China · Shanghainese

Pepper Salt Fried Pork Cutlets

Name: Pepper Salt Fried Pork Cutlets
Prep time: 26 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 38 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Shanghainese
Ingredients: pork cutlets 360 g; egg 1 pieces; salt 1 g; pepper salt 10 g; ginger scallion water 100 ml; flour 80 g; starch 80 g; custard powder 3 g; water 10 g; oil 10 g

Thick pork cutlets in a double coating of starch and batter, fried twice and dusted with a peppery salt.

38 minutes · 4 servings · Moderate

Shanghai pepper salt cutlets belong to the city's Shanghainese kitchen, and the technique is the same one behind every western fried cutlet: a wet batter over a dry starch. Those two textures are what matter, a crisp shell around a soft, well-seasoned interior. A dipping sauce is optional, since the pepper salt already carries the dish.

Ingredients

pork cutlets360 g
egg1 pieces
salt1 g
pepper salt10 g
ginger scallion water100 ml
flour80 g
starch80 g
custard powder3 g
water10 g
oil10 g

Directions

1
Wash the pork cutlets, bone them out, pound them with the flat of a knife, cut them into thick slices and then into fat strips.
2
Add the pepper salt and mix, and once the meat has started to give up its juices, add the ginger scallion water in stages. Marinate in the refrigerator for twenty minutes.
3
Make the batter. Put in eighty grams of flour, twenty grams of starch, noting that this is twenty grams and the remaining sixty are held back, two or three grams of custard powder and one gram of salt.
4
Crack in one egg, stir, then add one hundred grams of water in stages followed by ten grams of oil, stirring repeatedly until the batter is completely smooth and just slightly thick.
5
Take out the remaining sixty grams of starch, take the cutlets, coat them in the starch and then in the batter.
6
Add oil to the wok, enough to cover the food, and heat it to about one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty degrees. Add the cutlets and fry until pale golden, then lift them out. They may stick together as they go in; leave them alone, and once they have set you can separate them with chopsticks.
7
When the oil comes back to one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty degrees, fry the cutlets again until golden and lift them out.
8
Scatter over the pepper salt, toss to coat evenly and serve.

Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.