Japanese/Chinese cooking: Sweet sour pork / meatball with vegetable
I love sweet sour pork or sweet sour meatball dish.
In Japanese, sweet sour pork is called "Su buta". " Su " means vinegar. "buta" means "pork". So, sweet sour pork literally means vinegary pork. Sweet sour meatball dish is called "Niku dango no amazu ankake". It is long name. " Niku " means meat, " dango" means "ball" , "amazu" means "sweet sour sauce" and "an" is thickened sauce and finally, "kake" means "to pour/to drizzle". So, therefore, it is a dish that has meatball in thicken sweet sour sauce.
Interesting thing is, this is 2 separate dish but base sauce is identical. So,you can tweak the food ingredients very easily to fit to your preference and you can make your own sweet sour sauce dish. You can do vegetable only sweet sour dish, you can swap protein, or add ingredients to the original recipe. You can make variety with same sauce. So,how do you make sweet sour dish? Here is how.
First, prepare the sauce ingredients. The sauce is very easy to make. Here is what you need for sweet sour sauce.
* rice vinegar 1/4C
* white table sugar 4tbs
* ketchup 1tbs
* soy sauce 1tbs
* worcester sauce 1 tbs
* pineapple juice 2tbs
* splash of sesame oil to finish the sauce
* corn starch to thicken the sauce
1. Mix all ingredients in bowl except sesame oil and corn starch. Set aside.
2. If you make sweet sour dish with meatball..
****making meatball****
*1/2lb ground pork
*1/2lb ground beef
*1 egg white
* salt & pepper
* either corn starch or potato starch about 1tbs
* 1/8 of one onion grated
* palmful of plain breadcrumbs or milk soaked white bread (you need to squeeze out the milk very good before adding it to the meat)
* pinch of nutmeg
Mix everything and when you feel the meat consistency got sticky to your hands, make balls and place on non stick foil in baking sheet and bake about 25min -30min at about 400F oven
I usually bake meatball,I do not cook on stove top. And adding milk soaked bread and grated onion are secret to make juicy meatball. You need to watch out your meatball too so as not to over-bake them.
If you made more than enough meatball for your dish,cook them anyway in the oven and freeze it for later use.
When you make meatball for meatball & spaghetti for example, you can add grated Pecorino Romano cheese to the mixture above and swap the plain breadcrumbs with Italian breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs add extra flavor to the meatball and it comes out really good meatball. And, don't buy pre-grated cheese. Buy a block of cheese at local grocery store and grate it as you need them. You can store the cheese in freezer.
****If you make basic sweet sour pork, using pork meat..
1. Cut pork tender loin to strip, tenderize it with back of knife, sprinkle nature's season (Molton brand with blue cap.My favorite basic seasoning bottle)
( Tenderloin is generally already tender, but this makes extra tender)
2. Add the pork meat strip to beaten egg, dredge it onto potato starch and deep fry them, when golden brown, take them out onto paper towel
You can swap protein if you like.
So, meatball or deep fried pork is key ingredient in this dish. Now, the vegetable part.
1.Onto skillet, heat oil, add grated fresh garlic, pinch of crushed red pepper flake and when fragrant, add chopped vegetable. I usually put vegetable such as onion, green pepper, thin sliced celery,carrot, sliced water chestnut, chopped canned baby corn, canned sliced bamboo shoot, drained canned chopped pineapple.
2. When hard vegetable like carrots became fork tender, add either cooked meatball or deep fried pork
(You can make this dish with raw meat of your choice or raw shrimp if you prefer.) to the skillet
3. Add 1tbs of sake and stir
4. Add sweet sour sauce you have made previously
5. Make sauce thickener in measuring cup
Put corn starch or potato starch in a cup and add water to corn/potato starch.Good ratio is 1:2 (1 being starch amount, 2 being water amount)
6. Pour the sauce thickener onto skillet, and make it come to boil and adjust to the preferred thickness.
(You can add bit of water if the sauce was too thick, if too thin, dissolve bit of corn/potato starch with bit of water and add them to skillet)
7. When taste the food and taste was right, add splash of sesame oil and stir and done!
You can pour this tasty sweet sour pork/meatball dish over hot steamy Japanese rice to serve. My all time favorite of rice is Kokuho Rose Rice. You can get them 5lb as smallest bag at local grocery store at International shelf area. Or, if you go to Asian store, most carry the rice in big bag like 20lb bag.
