Sweet-and-Sour Pork (tang cu Ii ji)

Fuschia Dunlop is a genius. Her non-Westernized Sichuan food is authentic and amazing. While usually pretty easy to prepare (provided you have a few staple pantry items) they have always been PACKED with flavor. This is one of our favorites and is NOTHING LIKE the gloopy, radiation-orange version found in lesser shopping mall food courts.

PORK
300 g pork tenderloin
groundnut oil for deep-frying

BATTER
2 eggs
50 g potato flour

MARINADE
⅓ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine

SAUCE
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 ½ teaspoons potato flour
3 spring onions, green parts only
3 tablespoons groundnut oil
2 teaspoons garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ginger, finely chopped
200 ml EVERYDAY STOCK or chicken stock
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Trim any fat from the meat. Cut it into slices 1 cm thick, and then cut these into 1 cm strips. Place in a bowl. Add the marinade ingredients, mix well and leave for 30 minutes.

Combine the salt, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and potato flour for the sauce in a small bowl. Finely slice the spring onion greens.

Heat oil for deep-frying to 150C. Beat the eggs together. In a bowl, mix the 50g of potato flour with enough beaten egg to make a custardy batter - about 1 1/2 eggs. When the oil is hot, mix the batter with the pork strips. Drop some of the battered strips into the oil, adding them individually to prevent sticking, and stir with long chopsticks to separate. Fry the strips at about 150C for 3 minutes or so, until they are just cooked through. Remove and drain. Repeat with more pork strips until you have cooked the lot.

Reheat the deep-frying oil to 190C, add the pork strips in one or two batches and deep-fry them until they are crisp and golden. Remove, drain and place on your serving dish. Keep them warm while you prepare the sauce.

Heat the 3 tablespoons of oil in a clean wok over a medium flame. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for about 30 seconds, until they are fragrant. Add all the stock, bring the liquid to the boil and then add the prepared sauce ingredients from the small bowl. Stir briskly as the liquid thickens, then add the spring onions and sesame oil, stir once or twice and pour the sauce Over the waiting pork strips. Serve immediately.