Saturday, February 16, 2013

Recipe: Thai-style sweet and sour pork

Sweet and sour pork is a dish we often order from a Chinese 大炒 dai chow restaurant. Pork pieces coated in cornflour and then deep fried, and then cooked in an appetizing sweet and sour sauce, this goes extremely well with rice. However I would not cook this at home as it requires deep frying the pork.



I have been utilizing a cookbook called "A Little Taste of.. Thailand" quite a bit and while flipping through the pages, I came across a recipe for Pork with Sweet and Sour Sauce. Perfect I thought, since: 1. No deep frying required for this recipe, 2. There is pineapple in the recipe, so I can use this for my friend Zoe's "Little Thumbs Up" event, 3. Since it's still CNY, pineapple is great since it has the auspicious meaning "luck come",  and 4. cucumber's (黃瓜) homonym also sounds auspicious ("lucky").



The ingredients for the Thai version is pretty much similar to the Chinese version - you will find pineapple, carrot, onion, capsicum (bell pepper), cucumber and tomatoes. The Thai version's sauce is flavoured by fish sauce (nam pla) and tomato ketchup or plum sauce. It sure is appetizing in taste and appearance (very colorful dish). It also feels a lot healthier since the pork has not been deep fried, and we thoroughly enjoyed this. Guess I'll be able to whip up "sweet and sour pork" the next time Hubby puts in a request ;)




Thai pork with sweet and sour sauce
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
350g pork loin, sliced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 carrot, sliced
1 medium onion, cut into 8 slices
1/2 capsicum (bell pepper), cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small cucumber, unpeeled, and cut into thick slices
4-5 cherry tomatoes
225g tin pineapple slices in light syrup (reserve the syrup)
Coriander, to garnish


For the sweet and sour sauce
6 tbsp reserved pineapple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup or plum sauce
2 1/2 tsp fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tbsp soft brown sugar

1. Mix the pineapple syrup with the tomato ketchup, fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl until dissolved and smooth.

2. Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat and fry the pork until nicely browned and cooked. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

3. Add the garlic to the same wok, and fry over a medium heat for 1 minute or until lightly browned. Then, add the carrot, onion and capsicum and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add the cucumber, tomato, pineapple and sauce and stir together for another minute. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

4. Return the pork slices to the wok and gently stir to coat with sauce. Spoon onto a serving plate and garnish with coriander leaves.



Do check out my previous Thai pineapple fried rice recipe here.

I am submitting this to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIYand Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids.

27 comments:

  1. This is Cumi's favourite dish! We lost our favourite sweet n sour pork guy in Old Klang Road, many moons ago.. not sure where he moved to.. which is a shame. Maybe u can be our new Sweet n sour pork lady! hehe

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  2. No deep frying mean more healthy, yay! Happy Yan Yat! :D

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    Replies
    1. Thanks CK! Surprisingly very good even without deep frying the pork :)

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  3. hmmmm, lighter taste of "Ku-Lou-Yuk"? XD

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  4. Nice! My mum used to cook it this way - without deep frying but hers had a darker shade of red...and she added sliced Bombay onions and those mushy canned peas.

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    1. Ah maybe she puts more tomato ketchup in hers to make it redder.

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  5. It looks delicious ! Love the different texture and flavor of this dish . Will try this Thai version sometime :)

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    1. I like all the different vege in this dish... crunchy and appetizing.

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  6. okie, not a dish i'd usually order from a menu, since i'm not a fan of sour flavors, but since this is a baby sumo recipe, i'd happily try it! :D

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    1. Hehe thanks for the support :) We order this often since both my kids love the sour sauce... they pour it all over their rice!!

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  7. Hi Yen! This sounds like a healthy and yet yummy dish for the family! Thanks for sharing...

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    Replies
    1. No problems, it's always good to try "healthier" versions for the family.

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  8. Lovely colours! Sweet and sour pork is a guilty pleasure of mine.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I like the colors the vegetables add to the dish.

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  9. This is such a appetizing dish with the sweet and sour flavor! I can probably have 3 bowl of rice served with this dish. :P

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    Replies
    1. Hehe there was no sauce left by the time we finished with our meal :)

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  10. Hi Yen,
    This looks appetizing.
    Love the 'ong lai' and the cucumber in this dish,
    I would like to try this Thai style version too. (also follow your non deep fried pork.... healthier :p)

    Thanks again for linking your post to our Little Thumbs Up event.
    mui

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    Replies
    1. No worries, happy to join in your event. Btw I cannot access your blog since yesterday cos it's locked for invited users only. :(

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  11. Hi Yen,

    No thick batter and deep frying! No wonder, you are named the new "sweet n sour pork lady"... LOL! Your healthy version of sweet and sour pork seems to be the most ideal to eat sweet and sour pork.

    Zoe

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    Replies
    1. I wouldn't say no either Chinese or Thai version, both are equally good. But this is better for the waistline! Hehe ;)

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  12. Hi Yen, this recipe looks like the one I did, except yours uses tomato and mine uses chilli sauce... pineapples are so refreshing right?

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    Replies
    1. Yeah I always go for the pineapple slices first when I eat sweet and sour pork.

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  13. That looks lovely and fresh - restaurants too often take the easy option of deep frying, but your pork looks much yummier!

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  14. I like this healthy version of this dish ! Not only it sounds good but looks very yummy & so colorful! ;)

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