Hey!!
I made it look halfway decent in that Instagram video though, right? Hahahaha. That was my first try at a video, I hope it was not too painful to watch. And thanks for coming by to hear about my mistakes. I'm happy to share in the hopes that you do better than I.
Let me start by saying that this recipe sounded like it was going to be another simple one like the others I've made recently. but we settled on this one being a 7 out of 10. Not the recipe itself I don't think, but because of the errors I made.
I'm not sure which of the following things I will confess to led to the failure of the dish, or all combined but here they are:
My first mistake may have been using way too much pork. The recipe called for 2 pounds, and mine was 2.36 pounds, so I thought I would be ok.
Should I have tenderized the pork? Maybe.
I lost my thermometer at Christmas and I keep forgetting to buy one, so I used one of those laser temperature guns from the hardware store to read the temperature on my oil before deep frying (I know, I know).
I had s
o much pork that I MAY have put too much at a time into the oil (that may not have been at full temp). You know what that will do - make it soggy from too much oil seeping in. Plus, I had a real problem with them sticking together in the oil. While i struggled with that, some of the batter could have been coming off.
Which leads to my next error - I COULD have stirred it way too much because my pan was on high, and after I put the sauce in everything started to quickly blacken up if it sat there too long, so I had to keep stirring. On top of that, there was a ton in the pan and I needed it to get covered in sauce, AND I was trying to get the veggies cooked at the same time. The struggle was real.
So I think I answered my question in the end....I used too much dang pork, it created a situation in the frying area, which led to the situation in the pan.
Lessons learned:
Use the amount of meat listed in the recipe when possible.
Make sure the oil is the right temperature.
Fry in smaller batches, even if it's 3 batches because it's all going to get heated up again once it goes in the pan so you don't have to worry about it sitting there for a bit.
Next time I think I'll keep the heat on the stove a little lower, and I will probably try to move it around a little better without using the wooden spoon too much. But when I make orange chicken it's a similar process and I never had this issue, so I think it's definitely a quantity issue.
Anyways, don't get discouraged. I will come around to making sweet and sour pork again sometime, but for right now, it's onward & upward! Next week I'm making a Korean & Thai combo - Kimchi Fried Rice with Gai Yang (Thai Barbecue Chicken)! Yum yum!!
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