Dan Hong's sweet and sour pork

The secret to a good sweet and sour pork? Using fatty pork! Here, Dan uses sliced pork belly, before coating it with a mix of flours and frying it to crispy perfection.

Credit: Adrian Patra

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 400 g skinless, boneless pork belly, sliced
• 1 tbsp self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 3 tsp cornstarch, mixed with 3 tsp water, to make a slurry
• ¼ brown onion, cut into wedges
• ¼ each green, red and yellow pepper, cut into wedges
• ¼ pineapple, trimmed, peeled and cut into wedges
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• Steamed rice, to serve 

Marinade

• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 80 ml Chinese cooking rice wine
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ¼ tsp bicarb soda

Sauce

• 100 ml ketchup
• 100 ml white vinegar
• 20 ml Worcestershire sauce
• 100 ml water
• 100 g sugar

Instructions

1. Coat the pork in the marinade, then cover the pork with self-raising flour and plain flour.
   
2. Heat oil in a wok to 180°C over medium heat. Deep fry the pork for 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to drain for a few minutes.
   
3. While the pork is frying prepare the sweet and sour sauce by combining the tomato ketchup, white vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and water. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
   
4. Add vegetable oil to a wok over medium-high heat. Stir fry the onion, capsicum and pineapple. Add a ladle of the sweet and sour sauce and cook for a few minutes, add half the cornstarch slurry and cook until the sauce has thickened. If needed, stir through the other half of the slurry until thickened to your liking. It should be just thick enough to coat the ingredients. Add the pork and toss through.
   
5. Serve warm, with steamed rice.

This recipe is from The Streets, Hong Kong on SBS Food.

Photography by Adrian Patra.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.