Ok, this is a nice easy thai stir fry recipe to start with. This version of sweet and sour pork takes about five minutes to prepare and about nine minutes to cook up, and all you need is a single pan……it just doesn’t get easier than that!
This sweet and sour isn’t like the claggy dishes sold in restaurants with syrupy sauce that leaves you thinking you have made a mistake by the end of the dish. This version has a delicate sweetness that isn’t all powerful and doesn’t destroy your palate by the time you have finished. Vinegar and fish sauce seem to provide the sour or the balancing element.
My favourite thing about this dish is the textures…..something that can easily be ruined if cooked to long so watch out. Peppers and onions provide nice crunch, tomatoes provide soft explosive, sweet juiciness and oyster mushrooms generate a smooth texture. I like chili heat, but only to a certain degree. This dish doesn’t include chili’s but if your addicted, or just in the mood you can add them for additional effect. Here’s what you need and how to do it (check out the video at the bottom) :
Ingredients (Serves 2)
Olive Oil 1 tbsp
Chopped Garlic 2 Cloves Large Garlic
Pork Loin 400g
Oyster Mushrooms 100g
Cucumber 1/2 cup
Onion 1/4 cup
Tomato 1/2 cup
Green and Red Pepper Mixed 1/2 cup
Spring Onion 1 cup
Tomato sauce 2 tbsp
White Vinegar 1 tbsp
Cane Sugar 1 tbsp
Salt 0.25 tsp
Fish Sauce 1 tbsp
Water or Chicken Stock 0.5 cup
Tapioca flour 0.5 tbsp
Ground Black Pepper 1 tsp
Green Thai chili’s (optional to taste)
Preparation 5-10 mins
Slice tomatoes into halves, slice onion, cut the cucumber into slices, break oyster mushrooms into pieces, chop peppers into bite size pieces, chop and press garlic, cut spring onion stems into inch long pieces, slice thai chili leaving seeds (optional)
Cut the pork into bite sized strips.
Mix the tapioca flour with 1 tbsp of cold water.
Cooking (9mins)
- Heat up a wok or a high brimmed frying pan to a high heat.
- Once the wok is hot add 1 tbsp of olive oil.
- Let the oil heat through (but not smoking) then add the two chopped and crushed cloves of garlic, heat through for a minute or until you can smell the garlic. Turn down the heat to a moderate heat.
- Add the 400g of sliced pork and stir fry until the pork is cooked (Changes colour, 5 mins).
- Add the cucumber,onion, tomato, green/red pepper, (chili if required) and stir fry with pork until the vegetable begin to change colour and soften. (2mins)
- Add spring onion, tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, fish sauce, water (or chicken stock) and water/tapioca mix and continue to stir fry for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and serve up with some jasmine rice.
Special note to self – don’t double up to try to create enough for four in one go. It won’t cook easily and will just work out bad.
