13 February, 2013

Sweet and Sour -- from scratch

One of the things you learn to do when you go overseas to live, is make dishes you love from scratch, because you're rarely going to get them any other way.

Sweet and Sour is one dish that's worked well for us. I don't make it so often anymore, because of the bitter complaints from 3/5 of the family. Only David and I enjoy the delicious sauce. Therefore I don't make them eat it. I cook the meat separately and keep some unadulterated for them to eat (last night they committed sacrilegious culinary errors by putting tomato sauce (US=ketchup) on the chicken, imagine that?).

In any case, someone asked for my recipe, so here it is.

Sweet and Sour Chicken/Pork/Beef

Meat (for the five of us I usually use about a kilogram and get a nice amount of leftovers)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 capsicum (US=pepper, I think)

Sauce

125 ml pineapple juice
125 ml white vinegar
80 g sugar
30 ml tomato sauce (US=ketchup)
about 4 teaspoons of cornflour
1 cup pineapple pieces
1 dessertspoon soy sauce

  1. Cut meat into small pieces or strips and dry fry quickly in pan. Remove meat from pan.
  2. Saute sliced onion and capsicum in a little oil.
  3. Add thinly sliced carrot and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. 
  4. Combine vinegar, sugar, pineapple juice and tomato sauce. Blend cornflour into these.
  5. Add sauce to pan. Stir until thickened.
  6. Add cooked meat.
  7. Add soy sauce and pineapple pieces just before serving, allowing only time for the pineapple to heat up.
  8. Serve with rice and additional vegetables.
See, it's easy and doesn't take too long! And the aroma is something to be believed. I had a hard time not salivating in the pan last night!

1 comment:

Remya said...

This looks Yum! trying this out!!thanks Wendy! Remya