Episode 6 - Sweet and Sour Pork (港式咕嚕肉)

Hi everyone!

New video and recipe is up! I'm going to show you guys how to make the Traditional Sweet & Sour Pork. :D It's been one of my favorite dishes ever since I was a child (alongside a lot of other traditional Cantonese dishes), I have been trying out this dish with different methods and I recently learned this method from a chef and I realized just how easy it is to do this dish the traditional way. It does have a lot of steps to it but trust me, it's worth it! :D
Before I begin, I would like to thank you guys for the patience. I know it takes quite a while for me to upload but it is mainly because I film and edit everything by myself, I will try my best to upload as often as possible. :)
 

A million thanks to my friend Kevin Kaho Tsui for helping me out! This is one of his favorite dishes and thanks to him I'm finally able to film something more dangerous to make, the reason I say it's dangerous is because it involves a lot of deep frying, and if I do this alone (of which I filmed the other videos by myself on the other ones), I might actually injure myself. haha!

Below are the thorough ingredients, steps to take and tips for you guys to give this a try. Again, I must stress that for those of you who are not familiar with deep frying, you gotta be EXTRA CAREFUL  if you want to give this a try. I hope you guys will like this dish. Happy Cooking everyone! :D

Sweet and Sour Pork (港式咕嚕肉)

Ingredients:
- Pork Shoulder Meat (or Pork Belly Meat)                     ~260g
Red & Green Bell Peppers (Cut into pieces)                     1 each
8.25oz Pineapples Slices (or chunks if you're too lazy)       1 can
Potato Starch Flour                                                          1-2 cups
Tons of Canola Oil

Seasoning (for Pork Marinade):
Salt                                    1/2 teaspoon
White Pepper                     1/4 teaspoon
Five Spices Powder           1/4 teaspoon
Egg (Beaten)                      1/2 of the mixture
White Flour                        3 tablespoons (depending on the moistness of your marinade)
Sesame Oil                         a dash

Sweet & Sour Sauce (below are only approximation according to your taste):
Ketchup                                     3 tablespoons
Rice Vinegar                              3 tablespoons
White sugar                               2.5 tablespoons
Coleman's OK Fruity Sauce      1 tablespoon
Salt                                           1/2 teaspoon
Wing Tai Worcester Sauce        1/2 teaspoon (this is optional)

Method

1. Cut up the pork into strips (remember to tap them firmly with your knife to loosen up the meat)
2. Marinate the pork starting with salt, white pepper, five spices powder, give it a good mix. After these are mixed together, add in half an egg (beaten), mix until the pork absorbs most of the egg.
3. Add in white flour into the marinade and mix. Add in sesame oil and mix well. Once done, put in fridge and marinate for at least 1 hour.
4. Cut up other ingredients - Red & Green Peppers and Pineapples (if you're using slices)
5. Heat up a wok of oil (make sure it's hot enough, this method is shown in my yeung chau fried rice video).
6. Once pork is marinated, take out and coat with potato starch flour (as shown on video).
7. Deep fried the pork twice - To check if the pork is done, please check tips below.
8. Take out the deep fried pork and put on top of kitchen towels to absorb the oil.
9. Pour out the oil from the wok (can be reused! don't waste! just pour through a strainer to remove the bits and you can use the oil again!)
10. Put your wok back on high heat, add in 2 tablespoons of oil. Wait till it's hot enough, add in pineapple slices, and quickly add in the sweet and sour sauce, let the sauce bubble, stirring occasionally.
11. Add in red & green bell peppers, stirring occasionally. Let the sauce bubble until it thickens.
12. Add in the pork, stir-fry quickly until all sauce coats the surface of all ingredients, and serve with rice! :D

TIPS:
a) For the Rice Vinegar, I use natural rice vinegar (not the distilled white vinegar!) as it is more mild and less pungent when it comes to taste. The brand I use is called "Pat Chun" (八珍) a local HK brand, as long as you can find rice vinegar that appears slightly yellow, you'll be on the right track.

b) I also wrote that the Worchester sauce is optional, this is only if you are using Wing Tai Worcester Sauce as it is not as sharp and sour as the worcestershire sauce by Lea & Perrins. Again, this is a local HK brand so you can skip this if you can't find it in your chinese supermarkets.

c) Rolling the pork up into balls and coating them with potato starch flour helps create the shape of the pork. This is how you can even out the size of the meat and avoid over frying.

d) How to check if your pork is done during deep fry:
    First deep fry - If the pork pieces should be sinking when they first enter the oil, after it is done it actually floats on top of the oil. Once you see this take them out and put to side.

    Second deep fry - Make sure the oil is hotter than the first deep fry as this is a crucial method to make    your pork crispy. When done, there should be less bubbles next to the pork and the pork should be very dry when you take them out (you can test with chopsticks - lightly touch the surface of the pork, it should be as dry as a biscuit - surface-wise!)

e) This dish is best served with rice and is to be eaten immediately after cooking because the texture of the pork won't hold for long, plus it tastes better when it's hot (Cantonese people like their food hot.. haha). :) 

That's all for now! Hope you guys will like it! Let me know if you guys have any further questions. :D