What’s cooking today: Sweet and sour pork with lychees

Fruit and pork draw each other like lovers at first sight. China’s sweet and sour pork legacy is one of its most delicious gifts to the world. Pineapple and lychee have flavour profiles that are a natural fit. And fresh ginger lends zing to both of those.

For this recipe, which feeds two, you need only one pork fillet weighing about 400 g, but you can do it with a slightly bigger fillet if you prefer. 

I used fresh lychees (peeled and pitted) but if you use them from a can, you’re welcome to use the syrup from the tin in the dish instead of pineapple juice. But pineapple juice makes a fine substitute and works well.

The joy of this recipe is that, when you add the cooked pork pieces back to the sauce, the remaining cornflour on the surface of the pork thickens the sauce. And that’s the kind of kitchen trick that you can use again in other recipes involving chicken, beef or, for that matter, chunks of firm fish or prawns.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

400 g pork fillet, trimmed of extraneous tissue and sliced thinly

2 heaped Tbsp cornflour

Wok oil, enough for shallow frying the pork

12 fresh lychees, peeled and pitted

2 Tbsp pineapple juice

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp rice wine

1 Tbsp water

4 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

1 x 3 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced very thinly

2 small green chillies, seeded, halved lengthwise and sliced

Coriander leaves

Method

To make a pineapple-lychee sauce, combine 2 Tbsp pineapple juice with the rice vinegar, water, and rice wine. Keep this aside until you need it.

Spoon 2 heaped Tbsp cornflour into a bowl. Slice the pork thinly, coat in the cornflour and shake off any excess.

Heat oil suitable for wok cooking in a deep, heavy pan or wok, on a moderately high heat. Deep fry the pork strips in batches in shallow hot oil for about 2-3 minutes per side and drain on kitchen paper in a colander. They should be soft inside but golden brown and crispy on the outside.

Add the sliced spring onions (mainly the white parts), ginger and chilli to the pan and stir fry for half a minute, then add the lychee-pineapple juice-vinegar mixture and bring to the boil.

Add the pork and lychees and, on a moderate heat, stir-fry for 1 minute or until the sauce has thickened. The residual cornflour on the surface of the cooked pork bits will serve to thicken the sauce. Like magic.

Serve with rice, garnished with the reserved green parts of the spring onions, sliced on the diagonal, and a few coriander leaves. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop or, if sold out, directly from him. Buy it here. 

Mervyn Gers Ceramics supplies dinnerware for the styling of some TGIFood shoots. 

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

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