork
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons of canola oil
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 8 ounce can of pineapple chunks in syrup
• 3 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1/2 tablespoon of onion powder
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Steps:

Pour 2 cups of water in a sauce pan, and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Heat the salt and water mixture over medium low heat.

As the water is heating, cut the pork into 1" pieces.

Place the pork strips into a medium bowl, season the pork with the nutmeg and a 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger.

Add the seasoned pork to water.  If the water doesn't fully cover the pork, add more to make sure that it does.

Boil the pork pieces until tender--about 30 minutes.

While the pork is cooking, slice the red and green peppers into 1" slices.

In a medium sized bowl mix together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and the soy sauce.  Stir until smooth.

Remove the cooked pork from the water (broth).  Save the broth to be used later.


Coat the pieces evenly with the cornstarch mixture.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the broth and mix well.

In a large sauce pan heat 1 tablespoon of oil over low to medium heat.

Allow the oil to heat up, then saute the minced garlic for 2-3 minutes

Add the pineapple including the syrup, ketchup, onion powder, sliced red and green bell pepper, sugar, salt, and the broth and cornstarch mixture to the garlic.

The mixture will be quite thin and watery, stir until sauce begins to thicken.

In a separate pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat.

Once the oil has heated, add the cornstarch coated pork, and brown on all sides.

Pile the pork on the top of the rice, and smother in sweet and sour sauce.

This dish is delicious served with rice and egg rolls, wontons, or potstickers.  For an added touch to the rice, I added about 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce to the water.

Chicken can be substituted in the place of pork if you desire.

Simply delicious.  Enjoy!