Sweet and sour pork

Matt's Men's Health magazine had some excellent Chinese recipes in its September issue. The writer actually went to China and learned from top chefs how to cook authentic Chinese food, which is soooo much healthier than the take-out variety (and tastes better, too!).



We tried a few of the recipes, but our favorite is the sweet and sour pork, which is also great with chicken. It's delicious!! I also like these recipes because Matt does the cooking! He likes the fact that he gets to cook the foods really fast over really high heat. It's almost as good as cooking with fire.



The most important thing about this recipe is to prepare everything before you turn on the stove. The cooking process goes very quickly.

Ingredients:
1 lb. pork butt or shoulder, with fat trimmed off
2 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tsp. rice wine or dry sherry (we used the sherry)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. each salt and ground pepper
1/2 tsp. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. plus 1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks in juice
1/2 c. each ketchup and white vinegar
1 c. plus 1 tbsp. peanut oil or other vegetable oil (we used olive)
4 slices fresh ginger (we used a little dried ginger)
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch squares

Directions:
1. Cut the pork into 1-inch cubes. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine or dry sherry, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and 1/2 tsp. sugar. Mix, add the pork, and marinate 10 minutes.

2. While the pork is marinating, be sure your green pepper is chopped. Also, drain the pineapple chunks, reserving 1/2 c. of the juice. In a bowl, stir together the juice, ketchup, vinegar, 2 tbsp. sugar, and 1 tbsp. cornstarch.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour and 1/2 c. cornstarch. Drain the pork, reserving the marinade. Lightly dredge the pork pieces in the flour-cornstarch mixture and set them aside on a plate.

4. Add the reserved marinade to the pineapple juice mixture and stir.

5. Heat 1 c. of oil in a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok until it's hot but not smoking. Add half the pork, spreading pieces around in the oil. Cook 1-2 minutes until they begin to brown, and then turn them. After 3-4 minutes, when they're brown on all sides, transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat with the rest of the pork.

6. Wash and dry the wok, and return it to high heat. Add the remaining 1 tbsp. oil and the ginger, and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add the green pepper and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the reserved pineapple chunks and swirl the sweet and sour sauce into the wok. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until it's just thickened, about 1 minute. Add the pork and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes.

Makes 4 servings. We served this with instant brown rice.



Enjoy!



And here's us attempting to take a picture of ourselves.

And Matt pushing on my elbow to try to get my finger up my nose. Would you expect anything less? Please note this was after the food was finished being cooked!