Sweet and Sour Pork (Goo Lo Yuke)

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Title: Sweet and Sour Pork (Goo Lo Yuke)
Categories: Chinese, Pork, Ceideburg 2
Yield: 1 servings

1 lb Pork butt cut into 1-inch
-pieces

MMMMM-----------------------MEAT MARINADE----------------------------
1 tb Sherry
2 tb Water
2 tb Kikkoman soy sauce
4 ts Flour
4 ts Cornstarch
1 Green pepper, cut into 1/2
-inch chunks
1 Onion, cut into wedges
12 Maraschino cherries
1 c Canned lichee
1 c Pineapple chunks

MMMMM-----------------------SAUCE MIXTURE----------------------------
1/2 c Brown sugar
1/2 c Vinegar
1 ts Salt
4 tb Catsup
3/4 c Pineapple juice
4 ts Cornstarch

Had a house guest last week++an old friend who likes my Chinese
cooking, but tends to prefer the tamer stuff++you know, things
without tentacles or feet. So I whipped up a batch of this
excellent, quick and easy sweet and sour pork. It's a long time
favorite that I haven't cooked for a some time. Been too busy with
Thai and Vietnamese food to make it. It was just as excellent as I
remember it being and I actually improved on it with a couple of
substitutions.

I used 1/2 cup palm sugar instead of 1/2 cup brown sugar. Palm sugar
has a rich, complex and addicting taste while being a little less
cloyingly sweet than regular sugars. It gives a taste that's
"exotic" without being obvious. Where the recipe calls for 3/4 cup
pineapple juice I used 3/4 cup of the juice from some brandied
peaches I made. I made 'em months ago and froze the leftover juice
specifically to use in a sweet and sour dish. (This is a good thing
to do with any sweet fruity type juice.)

I left out the maraschino cherries++bleechhhhh!++and substituted a
red bell pepper for the color contrast. The only thing even faintly
exotic in the recipe is the canned lichees (also a good juice to save
for sweet and sour stuff) and that can be omitted if you can't find
them++or use canned apricots or whatever instead. You could also use
longans or rambutans, which are close relatives of lichee, quite
successfully.

Yield: 6 servings

PREPARATION: Drain fruits, prepare sauce mixture. Marinate pork in
meat marinade for 1/2 hour.

COOKING: Deep fry pork cubes in a wok for about 3 to 4 minutes until
golden brown. Drain. Pour all the oil back into the bottle. Add
sauce mixture into wok and stir until thickened. Add green pepper
and onions and cook for 2 minutes. Add pork cubes and stir until
heated through. Add fruits and stir until they're coated with the
sauce.

DO-AHEAD NOTES: Cook through making the sauce. Just before serving,
add pork, vegetables and fruit according to directions.

From "The Chinese Village Cookbook." A practical guide to Cantonese
country cooking. Rhoda Yee, Yerba Buena Press, San Francisco. 1975.
Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; March 11 1991.

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