Sweet and Sour Pork with Tamarind and Mango Recipe

By Louise Pool
Good pork is always available here in the Seychelles. I've bought imported pork fillet a couple of times and it just can't compare with our local meat. I wonder if it's all the breadfruit the pigs are fed?

Since we have such a mixture of cuisines making up our Creole cuisine, sweet and sour pork is available in most take aways. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's, well... What it always is, to my taste, is too fatty. Now I enjoy good pork crackling, but I can't stand mouthfuls of fat (and bits of bone) in my pork dishes. I like lean filleted pork, not pork that's looks like it's been attacked with a machete. (This goes for chicken, too. Those of you who have eaten chicken curry take aways in Seychelles will know what I'm on about.)

You don't need pork tenderloin for this recipe; I used slices of pork leg and trimmed away the fat.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Tamarind Recipe 

For the sauce:
2 tbsp sesame oil for frying
a piece of ginger (length of small finger), chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 red bell pepper
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 leek, sliced (or 1 cup frozen leeks)
5 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup mango juice
Heat up the sesame oil and stir fry the ginger, garlic and chilli powder together with the vegetables for 5 minutes.
In the meantime, mix together all the other ingredients.
Add to the pan and bring to the boil. Let it all simmer for another 10 minutes without a lid to reduce the sauce somewhat.
Set aside.
 
For the pork:
500 g lean pork
cornstarch (same as corn flour) for dredging
salt
oil for deep frying
Cut up the pork into bite sized pieces, season with a good amount of salt and dredge with the cornstarch.
Heat the oil to a high temperature suitable for deep frying (Throw in a little lettuce to check if it's hot enough; it will shrivel immediately when the oil is ready.).
Deep fry the pork until browned and crispy (5 to 10 minutes).

Add the pork to the sauce and serve.

This dish is lovely served with plain white rice or buckwheat noodles.

I made this last night and I wasn't too hungry, so whilst my son ate his with a huge bowl of rice, I simply ate mine without any carbs.

So dinner last night was low carb, gluten free, dairy free and very very tasty. I'm feeling very virtuous...