Bon appetit!
In Japanese, sweet sour pork is called "Su buta". " Su " means vinegar. "buta" means "pork". So, sweet sour pork literally means vinegary pork. Sweet sour meatball dish is called "Niku dango no amazu ankake". It is long name. " Niku " means meat, " dango" means "ball" , "amazu" means "sweet sour sauce" and "an" is thickened sauce and finally, "kake" means "to pour/to drizzle". So, therefore, it is a dish that has meatball in thicken sweet sour sauce.
Interesting thing is, this is 2 separate dish but base sauce is identical. So,you can tweak the food ingredients very easily to fit to your preference and you can make your own sweet sour sauce dish. You can do vegetable only sweet sour dish, you can swap protein, or add ingredients to the original recipe. You can make variety with same sauce. So,how do you make sweet sour dish? Here is how.
First, prepare the sauce ingredients. The sauce is very easy to make. Here is what you need for sweet sour sauce.
* rice vinegar 1/4C
* white table sugar 4tbs
* ketchup 1tbs
* soy sauce 1tbs
* worcester sauce 1 tbs
* pineapple juice 2tbs
* splash of sesame oil to finish the sauce
* corn starch to thicken the sauce
1. Mix all ingredients in bowl except sesame oil and corn starch. Set aside.
2. If you make sweet sour dish with meatball..
****making meatball****
*1/2lb ground pork
*1/2lb ground beef
*1 egg white
* salt & pepper
* either corn starch or potato starch about 1tbs
* 1/8 of one onion grated
* palmful of plain breadcrumbs or milk soaked white bread (you need to squeeze out the milk very good before adding it to the meat)
* pinch of nutmeg
Mix everything and when you feel the meat consistency got sticky to your hands, make balls and place on non stick foil in baking sheet and bake about 25min -30min at about 400F oven
I usually bake meatball,I do not cook on stove top. And adding milk soaked bread and grated onion are secret to make juicy meatball. You need to watch out your meatball too so as not to over-bake them.
If you made more than enough meatball for your dish,cook them anyway in the oven and freeze it for later use.
When you make meatball for meatball & spaghetti for example, you can add grated Pecorino Romano cheese to the mixture above and swap the plain breadcrumbs with Italian breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs add extra flavor to the meatball and it comes out really good meatball. And, don't buy pre-grated cheese. Buy a block of cheese at local grocery store and grate it as you need them. You can store the cheese in freezer.
****If you make basic sweet sour pork, using pork meat..
1. Cut pork tender loin to strip, tenderize it with back of knife, sprinkle nature's season (Molton brand with blue cap.My favorite basic seasoning bottle)
( Tenderloin is generally already tender, but this makes extra tender)
2. Add the pork meat strip to beaten egg, dredge it onto potato starch and deep fry them, when golden brown, take them out onto paper towel
You can swap protein if you like.
So, meatball or deep fried pork is key ingredient in this dish. Now, the vegetable part.
1.Onto skillet, heat oil, add grated fresh garlic, pinch of crushed red pepper flake and when fragrant, add chopped vegetable. I usually put vegetable such as onion, green pepper, thin sliced celery,carrot, sliced water chestnut, chopped canned baby corn, canned sliced bamboo shoot, drained canned chopped pineapple.
2. When hard vegetable like carrots became fork tender, add either cooked meatball or deep fried pork
(You can make this dish with raw meat of your choice or raw shrimp if you prefer.) to the skillet
3. Add 1tbs of sake and stir
4. Add sweet sour sauce you have made previously
5. Make sauce thickener in measuring cup
Put corn starch or potato starch in a cup and add water to corn/potato starch.Good ratio is 1:2 (1 being starch amount, 2 being water amount)
6. Pour the sauce thickener onto skillet, and make it come to boil and adjust to the preferred thickness.
(You can add bit of water if the sauce was too thick, if too thin, dissolve bit of corn/potato starch with bit of water and add them to skillet)
7. When taste the food and taste was right, add splash of sesame oil and stir and done!
You can pour this tasty sweet sour pork/meatball dish over hot steamy Japanese rice to serve. My all time favorite of rice is Kokuho Rose Rice. You can get them 5lb as smallest bag at local grocery store at International shelf area. Or, if you go to Asian store, most carry the rice in big bag like 20lb bag.
Bon appetit!
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