International Dinner Night

My neighbors and I love to eat. I should say, we love to eat good food, and we all love trying new things (I love my neighbors). We also live about 30 minutes from anything other than fast food. I was listening to The Splendid Table and heard about a lady who had started a dinner club that met and made international food. They rotated the cooking and changed up the country of the food. They tried to make it as authentic as possible. I talked to our lovely neighbors, and we decided to have our own.

Our original idea was to do it around Chinese New Year. The Army seemed to continue to intervene, however, and it got pushed from the first Thursday of the month to the last Friday. I did some research and found a website that talked about most of the world's countries and their food, and food culture.

Since this has been a long and exhausting month and week, we opted for the seemingly easier main dish. I attempted to make crab rangoon and eggdrop soup as well. You can get the original recipe here, but as I was going I made some changes to it.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients

• ½ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pound lean pork loin, cut into bite-size pieces
• 3 Tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• 2 green peppers cut in large pieces
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• ½ cup pineapple chunks
• ½ cup pineapple juice
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• Boiled rice, warm

Procedure

1. Prepare rice according to package and keep warm.
2. Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a large plastic bag with a locking seal.
3. Add the pork pieces to the bag and seal.
4. Shake the bag well to coat each piece.
5. Remove the pork and throw the bag away.
6. Heat the oil in a large frying pan.
7. When the pan is hot, put the pork pieces in. It should only take about 5-10 minutes until they are brown on all sides. Basically, you are searing the meat using a pan frying technique.
8. Add the peppers, onions, and carrots, and cook for 15 minutes so the peppers and onions are a little sweatted.
9. Stir in pineapple, pineapple juice, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch in a separate container and add to pan.
10. Cook until the mixture is hot.
11. Serve over cooked rice.

Serves 4 to 5.

While it wasn't quite as good as the real thing in China, it was closer than most things I have had states-side. Very yummy.