Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

There are many varieties of this famous Chinese sauce, but mainly the sweet and sour sauce is made with sugar, rice vinegar and a little salt, in addition to other occasions and depending on the version it also usually contains tomato concentrate, ketchup, fruit juice, spices. and aromatic herbs ...

The flavor of the sweet and sour sauce can be modified:

For example, you can use 5 parts of sugar for 4 parts of rice vinegar, although it can be modified to taste, for example 5: 5 or 4: 5 depending on whether you like it sweeter or more acidic.

How to use:

It can be used to "Dip" accompanying Asian appetizers, for example any type of frying such as: Chinese rolls or prawn rolls, Lumpiang Shanghai, Fried chicken, nuggets or batters.

Another way is to use the sweet and sour sauce is as a part of the recipe, using it to flavor our dishes when cooking, such as Sweet and Sour Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork and many more.

Preparation of Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe:

The bittersweet sauce is a type of traditional sauce of oriental cuisine, used many centuries ago in it, and that today we can find in recipes of any world gastronomy and we can also easily find it already prepared in any supermarket, since it has been been used more and more by kitchens around the world. There are many dishes that we can accompany with it, especially the typical dishes that are usually served in Chinese restaurants, such as rice, meat and fried foods, among other preparations. Below we detail step by step how to prepare a rich sweet and sour sauce at home, with this recipe that is simple to make and with great results.

In preparing it, we will use a not very large pot, of an adequate size for the amounts of ingredients that we are going to use. In it we will first add the vinegar, water, soy sauce, ketchup and sugar, and we will heat everything over medium heat, stirring so that all the ingredients are mixed as they heat up. Once the previous mixture begins to have a good temperature, we will add the cornstarch and stir well until it is integrated with the rest of the sauce, so that there are no lumps, which we can do using a rod.

We always keep over medium heat until the sauce begins to boil, since we do not want it to boil quickly, and in the meantime we do not stop stirring it so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot or lumps form. If we want to prepare a bittersweet sauce a little thicker, we will add a little more cornstarch so that it thickens more once we have it already prepared, but we do it at this time, since being hot it will absorb the cornstarch well and it will mix well without forming lumps, something that must always be avoided.

Finally, we test the resulting sauce in case we want to rectify the point of any ingredient until it has the flavor we want to achieve. Once it is completely ready, we remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. When it is at room temperature we can serve our sweet and sour sauce, or if you prefer you can also use it hot, however you like to drink it, although the most common is to take it cold rather than hot. The sauce that is left over after serving it on the table, we can keep it in a closed jar in the fridge, where we can keep it for several days without problems, so if you usually drink it you can prepare a good amount to have for several times.

Servings / Units: 1
Approximate Preparation Time: 15M
Approximate Calories: 160

Sweet and sour pork versions

Basically there are different different ways to prepare it, the most popular are:

Sweet and sour pork or “Tang Cu Li Ji”, this recipe belongs to the Chinese cuisine of Zhejiang, which is one of the eight main cuisines of China. The characteristics of this version of sweet and sour pork are its bright red color, its sweet and sour taste and its crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Sweet and sour pork with pineapple or “Gu Lao Rou”, this recipe belongs to the Cantonese Chinese cuisine of Guandong. In addition to pineapple, it also has red pepper and green pepper. If you are interested in this version, you can see my sweet and sour chicken recipe, since it is the same, you only have to change the main chicken ingredient for pork tenderloin or sirloin.

Ingredients for 4 people:

To marinate

500 gr. Pork loin
1 egg
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 pinch Salt
White pepper

For the sweet and sour sauce

1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch of salt
cornstarch dissolved in water

To batter

50 gr. Wheat flour
50 gr. Cornstarch

To decorate

Sesame seeds

To fry

Vegetable oil

Preparation of Sweet and sour pork "Tang Cu Li Ji":

Step 1: Marinate the pork

a) Cut the pork into strips and put it in a bowl.

b) Add light soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, an egg, salt and white pepper. We stir it well, cover it and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2: Steal the pig

We batter the pork in a mixture, half of all-purpose wheat flour and half of cornstarch.

Step 3: fry the pork

a) In abundant vegetable oil over medium heat, about 160 ºC, fry the pork until it is cooked, it will take 4 to 5 minutes.

b) We remove it to a rack or absorbent paper.

c) We go up to high heat, about 190 ºC and we fry it again until it is golden brown and crisp.

Step 4

In a frying pan with a drizzle of vegetable oil, we fry the garlic. We add water, rice vinegar, ketchup, light soy sauce, sugar, salt and mix everything well.

Step 5

Little by little we add a mixture of cornstarch with water to thicken the sauce. We add our pork, mix everything well and serve it immediately.

We serve the sweet and sour pork on a plate, put roasted sesame seeds on top and it is ready to eat alone or with freshly cooked white rice.