Sweet and Sour Pork with Onions and Capsicums.

Tried cooking my mum's Sweet and Sour Pork for the first time, and it was a real success! Thank God!

I was too lazy to go get the pineapples but it turned out alrite though my cheeky husband was like "Where's the pineapple? I like the pineapples!" I had to tell him his wife is too tired and lazy to head out just to grab a can of pineapples and they didnt have fresh ones in the wet market in the morning.

When I was googling for Sweet and Sour pork recipes, I didnt realise there are so many variations out there just for the same dish. Interesting... the recipe mum gave me didnt come with onions but since I love onions, I added it in myself.

For some reason, I had always imagined it to be really difficult but it was actually much easier than expected. The trick is really to get the right portion of meat （梅頭瘦肉）that was "soft" and not "lean" giving the meat the right chew. The dish could be further perfected in terms of the frying part but at least the taste and flavoring was spot on. Phew!

Recipe

Ingredients
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400g pork meat
Green and red capsicums (half each in general. the amount varies depending on your preference)
150g pineapple  diced
potato starch/ corn flour
1tbsp minced garlic
2 red chillies (cut into think shreds)

Marinade
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1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chicken seasoning powder (w/o msg)
1tbsp potato starch/ corn flour

seasonings
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*1 cup of sweet and sour sauce
a little potato starch mix


Cooking steps

Making the sweet and sour sauce
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Stir the following seasonings in a pot until sugar dissolve.
- 4tbsp tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp chilli sauce
- 3 tbsp plum sauce
- slightly less than 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1tbsp refined sugar
- 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
- 1tsp salt
- 3/4 cup of water.

Note: 
*Do not cook too long to retain the sourness of vinegar. If possible, try dissolving the sugar with the 3/4 cup of water first before stirring it to boil with the rest of the sauce mix.

* Use Thail sweet chilli sauce for best mix. Since the bottled sauce taste different for different brand, vary your sugar/ salt level accordingly to the level that suit your taste.

Cooking the Meat
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1. Cut the pork into suitable bite size chunks and pound it with the back of the knife to tenderize it.
2. Add marinate and set aside for at least half hour - 1 hour. I did mine for 2 hours in the fridge for best flavor.
3. Cut capsicums into triangular pieces.
4. Coat the pork with starch or corn flour and deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. remove. Peanut oil is best for frying
5. Leave some oil in pan and fry garlic, chillies, capsicums, pineapple (onions optional) till fragrant.
6. Add the pre-prepared sweet and sour sour and bring it to boil.
7. Stir in fried pork and thicken with little potato starch/ corn flour.