Suzie Lee's sweet and sour pork
She was the winner of BBC's best home cook and now she's bringing her cantonese cooking to This Morning.
Suzie Lee takes us back to her Chinese takeaway roots with this delicious sweet and sour pork with perfectly prepped rice.
Sweet and sour pork
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the pork
500g Pork shoulder/butt – sliced then chopped into bite size pieces against the grain of the meat)
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp white pepper
1 large egg
For the batter
75g plain flour
75g cornflour/starch
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp white pepper
Vegetable oil (enough to shallow fry)
For the sauce
1 cup of water (250g)
½ cup of white vinegar (125g)
½ cup sugar (100g)
½ cup of tomato puree (115g)
1 tbsp cornflour/starch + water to make a cornflour/starch paste (to thicken the sauce if needed)
For the vegetables
1 large onion sliced
1 large carrot peeled and sliced into half circles
1 pepper cut into cubes
1 large tomato cut into wedges
Vegetable oil
Optional - Spring onions to garnish
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan.
2. Place the pork pieces in a bowl with the cornflour, salt and pepper and egg and mix all the ingredients together. Let it sit in the bowl for a minimum of 10 minutes. It can be kept covered in the fridge overnight.
3. Put the batter coating ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Throw the pork pieces into the batter coating flour and toss and coat. Shake the pieces of pork so they are not stuck together.
4. Shallow fry the pork pieces in batches until golden. Transfer to a grill tray and put into the oven to keep warm and crispy while you are making the rest of the dish.
5. To make the sauce, add the water and the sugar to a pan and let the sugar dissolve at a low heat. Add the tomato puree and vinegar and let it bubble but keep stirring/whisking it to get rid of all the lumps. Bring to the boil to caramelise for a couple of minutes.
6. Fry off the onions in a wok for a couple of minutes (add a splash of water to help soften the onions) then add in the peppers, carrot and tomatoes. Add the sauce and bubble away to caramelise further. If it is not thick enough add in a tsp of cornflour/starch paste at a time, let it bubble and keep adding to your desired consistency.
7. Quickly add the pork pieces from the oven and toss in the sauce and vegetables as quickly as you can and then serve right away with rice (you do not want soggy pork!)