Thai style Sweet and Sour Pork

This is what was for dinner on Monday night. It was a good dish, but I think could have been better, it lacked a strong punch in the flavor. Since it was my first time making this I followed the recipe pretty exactly, give or take some weight on the meat, and veggie amounts. Possibly some Thai Basil or a Thai pepper or two could have helped out a bit.

Anyhow, I did some photo documenting and thought I would share.

Setup:

Cookbook, Sugar, Black Pepper, Fish Sauce, Cilantro, Pork, Red Onion, Garlic, Pineapple, Red Pepper, Tomato, Spring Onion.

Closeups:




Cooking:
Start by lightly browning the garlic in some vegetable oil:


Add Pork:


Then Onions:


Add in sugar and fish sauce and cook until pork is fully cooked:


Now because my burner doesn't get that hot, and my pan isn't that big. I emptied it of the onions and the pork so it could be hotter for cooking up the veggies and fruit:


Add the pork and onion back in and let it cook together for a couple minutes:


Serve with rice and top with cilantro (which I remembered to do a few bites into my meal):

Nice pictures. The dish looks pretty despite the lack of flavor!

Do you mind posting the title and author of your cookbook? From the picture you posted, I think I used to have it and ended up giving it away due to just the problem that you are having - lack of flavor. Even the curries were too bland for me. I now use Nancie McDermott's Real Thai with more success.

It certainly looks flavorful! Perhaps a little more fish sauce would have helped? I find most Western-targeted Thai cookbooks tend to be a little conservative on the nam pla, at least compared with the Thai restaurants I tend to frequent.

The book is just called Thai: The Essence of Asian Cooking by Judy Bastyra.

Yeah, it does look flavorful, it was just missing some punch, not bad at all, just lacking.

brandon_w wrote:it was just missing some punch, not bad at all, just lacking.

Perhaps remedied with a splash of fish sauce and/or lime juice at the end?

I would also suggest using a different fish sauce (and I don't know how well or not you like the one you used), perhaps
Squid brand, or Tra chang (scales on label) or golden boy among others [only ingredients should be anchovy, salt and sugar]

Here's a good online resource for Thai cooking. Her books are great too.

thomasz wrote:What a delicious dish! that's for how many people?

Depends on how much you eat, but you can get at least five servings out of it. If you eat smaller portions, possibly 8-10.

sazerac wrote:

brandon_w wrote:it was just missing some punch, not bad at all, just lacking.

Perhaps remedied with a splash of fish sauce and/or lime juice at the end?

I would also suggest using a different fish sauce (and I don't know how well or not you like the one you used), perhaps
Squid brand, or Tra chang (scales on label) or golden boy among others [only ingredients should be anchovy, salt and sugar]

Here's a good online resource for Thai cooking. Her books are great too.

Thanks, that was the end of that bottle. I'll look for something better in the future. A Vietnamese grocery store just opened and they have a whole fish sauce isle. So I should be able to get something better now.