Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 5. March 30 1981

Cooking — A Chinese Meal A Week

Cooking

A Chinese Meal A Week

This is the third in the series of Chinese cooking recipes, and I hope you have had some success with the previous recipes. You may have noticed that I had not mentioned any entrees or dessert - it is not that there are no Chinese appetisers or desserts, but that they are not normally served. But I will give a few recipes for them in the future.

Drawing of an apple on a pedestal

Normally after a Chinese mean, hot Chinese tea is served without any sugar or milk. You can buy Chinese tea from the Chinese commodities shops like Ocean Commodities in Taranaki Street. A heaped teaspoon of Chinese tea leaves would make a potful of tea for three or four people. I would recommend Jasmine tea or Oolong tea for they taste quite delicate and give a nice scent. A cup of tea after the meal is most refreshing and it helps to wash down the oil from the foods.

Pork is the favourite meat used for Chinese cooking, for it is a tender meat with a subtle sweet and delicious taste. It can be cooked in any manner, and what follows are some of the popular and easier to cook pork dishes.

Sweet and Sour Pork

This is probably the most famous pork dish outside China. I have tried many variations of this dish, some with more sauce than others, or with more vegetables. Recently I tried the Sweet'n Sour Pork cooked in the Ming Dynasty Restaurant in Lower Hutt, and that is my favourite version. The recipe for it is as follows:-

Ingredients:

  • ½ kilo pork slices
  • 1 green pepper (cored, thinly sliced)
  • 1 onion (sliced into rings)
  • ½ carrot cut into strips
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup cornflour salt, pepper.

For Sauce:

  • 4T sugar
  • 2T sherry
  • 2T vinegar
  • ½ cup water
  • 1T tomato sauce
  • 1T soya sauce
  • 1T cornflour pinch of salt

Method:

1. Slice the pork strips into ¼ inch thick pieces after removing the skin. Marinate the pork with some salt and pepper, a little soy sauce and one beaten egg.
2. Mix ½ cup of water with the sugar, vinegar, tomato sauce, soya sauce, sherry and one tablespoon of cornflour. Heat a frying pan and add sufficient oil for frying, keeping it just at boiling point.
3. In the meantime, dip the marinated pork into the cup of cornflour to coat it thoroughly, and then fry the coated pork pieces in the oil until they are golden. Put the cooked pork pieces on plate with absorbent paper, and remove the oil leaving about 1T of oil remaining in the pan.
4. Turn up heat and add in the carrot slices, the green pepper slices and the onion slices. Stir fry for 1 minute, then add in the ½ cup of water mixed with sugar, etc. into the frying pan and cook until the sauce is thickened. Add in the pork pieces as well to coat it with the sweet and sour sauce.
5. Dish out and serve on a bed of thinly sliced lettuce. Garnish with chopped spring onion and serve.

Vincent Wong