No Deep Fry Needed Pineapple Pork 酸甜鳳梨豬梅花

One of the ideal cuts for this recipe, in my opinion, is the pork butt. I mean the upper shoulder kind of pork butt, not the rear end butt. 

It's always a bit confusing as to why the shoulder cut has been called pork butt. After a little research online I found out that back then a specific cut of pork used to store and ship in barrels known as "butts." So as time passes by, that special cut of meat has gradually be known as "pork butt."

No Deep fry needed pineapple pork  酸甜鳳梨豬梅花 -

Ingredients?

• 630 grams pork (I used pork butt, pork shoulder works too)
• 1 canned pineapple (total 227 grams but solids 135 grams)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Some potato starch
• Some olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• Some toasted white sesame seeds

How?

Use pork with some thickness to it, not the sliced shabu pork version used for hot pot. We need that full hearty bite for this recipe. I picked pork butt (upper shoulder cut) here, but any other tender cut will do.

First slice the pork into medium large pieces with some thickness to it. Use the back of the knife to pound the meat, and do that for both directions like lengthwise and crosswise, also do that for both sides of the meat. 

So after some pounding work, the meat pieces will further flatten out. However, it doesn't have to be paper thin, our goal is to break the tissue in order to have an even more tender texture in the end. Try to aim to keep some of that thickness but also able to pound the meat half way through. Once that's checked, this is the actual time to do the final sizing job by slicing the meat to medium bite size pieces.

Marinate the prepped meat pieces with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 tablespoon of potato starch, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Peel and grate the garlic clove, we will need about 1 teaspoon of grated garlic in the end. Mix that together with 1 1/2 tablespoons of pineapple juice from the can and 1 teaspoon of potato starch. This will be our pre-mixed sauce.

Slice the canned pineapple to medium pieces if needed. By the way, the canned pineapple I got came with a tiny plastic fork. That's because some people actually buy it and enjoy the canned pineapple as a sweet snack, so the fork was conveniently provided.

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Switch to medium heat and wait till the oil gets warm. Add in the pork along with the marinade. Sear till the bottom part turns slightly browned. Flip and sear the other side till slightly browned also. Scoop out the pork first.

Still using the same pan, add in pineapple and sear a little. The heat will help further drawing out that fruity aroma. It'll be hard to get the char on pineapple especially we are not grilling the fruit, so just a couple minutes in contact with heat should do the trick.

Add back the pork, mix till evenly blended. Pour in premixed sauce and stir till evenly blended again. This time, cook till reduced a bit. Plate and sprinkle some toasted white sesame seeds on top.

This is a more family-friendly way of making pineapple pork. At the restaurants, sometimes they'll deep-fry the pork first to get that even crunchier coating. It's completely up to you, but to me it's just not that convenient to use up so much frying oil in a small family setting. 

And even without the deep-frying process, I was still pretty happy with the result. The sweet and sour fruity touch can really cut away any greasy feeling from the pork, yielding this well-balanced meaty dish in the end.

Extended reading:

• Cucumber and pineapple juice with a touch of mint leaves

A Brush of Vegetable Sweetness - Peas and Sweet Corn Kernels Stir-Fry

We have this sweet corn in Taiwan, maybe it's more accurate by the name supersweet corn. It's so sweet, at least in corn-spectrum, usually you'll find such corn variety being served at a high-end shabu shabu place here.

And this is the type of corn we will be using for the stir-fry recipe. That paired with peas, it's like a formula guaranteed to yield a refreshing stir-fry filled with vegetable's natural sweetness.

Peas and sweet corn kernels stir-fry - 

Ingredients? 

• 290 grams chicken breast
• 6 shiitake mushrooms
• 2 sweet corn on the cobs (about 1 3/4 cups corn kernels)
• 3/4 cup peas
• 1 tablespoon Japanese tsuyu
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small chunk young ginger (about 1/2 teaspoon chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder

How?

Slice the chicken breast into medium small cubes. Marinate that with 1 tablespoon of Japanese tsuyu, 1 tablespoon of mirin, and 1 tablespoon of rice wine. Doesn't matter if you're using triple-condensed or double-condensed Japanese tsuyu, the difference in their salty level won't affect much in the end.

Destem and cube the shiitake mushrooms. Scrape and finely chop the ginger, we will need about 1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger in the end. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves. If using whole corn on the cobs, use a knife to slice from top to bottom to get the corn kernels, which we will need about 1 3/4 cups of corn kernels in the end.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in the pan and switch to medium heat. Add in ginger and garlics while the oil hasn't turn warm yet. Continue to cook till aromatic but not burning the garlic bits.

Add in chicken and its marinade. Stir-fry till almost cooked-through.

Add in corn kernels and shiitake mushrooms along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Stir-fry till evenly blended.

Add the the delicate peas last. The peas can be cooked in less than a minute then it's time to give the whole thing a quick taste. Adjust with any additional seasonings if needed then this dish is ready to go.

Have you noticed that I used Japanese tsuyu instead of Chinese soy sauce for this recipe? The reason is that the main ingredients we have are on the lighter side, so using soy sauce can be too over-powering taste-wise. 

That's when the Japanese tsuyu came to the picture. It can be quite salty still, but at least texture-wise in a lighter and gentler way. On top of that, Japanese tsuyu will not darken the dish as much as soy sauce. So by using Japanese tsuyu, we can better preserve the original color for the green peas and yellow corn kernels. 

Extended reading:

• Diced chicken with preserved Yibin suimiyacai 雞米芽菜