Sweet and Sour Pork

Sweet and sour pork is one of my favorite dishes to order when going out to a Chinese restaurant. I sometimes try to make it, but it sometimes tastes better when someone else does the cooking!

During one of our recent family get togethers, my brother in law decided to make sweet and sour pork as his contribution to dinner. He usually uses ketchup as the base for the sauce, but believe it or not, we didn't have any! Instead he used tomato paste and it turned out even better than using ketchup.

To make the sauce:

In a saucepan, mix together 1/3 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 tbsp. pineapple or orange juice, 1 tsp. of sesame oil (optional), 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper.

Bring to a simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat

For the pork and vegetables:

In a wok or large fry pan, stir fry 1 pound of pork (cut into 1.5" chunks) until cooked.

Then add 1 bell pepper also cut into chunks (it can be any color, red, green, yellow or orange), 1 julienned carrot, 1 medium onion (sliced into 3/4 inch segments), and a 1/2 cup of pineapple chunks (fresh or canned works fine). Stir fry it all together for a minute or two, then add the sauce. Stir it up and serve with rice!

Pretty simple isn't it? :)

If you love vegetables, feel free to add more peppers and carrots.

Also, if you prefer to make sweet and sour chicken, you can replace the pork with chicken instead.