How to make sweet and sour sauce.
Sweet and sour sauce is linked to Chinese cuisine and can be found in a number of popular dishes in various forms.
The sauce can be used as a glaze to give extra flavour to meat and poultry, as a thin pouring sauce to accompany stir-fried vegetables or as a thick bright coloured dipping sauce for deep-fried chicken, pork or seafood, which is probably how we know it best.
Typical dishes incorporating sweet and sour sauces are sweet and sour pork or chicken balls, sweet and sour prawns or sweet and sour stir-fried vegetables.
Many people find combining sweet and savoury foods together a little strange for their palettes, however, the sweet and sour dishes are possibly the most popular when visiting a Chinese restaurant.
The sauce can be used as a glaze to give extra flavour to meat and poultry, as a thin pouring sauce to accompany stir-fried vegetables or as a thick bright coloured dipping sauce for deep-fried chicken, pork or seafood, which is probably how we know it best.
Typical dishes incorporating sweet and sour sauces are sweet and sour pork or chicken balls, sweet and sour prawns or sweet and sour stir-fried vegetables.
Many people find combining sweet and savoury foods together a little strange for their palettes, however, the sweet and sour dishes are possibly the most popular when visiting a Chinese restaurant.
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All recipes for sweet and sour sauce include sugar, which obviously gives the sweet taste to the sauce, whilst the "sour" is achieved by adding vinegar, and in the more authentic recipes, rice vinegar is used.
Other ingredients include soy sauce, ketchup for the bright red colour and cornstarch mixed with water to give the sauce a thicker texture.
The sauce is extremely simple to make and basically involves mixing all of the ingredients together in a pan, bringing the mixture to the boil, thickening with the cornstarch and then serving with your favourite Chinese dish.
Below is a straightforward recipe, followed by links to several variations for you to try out.
Other ingredients include soy sauce, ketchup for the bright red colour and cornstarch mixed with water to give the sauce a thicker texture.
The sauce is extremely simple to make and basically involves mixing all of the ingredients together in a pan, bringing the mixture to the boil, thickening with the cornstarch and then serving with your favourite Chinese dish.
Below is a straightforward recipe, followed by links to several variations for you to try out.
Easy sweet and sour sauce
Easy sweet and sour sauce
Recipe description
In this simple recipe for sweet and sour sauce rice vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and tomato ketchup are all combined together in a saucepan and cornstarch dissolved in water is added and used as a thickening agent. The ingredients are cooked until the sauce reduces and reaches the desired consistency. Serves: 2 persons
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup of rice vinegar
- 4 tbsp of brown sugar
- 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup
- 2 tsp of cornstarch mixed with 4 tsp of water
- 1 tsp of soy sauce
Method
- Combine the cornstarch with the water, making sure that the cornstarch fully dissolves into the water and set aside.
- Place the rice vinegar, brown sugar, tomato ketchup and soy sauce into a small saucepan, mix together and bring to the boil.
- Add the cornstarch and water mixture and stir all of the ingredients together until the sauce has thickened to the desired consistency.
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