wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (01/09/86)
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