Ching’s Chinese Food in Minutes

FOR THE MARINADE

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

1 tablespoon yellow bean sauce

2.5cm/1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and sliced

1 pinch of sugar

1 Flatten the pork loins with a meat cleaver, meat hammer or rolling pin until they are 1cm/

/

inch thick. Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl and stir to combine. Add the pork and turn to coat, then cover the bowl and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.

2 Heat a wok over a high heat, then fill the wok to one-third of its depth with groundnut oil. Heat the oil to 180°C/350°F or until a cube of bread dropped in turns golden brown in 15 seconds and floats to the surface.

3 Remove each piece of pork from the marinade, dip in the potato flour or cornflour, then in the beaten egg and cover in the breadcrumbs. Using a pair of tongs or long bamboo chopsticks, carefully lower each piece into the oil and fry for 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately with pickled cucumber salad, stir-fried vegetables and rice.

Ching’s Tip

Many cities of Taiwan have small outlets serving ‘Piantung’, meaning ‘convenient lunchboxes’—polystyrene boxes packed with rice, soy-braised seaweed, soy egg, pickled vegetables and stir-fried spinach with a choice of fried fish (swordfish or tuna, and so on). My favourite is the works with a large portion of fried pork cutlet.