Peking pork
Peking Pork (Chinese: 京都排骨; pinyin: jīngdūpáigǔ) is a meat dish that originated from Beijing, China. Unlike peking duck, this dish consists of crisp boneless pork strips that are marinated in a sweet red sauce. The pork should be firm and crisp, with a slightly sweet glaze that does not overwhelm the tenderness of the pork. Found in many Chinese and dim sum restaurants in Chinatown, this rare dish is not common in many Chinese restaurants elsewhere. [1]
Recipe
Servings: 4
Sauce: 1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cooking sherry
1/4 cups soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce or ketchup (the choice you make will make a huge difference, as they are two contrasting flavors)
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
For the meat, have 2 pounds of pork loin (preferably boneless), cut into small strips. Pre-season both sides of the pork with salt and pepper and marinate the pork in 2 tbs of Chinese rice wine. Then prepare a mixture of 2/3 cups flour and 2/3 cups cornstarch. Smother the pork in the mixture and make sure to shake off any excess. [2]
Cooking Instructions
Meat: Heat a good amount of peanut oil in a wok until it sizzles. Add slices of pork and fry for about 1 to 1.5 minutes. Then remove the oil from the pork with a paper towel and transfer pork into the pan of simmering sauce. The pork strips should be fully cooked, crisp, and tender
Sauce: Sautéing the crushed garlic in a minimal amount of vegetable oil is the first step. Then add the cooking sherry and brown sugar to the pan until it starts to simmer. Then in a bowl, mix the hoisin sauce or ketchup, soy sauce, and sesame oil with a whisk. Then combine the two mixtures into the pan and stir it until the sauce begins to boil. Immediately after this point, add the pork to this sauce as instructed in the previous instructions.
The meat should be cooked first with the sauce started after the peanut oil comes to a sizzle. Keep the sauce to a simmer so it stays hot while the meat is cooking. [2]
Serving Instructions
Put the strips of pork onto a plate and serve immediately. This dish should definitely be served with a serving of jasmine rice that is cooked in a rice cooker as to retain its Asian taste. [2]
Taste
The pork itself should be really crisp, but not burnt. The sauce itself can also be used to flavor the rice, liberally. The sauce should have a mild tangy taste to it with a sweet after taste. [3]
Reheating
Reheating this dish should not include a microwave. Using a microwave will soften the texture of this dish. Peking pork should always be served hot and crisp, but not burnt. In order to properly reheat this dish, one should preheat an oven or toaster oven to 325 °F and bake the Peking pork for about 10 minutes.