slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) (03/08/86)
Well, folks, here's the sweet and sour sauce recipes I got in response to my plea. Wish I could say I've tried them all and found a winner, but my cooking has been rather limited lately. I will get around to all of them eventually, though. Thanks to all who responded. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan's Kwiky Sweet & Sour Sauce 1/2 cup of pineapple juice (preferably drained from a small can of Dole pineapple chunks in REAL juice) 1/4 cup of white vinegar 1/4 cup of brown sugar (being lazy, I use granulated) 1 Tblsp. corn/sunflower/vegatable oil 1 tsp. soy sauce I just stir together in a Pyrex measuring cup and cook in my microwave 2-3 minutes with a little stirring when it looks like it needs it. (I told you it was kwik!) PS....If you ever feel as lazy as I do when it comes to cooking, I just pour this sauce over a casserole of 1 green pepper chopped in large chunks, the pineapple chunks, and four chopped-up hot dogs, with chopped onion and/or mushrooms being optional. Now THAT's LAZY!!!!!!!!............ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Refer to your sweet & sour sauce recipe searching I don't know what special kind of sweet & sour sauce you are looking for and there are so many different kinds of sweet & sour sauce that apply to different kinds of chinese food. Therefore I am listing two of them my wife usually cooKs at home for your refrence. Simple red sweet & sour sauce(applies to fried fish or fried pork mostly): Things to be prepered : Oil(vegetable or corn oil), ketchup, sugar. <Proprotion> oil : ketchup : sugar = 1 : 3 : 3 Step 1 : Heat the oil in pan. Step 2 : Put ketchup into pan mixed up with oil, then sugar. If you like the taste of this sauce, here is the complicated one I usually have at home. Step 1 : Heat the oil in pan. Step 2 : Fry the chopped onions in pan until the smell of onions come out. Then put chopped carrots, peas into pan. Step 3 : Put above simple sauce into pan. There is another sweet & sour sauce which applies to chopped ribs. Things to be prepered : Chopped ribs - 1lb Wine - 1 tablespoon (* Usually rice wine.) Vinegar - 2 tablespoon Sugar - 3 tablespoon Soybean sauce - 4 tablespoon Water - 5 tablespoon Step 1 : Fry the ribs(nothingelse) in pan until they are about 60% - 70% done. Step 2 : Put rest of the stuff into pan. Cover the pan and let it boil 5 to 10 minutes until the sauce goes into ribs and becomes sticky. Good luck and I hope you will like them. Norman Li ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sweet and sour sauce? The recipe I use is from "1001 Chinese Recipes", which while not being the greatest in precision (a lot of "add 1 cup vegetables", and then giving a list of possibiliies), seems to have a lot of good stuff. The recipe goes like this: You need: peanut oil (or any polunsaturated oil) 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup vinegar 1 cup water 1 Tbs soy sauce 1 Tbs chopped ginger 1 cup "vegetables" (the selection I recommend is: pineapple, carrots, mushrooms, green peppers and red peppers--and use 1 1/2 cups) 1 Tbs corn starch to do: saute the "vegetables" and ginger in the oil until just off raw, add the water, the vinegar, and the soy sauce. Heat until boiling. Add the sugar, dissolve, add the corn starch and reduce heat to simmer until it thickens. Hope this helps... Laurie Sefton ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, here it is. I don't know where my cousin got this recipe, but I like it better than any other I've tried, including Chef Chu's (owner of a Chinese restaurant in Los Altos, CA and author of a really good chinese cookbook). BTW, this sauce is reddish-orange. I usually double the recipe. 2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup catsup 1/2 cup pineapple juice (from small can chunk pineapple) 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar 1 tsp. soy sauce small green pepper, cut into 1/2" pieces ginger, crushed or sliced, to taste (I don't use any) Bring all ingredients to a boil, add pineapple chunks, and thicken with cornstarch paste. Jonathan Hue ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- For making sweet & sour sauce, I began with the recipe in one of my Chinese cookbooks, and then started modifying. It is never the same twice, of course. I save (freeze) the juice from "natural" pack pineapple, and use it as one of the primary ingredients. Try mixing together roughly equal amounts of that juice, plain ordinary vinegar, and ordinary catsup (ketchup, if you prefer :-). I usually microwave that for a while, and then mix in some cornstarch that has been blended with water, to act as a thickener. As you cook that, it jels up. You can vary the thickness by adjusting the ingredient amounts, of course. It seems to keep indefinitely in the refrigerator, and is good for dipping deepfried anything. If you like it sweeter, use pineapple syrup (that is, the juice from pineapple packed in sugar syrup instead of "natural"), or add sugar to the original liquids. This is a good way to use up that three-year-old catsup in the back of your refrigerator! Regards, Will I forgot to mention that I also mix crushed red pepper into the liquids before cooking the sauce. (I put crushed red in *everything*, so I forget to mention it!) I think I'll try throwing in a little onion powder, too, next time I make it. (Nothing like overkill to improve a dish, right?) If you use generic catsup, after all, it won't have much in it to flavor the sauce, so it might be good to play around with some spices. I would consider practically anything: oregano, thyme, basil, or mixtures like fines herbes or bouquet garni might be good starting points. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am very fond of the recipe in The Key to Chinese Cooking (I think that's the one -- by Irene Kuo?). It has never been too thin for me; the sourness might be a matter of taste, but I like it. Try it again, perhaps adding more sugar or pineapple juice instead of some of the water. And cornstarch can be tricky; a more acid sauce will thicken better (I think I was told). Laurie --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello... There is a particularly good Sweet & Sour sauce recipe in the Betty Crocker Chinese Cooking cookbook. It's by LeAnn Chin... I've made it several times..follow the directions and it comes out perfect each time. But...as you say, it doesn't look the red color I'm used to... a little red food coloring fixes this up if you don't mind whatever chemicals they use to make food coloring. Hmm...the sauce recipe is listed under the recipe for Sweet & Sour Pork...the batter which is also excellent. -Dan A. Dickey --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Currently, I am on the prowl for the perfect sweet and sour sauce. I have >a recipe from my mother which tastes pretty good, but is rather yellowish >green, which is a little disconcerting. I tried the recipe in "Key to Chinese >.... If you like your mother's version, try adding a little red food coloring, it should turn it orangish-brown, depending on how much you use. If the only thing wrong is the color, that ought to fix it. Michelle Manning ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sue- This is from a free school class I took in 1981. Sweet & Sour sauce 3 T malt vinegar 2 T sugar 2 T catsup pinch black pepper pinch salt pineapple juice + water to make .5 cup 1.5 - 2 t corn starch 1 small green pepper, sliced 1 small tomato, sliced 8 oz can pineapple chunks 10- 12 cherries Heat in non-metallic pan Batter mix .75 C rice flour .25 C corn starch .5 t salt .5 t baking soda .5 t baking powder 1 egg + beer to make .75 C liquid add meat, let set at least .5 hour, deep fry. Jim Homer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love a sweet and sour sauce that they use in a manderin restaraunt in Iowa City, IA. I have been trying to get it from either them or at least the name of the manufacturer, but so far no luck. I am told though, that they are a very big chinese restaraunt supplier. I would love to try any of your recipes. I'll try anything, as here in Oregon they don't have the type of s&s sauce I like (I forget what it's called...). Sean Kamath ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Sue Brezden ihnp4!drutx!slb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nirvana? That's a place where the powers that be and their friends hang out. --Zonker Harris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~