BRAISED DEEP FRIED PORK SLICES IN WINE SAUCE

1 ts Red rice vinegar
2 tb Medium sherry
3/4 c StockCornstarch paste
1/2 lb Boned pork butt
3 tb Peanut oil
3 Cloves garlic, minced
2 Egg yolks
1 ts Water
1 c Fine plain bread crumbs
4 c Oil for deep-frying

PASTE:
2 tb Cooked rice
1/2 ts Sugar
1 ts Dry baker's yeast
2 tb Dark soy sauce
2 tb Warm water
1 ts Wet bean cheese (opt)

The flavoring of the pork with our version of Fujinese"wine lees paste" gives it a distinctive and uniquelydelicious flavor.

Prepare Paste:
Use mortar and pestle to pulverizecooked rice. Combine with sugar, yeast, soy and warmwater. Let stand in warm place for 30 minutes toactivate yeast. Authentic wine lees paste is notavailable in the U.S. to our knowledge, this is thebest substitute we have found. You can add wet beancheese for a sharper flavor.

Braise Pork: Slice pork butt across the grain intostrips, 1" by 3" by 1/2" thick. Heat peanut oil inwok until it begins to smoke. Add some of pork to hotoil; stir-fry pieces until they lose their pink- ness;repeat in batches until all pork is browned. Next,add garlic to wok; stir briefly. Pour in wine leespaste, rice vinegar, sherry and stock; bring to slowboil; add pork slices. Reduce heat, cover, and simmerfor 30 minutes. Remove pork, without sauce, to large platter.Cool pork. Cooling is essential so that it will deep-fryproperly. Reserve sauce in small pan. You can holdpork for several hours, if you wish to braise it inadvance.

Deep-fry Pork: Heat deep-frying oil. Whileoil is heating, beat egg yolks with water; set outbread crumbs on platter. Dip pork pieces in eggmixture, then bread crumbs, to thoroughly cover.When oil is at deep-frying temperature, 375 degrees,slip in a slice of pork as a test: pork shouldlightly brown in about 1 minute. Place 6 pork sliceson Chinese strainer, and lower into oil, strainer andall. Check in 2 minutes (browning should take slightlylonger than test because strainer cools the oil). Ifyou prefer to fry in larger batches, use more oil.Remove fried pork to warm platter, uncovered.

Finish: Reheat sauce, and pour over pork just beforeserving.