Sweet and Sour Pork

Serves 4

For the meat:
500g Sweet & sour pork cut , diced into 2 inch pieces
(the Chinese butcher will know which cut it is. If he doesn't, just use pork belly with rind removed, or pork loin that has quite a bit of fat on)
1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
2 tablespoon water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 egg yolks
1 or 2 pinches of ground white pepper
4 tablespoons cornflour
Peanut oil for frying

Vegetables:
2 red chilies, de-seeded and cut into chunks
2 large red onions, cut into wedges
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large or 2 small green capsicum, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
6 spring onions, cut into 2 inch pieces (for garnish)

Gravy:
10 tablespoons stock or water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
4 tablespoons tomato sauce/ketchup
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon A1 or HP sauce
1/2 tablespoon chili sauce
1 or 2 pinches of ground white pepper
11/2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons water

1. Mix all ingredients for the gravy, except the cornflour mixed with water, and set aside.

2. Prepare all vegetables and set aside.

3. Add all ingredients for the meat, except cornflour and oil, and marinade for 15 minutes.

4. Heat the oil in a wok.

5. Place cornflour on a large plate and coat all the pieces of pork.

6. When the oil is hot, fry the pork, and lower the flame to medium/high heat. Fry till crispy and brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

7. Remove the oil and leave 2 tablespoons. (If it's cloudy, use fresh oil).

8. Fry the onions and chilies till it's slightly softer, add the garlic. Fry till fragrant.

9. Add the gravy and then add the vegetables (except spring onions). Stir and lower the flame to medium, and cover for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but still have some crunch to them.

10. Stir the cornflour and water mixture. Increase the flame to high till it's boiling, and slowly stir in the mixture little by little, until the sauce slightly thickens.

11. Add the pork and let it simmer for a minute.

12. Remove from heat and add the spring onions. Serve.

*This recipe is from my mother, who took it from an extremely old recipe book written by a famous Cantonese chef, Tham Yew Kai. She photocopied the page and gave it to me so there's no link online to the original recipe! You can see I was following the recipe as the photocopy of it is in the picture in the background on the right.

I've kept the sauce exactly as the chef has written, but changed up some of the vegetables. You can adapt it and change those too. I also omitted the vetsin or MSG. The original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon added to the marinaded pork. 

To be honest, Mum used a tiny tiny bit of MSG in her cooking growing up. A bit of it changes the flavour of a dish dramatically. I'm not totally opposed to it, as long as you don't use it every single day in every single dish, I'm sure it's probably OK!