Sweet And Sour Pork Chops

• 4 X 200-250g pork chops
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• picked coriander leaves for garnish

The Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ thumb sized piece of ginger
• 1 spring onion
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon shao xing rice wine
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons corn flour

The Sauce

• 1 ½ tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 4 ½ tablespoons Ching Kiang black rice vinegar
• 4 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons Chiu Chow chilli oil

Slice the pork chop meat off of the bone in one long sweep, keeping each chop as one whole piece of meat and setting the bones aside as they are great to cook too.

Turn your cleaver upside down and using the blunt end of your knife (careful not to hold the blade!), bash across the meat as many times as possible to flatten it out, making rivets along the pork and creating as much of a surface area as possible. This will begin to tenderise the chop and allow the marinade to sit into and really flavour the meat. Keep each pork chop in one large piece at this stage.

Once flattened, to a similar thickness as an escalope, massage ‘The Marinade’ ingredients into the all the bashed out meat and the pork chop bones until they are completely coated with the seasoning. Ideally leave in the fridge overnight, or for a minimum of 1 hour to marinade.

When ready to make the dish, finely slice the red onion and set aside ready for cooking. And mix ‘The Sauce’ ingredients together in a bowl and stir well until the sugar has fully dissolved.

Half-fill a medium sized pot, wok or deep-fryer with vegetable oil and heat to 180°C (350°F), or use a wooden skewer or wooden chopstick to test the oil by placing the tip fo the wood into the oil: if the wood starts to fizz after a second or so, the oil is at roughly 180°C. Using a slotted spoon or Chinese frying skimmer, firstly lay the marinated pork chop bones into the oil and deep fry for 5 minutes. Remove the bones from the oil and drain well on a few sheets of kitchen towel, then lay the marinated pieces of pork into the fryer one by one so as not to stick together in the fryer. Deep fry the pork pieces for 2-3 minutes on a high heat until crispy and brown on the outside, then remove and drain with the chop bones.

At this point, roughly chop the fried pork meat into more bite size portions (roughly 3cm squares).

Now heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok to a high heat. Once smoking hot, add the finely sliced red onion to the wok and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so. Pour the sauce into the hot wok and bring to a vigorous boil. Once boiling, add the pork chop bones and the chopped pieces of fried pork meat into the sauce and toss through two to three times. Serve immediately, garnished with picked coriander leaves.