River Road Cookbook Sweet and Sour Pork

Submitted by BarbryT

"This is a wonderful--not sticky sweet!--sweet and sour pork that I grew up with. Simple and just delicious. It spoiled me for all other versions. I find most too sweet and way too full of unnecessary and distracting vegetables."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 lb raw lean pork, cut in 1 inch chunks
• oil (for frying)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup cider vinegar
• 1⁄2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup water or 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 2 sweet peppers, sliced (green or red)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup water
• 1 (14 ounce) can pineapple (slices or tidbits)

directions

1. Beat the egg and incorporate the 2 Tablespoons cornstarch in a medium bowl (one that will accommodate the pork).
2. Add the pork and coat the pieces with the egg/cornstarch batter.
3. Deep fry in 375 degree Fahrenheit oil in batches to keep the oil up to temperature, until light brown.
4. Drain on paper towels.
5. Cut peppers into 1/4-inch slivers. Cut slivers in half.
6. Drain pineapple. If using sliced pineapples, cut them into tidbits.
7. Put the sugar, vinegars, salt and water, or pineapple juice, in a large saucepan (3 to 4 quarts).
8. Bring to a boil.
9. Add the sliced peppers and boil one minute.
10. Mix the 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/2 cup water together.
11. Stir the cornstarch/water mixture into the vinegar mixture.
12. Simmer about two minues, stirring constantly, until thickened and translucent.
13. Add the drained pineapple tidbits and the pork.
14. Stir until heated through.
15. Serve with steamed rice.

Reviews

[kiwidutch]

5 Stars! Even not so pork loving DH liked this and like other reviewers we too found that this wasn't too overpoweringly sweet as some recipe tend to be so that's the main reason we enjoyed this so much. We used PeterJ's method to fry the pork too and it worked well. Please see my Rating system: 5 stars for an easy and tasty pork recipe that we will be making again. Thanks!

 

[Lavender Lynn]

We had to add a bit more cornstarch at the finish to thicken this up, and we all thought it could have been a little more "sweet" and a little less "sour" -- but that's exactly what the poster liked about it, so "it's a feature, not a bug." And who could complain? My family went after this as if their names were Hoover and Kirby! Colorful and tasty! Made for PRMR, Feb. 2009.

 

[Peter J]

Really great! I also found the level of sweetness perfect. Rather than deep-fry I shallow fried the pork in a large pan with enough hoit oil to cover about 50% and gave all the pieces of pork a single turn. It meant being able to cook all the pork in a single batch so was probably just as fast as deep frying in a few batches.

 

[morgainegeiser]

This was very good, a very good mix of sweet and sour flavor. I did not use a fryer, just fried them in my electric fry pan and it turned out great. Only change I will make next time is to use the water instead of the pineapple juice, it was a tad sweeter than I like.

 

[Midwest Maven]

This was so yummy! Not too sweet, it was excellent, we loved it. I didn't deep fry them though, I just pan fried them, but wow, restaurant quality dish :)