How to make strawberry sweet and sour pork, a Chinese favourite with a fruity twist, and strawberry jam

The popular Chinese dish of sweet and sour pork is different depending on where you eat it. At an inexpensive dai pai dong, you’ll probably be served pork chunks in a sauce where the dominant flavours are ketchup and white vinegar, while at white-tablecloth restaurants the dish will be a lot more refined.

Contrary to what many people expect, sweet and sour pork isn’t always a bright reddish-orange; in Shanghai, for instance, the meat is coated in a rich, sticky, dark brown sauce.

Strawberry sweet and sour pork

Please don’t think this is some kind of outrageous, modern interpretation of the “traditional” Cantonese sweet and sour pork – because what is traditional anyway? I’m sure that when the dish was created, the chefs didn’t use ketchup, which is widely accepted now. Sweet and sour pork using strawberry jam as the sweet element has been around for at least 30 years, probably longer.

This version of sweet and sour pork doesn’t take much longer than the ketchup-and-vinegar one. I had to test the recipe many times before I was satisfied with it, and, surprisingly, the sauce was the easy part – it was the coating I had trouble with. Gogi powder – an excellent Thai tempura powder – works well, but depending on the country you are in, it might not be easy to find.

Fortunately, Gogi lists the ingredients – with bakers’ percentages – on the packet, so I adapted the formula. If Gogi tempura powder is available where you are, use it instead of the home-made version.

The amount of vinegar and pineapple juice you use will depend on the sweetness of the strawberry jam. I use home-made jam with a 4:3 fruit-to-sugar ratio. If the jam you use is sweeter, then you will need to use more of the sour ingredients to balance it.