People always say this is a child’s dish.. but no matter whether I am a kid or grown-up, this has always been one of my favourites, whether it is at the zhi char stall or a chinese restaurant. And it so happened that I had a farewell meal with some colleagues at a renowned chinese restaurant and one of the dishes we had ordered was the Sweet & Sour Pork. Needless to say, it was a very good one. And I have been thinking about it since then. But instead of cooking it with the usual colourful capsicums, I thought I could prepared them with some lychees and its syrup since it fulfils the “sweetness” criteria needed. Did I ever mention before I love to experiment with sauces and marinades. Yes, I really do.
And somehow it’s always some kind of estimates and “agar-ration” that produces unexpectedly good results. So every time I marinade some stuffs, I would quickly document down what I have used, in case I need to trace back the recipe thereafter. It also serves as a guideline for further experiments in the event that I need to improvise the recipe. For this Lychees Sweet & Sour Pork, it was a next try as compared to my previous recipe here. With the addition of lychees and its syrup, the sweet and sour flavour was enhanced and the richness of the sauce this time was much thickened too.
Also this time, I make sure I deep fried the pork in smaller batches too to ensure the oil remains hot enough to deep fried every single piece of them till crispy. The lychees added a sweet fruity taste to the overall dish as well. And just to make sure you stir fried them with the sauce gently, otherwise the lychees will all fall apart by the time you had them plated !
Get all your fresh ingredients needs from PurelyFresh today to prepare this awesome dish for your loved ones during this CNY !
Enjoy !!
- 250g pork collar/tenderloin
- 6 pcs lychees (from canned lychees)
- 4 pcs shallots, cut into halves
- some cooking oil
- 1 tbsp light soya sauce
- 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp corn flour
- dash of pepper
- 5 tbsp corn flour
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- 3 tbsp tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp maggi seasoning sauce
- ½ oyster sauce
- ¼ tsp sesame oil
- 2½ tbsp sweet rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp lychee syrup (from canned lychees)
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp corn flour
- ½ tsp onion powder
- Marinade the pork with the pork marinade ingredients for at least 1 hour, setting aside in the fridge.
- Heat up some cooking oil till very hot. Test the heat by dipping a chopstick in the oil. If bubbles sizzle around the chopstick, the oil is ready for deep frying.
- Coat the marinated pork evenly with the flour coating and deep fried them in small batches in the hot oil till golden brown. Drain them well on paper towels and set aside.
- Reserving one tbsp of cooking oil in the wok, add in the shallots and stir fried till aromatic. Add in the lychees and the sweet and sour sauce. Cook till the sauce boils and add in the deep fried pork from the previous step. Stir to ensure all the pork is well coated with the sauce. Dish and serve hot.
