Taste Scoring
★★★★☆ Cooking time: 21 minutes, Preparation: 15 minutes + Hot Cook: 2 minutes + Heating Extension 4 minutes
Tomato ketchup and vinegar are the main flavoring ingredients of the sweet-and-sour pork. It is a simple, old-fashioned taste. The pork does not need to be fried.
First, lightly fry only the pork in a Hot Cook, then add vegetables and seasonings. Then, the dish is ready in 4 minutes of extended heating.
The total cooking time in the Hot Cook is “6 minutes”, but fry pork only in the first “2 minutes.” Add vegetables and seasonings once you open the lid and extend 4 minutes to stir-fry.
One problem is that if you cut the vegetables too thick, they will not become soft within “4 minutes.” Especially carrots remain hard.
However, thinly sliced vegetables does not go well with sweet-and-sour pork either, so after cutting the vegetables, I covered them with plastic wrap and warmed them in the microwave before putting them in the Hot Cook.
Carrots are the crunchiest vegetables, so they need to be softened in advance, but I also heated onions and green peppers.
I have always preferred softly cooked vegetables to crunchy ones, so the prior microwave cooking gave them the just the right amount of crunchiness I liked.
WHAT IS HOT COOK？
Hot Cook is Japanese popular cookware, waterless automatic cooking pot series, made by SHARP. Just put the ingredients in the pot and press the switch to automatically prepare a variety of dishes.
HOT COOK 1.6L size (for 2-4 people), Latest model with a fluorine-coated inner pot
Hot Cook Recipe [Sweet-and-sour Pork] Ingredients: 4 people
◆Seasoning for pork and meat
- Pork for curry: 200g *Cut pork loin into thick slices is OK
- Garlic (grated): 1 teaspoon * tube type is OK
- Ginger (grated): 1 teaspoon * tube type is OK
- Sake: 1 tablespoon
- Katakuriko (potato starch): 2 tablespoons
◆Vegetables
- Carrot: 1 carrot, cut into bite-size pieces
- Bell pepper: 2 or 3 pieces * cut into 1 to 2 cm pieces
- Onion: 1/2 piece * cut into 1 to 2 cm wide wedges
◆Seasonings
- Sesame oil: 1 tablespoon
- Tomato ketchup: 2 tablespoons
- Vinegar: 2 tablespoons
- Soy sauce: 1 tablespoon
- Sugar: 2 teaspoons
- Chicken soup stock (granulated): 1 teaspoon
Hot Cook Recipe [Sweet-and-sour Pork] How to make
- Cut pork into bite-size pieces, mix the pork well with seasonings in a food storage bag and leave it in the bag.
- Cut vegetables, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 4 minutes to soften.
- Prepare seasonings.
- First, add sesame oil and the pork mixed with seasonings in the inner pot.
Make manually => Fry => Set cooking time to “2 minutes” => Start
- When you hear the finishing chime, open the lid.
- Add all the vegetables previously warmed in the microwave and the remaining seasonings (ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and chicken broth stock).
- Close the lid of the Hot Cook again. Set the heat extension to “4 minutes” to fry more.
When you hear the finishing chime, open the lid, mix it up, and place it in a bowl to serve.
The seasoning from tomato ketchup is a simple and nostalgic taste that I used to enjoy when I was a child.
Next time, I would like to try “sweet and sour pork with black vinegar” without tomato ketchup but with black vinegar as the main ingredient.
The sweet-and-sour pork is made in a fluorine-coated inner pot in a Hot Cook. Stir-frying was also done well without sticking to the bottom of the pan.
If you do not have a fluorine-coated inner pot, it is highly recommended and it will be very useful tool for you!
Useful notes
Good news for those who use the old model of Hot Cook with stainless steel inner pot! The long-awaited hot cook fluorine-coated inner pot is now on sale as an option!
I bought it online!
Now you can cook without worrying about cooking menus that stick to the bottom of the pot. Check it out if you are interested!
The fluorine-coated inner pot has FB at the end of the model number. Please be careful when purchasing. F refers to “fluorine.”
Sharp TJ-KN1FB Inner Pot for Hot Cooks, 0.4 gal (1.6 L) Type, Fluorine Coating
Sharp TJ-KN2FB Inner Pot for Hot Cooks, 0.6 gal (2.4 L) Type, Fluorine Coating
Sharp TJ-KN05FB Inner Pot for Hot Cooks, (1.0 L) Type, Fluorine Coating
