Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple

Add or subtract ingredients according to your own taste - if an ingredient needs to be cooked a bit, add it to the sauce early on, otherwise, toss it in at the end with the more delicate items that just need to be warmed. Mix batter ingredients (except meat) until smooth. Stir in meat and let marinate 15 minutes or longer. Start the sauce: In a large skillet or a Dutch oven, mix the juice/water, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. Heat to boiling. Add the carrots, reduce the heat and simmer until carrots are crisp tender (about 6 minutes). Add the onion. Turn heat low until meat is ready. Prepare meat. Heat some oil (about 2 inches deep) in a saucepan until hot. Fish several meat pieces out of batter and deep fry until deep golden brown. This should take 2 - 3 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in oven until ready to put into sauce. Put it all together, From the Sauce ingredients, mix the 2 Tbsp. cornstarch and 2 Tbsp. cold water together until smooth. Stir into sauce. Turn up heat and bring sauce back to a boil. Boil, stirring gently, 1 - 2 minutes until sauce is thick and no longer cloudy. Mix in the deep fried meat and all the rest of the vegetables. Stir to coat all. (If you've got more here than you can eat in one meal, consider warming the vegetables not already in the sauce and serving the sauce, vegetables and meat in separate bowls, so things don't get soggy and overcooked when reheating for the next go round.) Serve immediately with rice. This makes enough to serve 4 - 6 people.