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.