Sweet and Sour chicken, pork or beef are such favorite foods to order in a restaurant. The crisply deep-fried batter enclosing tender meaty chinks, and the whole moistened with a delicious shining sauce that has that indescribable tang, is one of the delights of modern Western Chinese restaurant cuisine.
It is of course perfectly possible to buy bottled Chinese sweet-and-sour sauce to use with stir-fries at home. But why would you? when it is so much cheaper to make it yourself, so easy to do, and it keeps so well if you don't thicken it until you are ready to use it.
My mission is to encourage home cooks to take charge of their food and that of their families, and only offer dishes that you have absolute knowledge of what they contain. Bottled sauces are a prime target because they mostly contain MSG, too much salt, too much sugar, too-cheap ingredients and are mass-produced in a way that beats to death any fresh produce that MAY find its way in there.
Sweet-and-sour sauce is simple and uses everyday ingredients that you very likely already have in your fridge or pantry. Here's a video showing me making a batch of my own sweet and sour sauce:
Here's the recipe that I used for the video:
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup shredded ginger
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 3 cups chicken stock (or water; if so use an extra 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp cornflour
Method
Place all ingredients except cornflour in a saucepan over medium heat.
Bring to a boil, stirring.
Reduce heat and simmer for at least 10 minutes until a slightly thick consistency is reached.
If storing, stop here.
When ready to use, reheat the sauce until boiling.
Make a slurry of the cornflour with 1 tsp water and add to the hot sauce, stirring until it thickens.
Use in stir-fries and as a dipping sauce.
For more sweet and sour sauce videos, please visit:sweet and sour sauce Recipes Video Blog.
