The Perfect Sweet & Sour Sauce

The ever famous sweet and sour pork/chicken/fish is a must-have in every chinese restaurant and take-away food outlet. The balancing of the yin yang is typically and well presented in this dish, blending well the two contrasting flavours. Although this dish appears far too often in Cantonese cuisine, the sweetness varies depending on the region. The ingredients vary and any type of sweetening and souring agent can be used.
Here is the perfect sauce for you to try at home, bearing in mind a few tips for success:

• Plum sauce is used as it gives a shiny glazing for the end result.
• Tapioca starch is used instead of corn flour for thickening as the latter gives a murky looking sauce and the former a transparent looking sauce, thus not giving your meat a 'covering' but instead a see-through coating.
  
• Rice flour is used for the meat (pork or chicken) coating as it give a crispier or crunchier bite as compared to other flour like cornflour or wheat flour.
• Sauce should be just enough to coat the meat and not drown in it.
• Be sure that the oil is hot enough for deep frying otherwise they will be soggy and oily.
  
• Seafood such as prawns and fish are delicate and so the sauce should be complementary and not over-powering. Some fine tuning with lime juice and pineapple pieces or even chillies can be added to give it a tropical flavour.
• When cooking seafood for this sweet and sour dish, they not necessary to be marinated. Just coat the seafood with the dampness from the washing of the seafood with riceflour and deep fry.

If possible, get your local fish monger to 'butterfly' the fish for you. To 'butterfly' the fish is to split by cutting the fish with a sharp knife starting from the tail right up to the base of the head. You will get one side of the fish with the bones intact and othet side without bones.

SWEET & SOUR PORK
(KOO LOO YOKE)
Serves 4

400g shoulder or loin pork, cubed

1/2 tbsp rice wine or Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

2 egg white, beaten

4 oz rice flour

oil for deep frying

Sauce ingredients:

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 medium onion, diced

2 tbsp plum sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp tapioca flour

1/3 cup water

1/2 red or yellow pepper, diced

1/3 length cucumber, seeded and cubed

Method:

1. Marinade pork cubes with, rice wine, light soy sauce and sugar for about 1 hour.

2. Mix all sauce ingredients together expect the oil and the vegetables.

3. Stir in beaten egg white into marinated pork cubes and toss the pork in the rice flour. Do this in a bowl. Shake off any excess flour.

4. Heat up cooking oil in a wok until hot and deep fry pork cubes in medium heat until brown.

5. Remove and keep aside on a serving platter.

6. Leave about 2 tablespoonful of oil in the wok. Reheat oil and fry garlic until light brown. Add in onions and cook lightly.

7. Pour in sauce ingredients and bring to boil.

8. Toss in bell peppers and cucumber. Boil for a further 10 seconds.

9. Pour sauce onto fried pork cubes and serve.