Lucky Sweet and Sour Pork Nuggets with Pork Crackling
A lucky start to the year with Chef Regina's Lucky Sweet and Sour Pork Nuggets with crispy Pork Crackling. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 lb Johnston’s Pork Butt
- 1 lb Johnston’s Pork Belly skin removed (optional for pork crackling)
- Potato starch for coating pork
Marinade for Pork:
- 1 medium sized peeled onion
- 100 grams peeled ginger
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- dash of ground white pepper
Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 slices ginger
- 160 milliliters tomato paste
- ½ cup plum sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chili sauce optional for spice boost
- 250 milliliters water
- ½ red onion cut in 2-inch cubes
- 1 cup fresh pineapple cut in 2-inch pieces
- 1 green red and orange pepper, cut in 2-inch pieces
Instructions
Method:
- Cut pork butt and pork belly into 1-inch pieces.
- Blend marinade ingredients in a food processor and marinade pork pieces for at least one hour.
- Coat pork in potato starch.
- Fry in small batches at 350°F till light brown in color and cool on rack. You can fry ahead. When sauce is ready and ready to serve, fry all pork nuggets a second time briefly till golden brown.
- Pork Crackling (optional): If making pork crackling, remove fat from skin, cut into squares, salt and bake in oven at 250°F till dry (about 2 hours). Deep fry dry pork skin at 350°ׄF till it puffs up. Keep aside in airtight container.
Method:
- Heat oil in wok or saucepan. Stir fry ginger for 30 seconds, add tomato paste and stir for about 1 minute under medium heat till orange.
- Add all of remaining sauce ingredients (except onion, pineapple, and peppers) and let it come to a simmer.
- Add onions, pineapple and stir for 30 seconds, add peppers, stir well for 10 seconds. Turn off heat.
- Only mix in fried pork nuggets into sauce when ready to serve immediately for optimum crunch.
- Garnish with pork crackling and cilantro and serve with steamed Jasmine rice.
