“What’s for dinner?” the boys ask.
When I tell them I’m making their favorite dish, I hear a simultaneous “Yay!”
Sweet and sour pork. About once a week, fall through spring, this dish pleases. So tonight I get out my recipe, which I almost know by heart, and start mixing. Brown sugar and cider vinegar. What an odd combination. So sweet and so sour. But together—they mix into scrumptious.
Isn’t that like life?
So sweet.
So sour.
Life is a mix and it’s the sweet and the sour and the kaleidoscope of colors that deepen the dish and make life so rich. Would we keep sour on the shelf and not add if we could? Probably. But it’s the sour that prompts us to stretch for the sweet. Would we reach high without sour? Not me. I like sweet. I avoid sour. But having had it mixed together for half a century, I can now say God is a masterful chef. He knows just what THIS dish needs.
Sweet and Sour Pork
1.5 lb. boneless pork chops cut into bite-sized chunks
2 T vegetable oil
1 large green pepper, seeded and cut into bit-sized chunks
1 medium-large onion, halved and sliced
2 medium tomatoes, chunked
1 large can pineapple chunks
¼ c water
2 T cornstarch
½ tsp. salt
¼ c brown sugar
1/3 c cider vinegar
1 c juice from pineapple chunks (add orange juice or water to make 1 c if short)
1 T soy sauce
1.5 c jasmine/basmati rice
1/5 c brown rice
3 cup water
I start the rice in a rice cooker before beginning recipe. Done in 20 min.
Brown pork in oil, then turn to low heat. Combine water through soy sauce in medium sauce pan. Whisk together while cooking on high till thick and bubbly. Pour over pork and turn heat to high. Add green pepper and onion and cook three minutes. Turn off heat and add pineapple and tomato. Mix lightly. Serve over hot cooked rice.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6
Sweet and sour.
Enjoy your dinner.
Savor your life.