I have not been updating PonPeKo ever since I started work in February. I truly wanted to keep PonPeKo alive but my tiredness and laziness got best of me. Truth be told, we still haven’t finish unpacking the boxes in our kitchen. Most of my baking utensils are still sitting in the boxes and hence I do not have any dessert materials to post lately. Moreover, since moving up here, it’s really easy to find places with excellent food and desserts which leads to more procrastination from my side. Hmm, I really need to stop procrastinating and get everything unpacked as soon as possible. Be more disciplined, Yang!

Today, I would like to share my favorite economy rice dish with you. If you’re not familiar with the term “economy rice”, it’s basically a food stall that sells a selection of dishes ranging from various meat, vegetables, fish, and curries. You can pick any dish and as many dishes as you like to have them as accompaniment to rice. Economy rice is very popular in Malaysia as it’s cheap and good. Ku Lo Yuk is one of the popular dish and it is sold in every economy rice stall. It’s not too difficult to make, just make sure that you don’t add in too much cornflour to avoid the coating of the pork becoming too floury. Try to avoid using canned pineapples in syrup as they are overly sweet. Canned pineapples in natural juices are better as they have the slight tanginess which complements the sauce in this dish.

Pork cubes that are marinated and deep fried until golden brown.

Ku Lo Yuk (Sweet and Sour Pork) (Serves: 4-5)

Ingredients

• 300 g pork
• 1 red onion (sliced)
• 1/2 green capsicum (sliced)
• 2 small tomatoes (cut into quarters)
• 1 can of 225g  pineapple slices in juice (cut into small pieces)
• 3-4 tbs cornflour
• oil for deep-frying

Marinade

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 egg

Sauce

• 2 tbs plum sauce
• 4 tbs tomato sauce
• 2 tbs chilli sauce
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 3 tbs water
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Methods

1. Rinse and pat dry the pork. Pound the pork with a meat mallet and cut them into small cubes.
2. Mix the marinade in a bowl and add in the pork cubes. Marinate them for 15-30 min.
3. Add in the cornflour into the pork marinade and mix them well.
4. Heat about 2 cups of oil in a wok over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, deep fry the pork cubes until golden brown. To avoid overcrowding, deep fry them in batches.
5. When you’re done deep frying the pork cubes, drain the oil, leaving 1 tbs of oil in the wok.
6. Stir in the sliced onions and fry until they are translucent. Add in the sliced capsicum, quartered tomatoes, pineapple pieces and stir-fry until fragrant.
7. Pour in the sauce and bring it to boil or cook the sauce until slightly thickened.
8. Add in the deep fried pork cubes and mix them well.
9. Dish up and serve it warm with rice.

Tagged: Chinese, deep fried, dinner, economy rice, ku lo yuk, malaysian, pork, sweet and sour, tomato