Sweet and sour sauce
Sweet and sour sauce star rating of 5 out of 5. Put everything except the cornflour into a small saucepan and cook over a medium heat, while whisking, until just simmering. Add the cornflour to a small bowl, add 1 tbsp water and mix together. Pour into the saucepan and whisk together until thickened and saucy.
This website is published by Immediate Media Company Limited under licence from BBC Studios Distribution. Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Sweet and sour dishes, sauces, and cooking methods have a long history in China.
Chinese province of Henan, but the sauce in this area is a light vinegar and sugar mixture not resembling what most people, including the Chinese, would call sweet and sour. This style of using sauces is popular amongst Chinese who tie certain sauces to particular meats such as chili and soy for shrimp and vinegar and garlic for goose. China, also find their way in Chinese cuisine. In China traditionally the sauces are made from mixing sugar or honey with a sour liquid such as rice vinegar, soy sauce, and spices such as ginger and cloves. Sometimes a paste made from tomatoes is used but this is rare and normally restricted to Western cooking. Cantonese sweet and sour sauce is the direct ancestor of the sauce of the same name in the West, and was originally developed for sweet and sour pork. Leung, suggests to contemporary eateries not to resort to cheap bulk manufactured versions of vinegar, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, or the sauce will risk being too sharp in taste and might break the balance of flavours.
He suggests the more acidic white rice vinegar could be replaced with apple cider vinegar, and ketchup and Worcestershire sauce should be of renowned gourmet brands. The fish body of Siniperca chuatsi is scored such that it fans out when cooked, similar in appearance to a bushy squirrel tail. The fish is served with a sweet and sour sauce drizzled on top and garnished with a little shrimp meat and dried bamboo shoots. A speciality of Shandong province, in particular the city of Jinan, the Yellow River carp is prepared by making diagonal slices partway through its flesh. It is next coated in corn flour then deep fried causing the fish to curl and the slices to open out. Finally a sweet and sour sauce is poured over the cooked fish.
Sweet and sour sauces have been used in English cuisine since the Middle Ages, with recipes for sweet and sour meat and fish in the 1390 cookery book The Forme of Cury. In French cuisine, a sweet and sour sauce base made from sugar and vinegar is a gastrique. Aigre-doux” is a sweet and sour sauce in general. Agrodolce is made by reducing sour and sweet elements, traditionally vinegar and sugar. In Filipino cuisine, sweet and sour sauces are known as agre dulce or Filipino sweet and sour sauce. Sweet and sour chicken is a dish frequently served in Chinese restaurants in various countries in Oceania, Europe, North America and South America, and is available at some restaurants in East Asia and Southeast Asia in an essentially identical version. The dish generally comprises cubes of white meat chicken deep-fried in batter and served with sweet and sour sauce.
Sometimes it is topped with pineapple, green pepper, carrot, or sweet pickles. Sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish particularly popular in westernised Cantonese cuisine and may be found all over the world. Western cultures use sweet and sour sauce in two different ways. Dishes can either include the sauce as an ingredient in cooking or use the sauce as a pour-over or dipping sauce for the meal. Chinese restaurants in Western countries commonly serve chicken, pork, or shrimp that has been battered and deep-fried, then served with a sweet and sour sauce poured over the meat.
It is also common to find the sweet and sour sauce cooked with sliced green peppers, onions and pineapple before it is poured over the meat. Many western dishes involve cooking the meat with a variety of ingredients to make a complete sweet and sour dish in the manner of the Gu lo yuk. The most popular dishes are those of pork and shrimp. Common in Western sweet and sour sauce is the addition of fruits such as pineapple and vegetables such as sweet pepper and green onions. Primarily in North America, sweet and sour sauce is available in small plastic packets or containers at Chinese take-out establishments for use as a dipping sauce. A number of variations are used in barbecue cuisine, either home-made or prepared from a number of common brands.
