Pork in sweetcorn and beaten egg sauce

Many years ago, we lived in Hong Kong, and our local "cheap and cheerful" restaurant, the kind of place you could drop in to whenever you didn't fancy cooking, had a section of the menu that listed "English dishes". But they were the kind of English dishes you'd never find in England - sizzling pepper steak on a bed of stir fried onions, beef in tomato sauce with rice and pork in sweetcorn and beaten egg sauce served with rice were our favourites.

I found a recipe for the pork dish in one of the bilingual Chopsticks cookery books, and adapted it to suit our tastes and the ingredients we can easily get in the UK, so here is my version of it which I have been cooking regularly for around 30 years. This time I served it with a stir fry of mixed vegetables in sweet and sour sauce. Here are some of the ingredients

Yes, you CAN see a sachet of ready made sweet and sour sauce in the photo. Although I often make my own, I like to keep sachets of that and of black bean sauce in for when I just want a small quantity.

Pork in sweetcorn and beaten egg sauce (serves 4)

250g pork steaks
1 large tin (abut 400g) cream style corn
1 egg
1 tbs peanut or sunflower oil
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp Shao Sing wine or dry sherry
1 tsp cornflour
a few drops of sesame oil
3 finely sliced spring onions

marinade
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp Shao Sing wine or dry sherry
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
1 tbs peanut or sunflower oil
3 tbs water

Dice the pork into small cubes, no more than 1cm across.
Whisk together all the marinade ingredients and stir in the pork. Leave to marinate for at least 10 minutes - a couple of hours is better if you have time.

Heat the oil in a wok and lift the pork out of the marinade with a slotted spoon and stir fry it for 3-5 minutes until cooked. Splash in the wine and soy sauce and mix well, then stir in the contents of the can of corn and the sesame oil.

Now blend the cornflour with a little water and add it to the pan, stirring well, until it boils and thickens.

Break the egg into a small  cup, beat it well with a fork and then pour it over the prongs of the fork into the fast-boiling pan, while stirring briskly with your other hand - see photo below.

 

The egg will form strands and set immediately. Remove from heat and scatter over the sliced spring onions.

 

Serve with steamed  rice and your choice of vegetables - here's my stir fry of odds and ends out of the fridge in sweet and sour sauce.