31 days of Christmas: Sweet and sour pork

This sweet and sour pork dish is super light yet deliciously hearty, especially if you are pairing it with a yummy and filling starchy dish.

During your Christmas lunch preparations, add this recipe to your list to wow your loved ones and have them yearning for seconds.

If pork is not your favourite protein or cannot be eaten by yourself or your loved ones, then you can tweak this recipe by substituting the pork with chicken.

Sweet and sour pork

Ingredients

• 1 pork fillet, trimmed and cut into 3cm chunks
• Sunflower or vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• Cooked rice or noodles, to serve

For the marinade

• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• Thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated

For the coating

• 50g of cornflour
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
• 2 teaspoon of celery salt
• 2 teaspoon of caster sugar

For the sauce

• 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Thumb-sized piece ginger, chopped
• 1 green or red pepper, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
• 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of soft brown sugar
• 300g can of pineapple chunks
• 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

For the batter

• 100g of rice flour
• 100g of cornflour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

ALSO TRY: 31 days of Christmas: Nadia Pillay’s eggnog cheesecake

Instructions

1. Mix the pork with the marinade ingredients and leave to sit for at least 15 mins, or chill for a few hours. In a separate bowl, mix all the coating ingredients. Drain any excess liquid off the pork and toss the pork in the seasoned coating. Can be done 1 hour ahead.
2. To make the sauce, heat the oil in a shallow saucepan and gently fry the garlic, ginger and peppers until just starting to soften. Now drop in all the rest of the ingredients except the sesame seeds. Bring everything to the boil and cook for a few mins until thickened, then take off the heat. To make the batter, whisk the flours and baking powder together with 200ml water to a smooth paste.
3. Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer, large saucepan or a wok to 180°C or until a drop of batter sizzles and browns in 20 seconds. Dip the marinated pork in the batter mix (do it in two or three batches) and let any excess drip off. Fry the pork in batches for about 5-6 mins or until golden. Remove and drain on kitchen paper until all the batches are done. Make sure you bring the oil back to the correct temperature between each batch. Coat the crispy pork in the sauce, then sprinkle over the sesame seeds, coriander and serve with rice or noodles.

This recipe was found on bbcgoodfood.com