Sweet & Sour Pork

Sweet & Sour Pork

Crispy tempura pork topped with this lovely sauce. Skip the take-out box and eat in tonight.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 – 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 cloves fresh garlic, grated (using Microplane grater)
• 1 – 20 ounce can diced pineapple with juice
• 1/2 small sweet onion, large diced
• 1/2 green pepper, large diced (or red, yellow, or orange bell peppers)
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Place water, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, tomato paste, salt, garlic, and juice from the can of pineapple (set pineapple aside for later) in a large saucepan. Whisk together until cornstarch has dissolved. Turn the heat onto medium-high and cook until this becomes a lovely, thick sauce. Stir in pineapple, onion, and peppers. Set the sauce aside until pork is finished frying. Reheat the sauce right before serving.

Breaded Pork

• 4 cups canola, peanut, or vegetable oil (for frying)
• 3 to 3.5 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 3/4 to 1-inch pieces
• 20 oz club soda
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling

Preheat oil for frying in a deep fryer to 375°F. If you’d rather, you can heat it in a heavy-duty pan and use a thermometer.

Line a baking sheet with a few layers of paper towels to rest your fried pork on after frying so excess oil will drain onto the paper towels.

Pat pork pieces dry with paper towels if it is wet. This will allow the tempura to stick to it better.

Place cold water and egg in a small bowl. Whisk well.

Place dry ingredients in a medium-large bowl and whisk until well-combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently stir together just until combined yet lumpy. Don’t overmix. Allow tempura mixture to sit while oil finishes heating up.

Tempura is optional. This recipe is just as delicious without the tempura breading. Just brown pork on all sides in oil and then stir into sauce to finish cooking.

When frying oil reaches 350-375°F, coat food with tempura mixture one piece at a time and carefully place in fryer. Do not crowd fryer because if you do, your battered pieces will stick together during cooking or will cool down your oil too much. Oil that has cooled down too much will make for soggy breading rather than a lovely crunchy coating. Measure the temperature of the largest piece of pork to make sure it has reached 145°. If you make this recipe with chicken, just make sure the pieces of meat reach 165°F in the middle instead.

Cook for about three minutes on each side. Use a utensil that’s safe in hot oil to move them around a bit during the cooking process so they are cooked on all sides. The coating should be a beautiful golden brown when done. Place breaded pork on the clean paper-towel-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt right away.