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sweet and sour recipe
I was asked if I'd post this, so here it is. This is how we make sweet and sour in the House of J.
One caveat, however: a lot of it is how ever much of an ingredient you have lying around/feel like putting in. Like, I can't tell you how much meat we actually use, because it varies from time to time, so the amount I'm going to give is complete guess work.
~
What you need:
- a large frying pan or wok
- 250g cooked pork (we use leftovers from a roast joint). You could use other (precooked or not) meat, or veggies (which will bring the cooking time down somewhat).
- one average sized onion
- chopped garlic (I use the stuff from a jar)
- demerara sugar (though you can use others, if you prefer)
- cornflour
- malt vinegar
- 250g (ish) can of pineapple, either rings or chunks (chunks saves you chopping it up, though)
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- one tube of tomato purée
- a small amount of fat, but this is not necessary.
- 3 to 4 handfuls of rice, depending on how many people you're serving (this does enough rice for two). Also depending on how big your hands are ;)
The entire thing will serve three people decently, and four people okay-ish.
Preparation plus cooking time is approximately forty-five minutes.
What to do:
Before you start - place the rice, plus a small amount of salt into a separate pan. Fill the pan with water to about halfway up. This is just to save faffing about when it comes time to put the rice onto cook.
1. Place the fat (if using) into your wok. Skin and chop your onion into chunks. Chuck in as much garlic as you want. Fry this off in the pan.
2. While the onions are cooking, chop up your meat/vegetables. I like quite chunky pieces, though obviously you don't want to make them too big, or they won't cook through.
3. Put your rice on to boil.
4. This is the most handwavy part of the recipe. Ultimately it depends on how sweet/sour you want the end product to be. I like sour stuff, so I tend to load the vinegar. I'll write down what I usually do, though, and then you can decide for yourself.
4a. Put two and a half tablespoons of demerara sugar into the pan. If you're not using demerara, you may want to use less sugar here. Stir it into the rest of the mixture in the pan. Give it a couple of minutes before the next step, so that the sugar caramelises a little bit.
4b. Make sure the vinegar bottle is open because cornflour gets everywhere, and you're not going to want to put your spoon down if you can help it.
Put one and a half tablespoons of cornflour into the pan. Again, this depends on how runny/thick you want your sauce to end up. Two and a half makes a really good, thick sauce.
DO NOT MIX IT IN YET.
Add four tablespoons of vinegar to the pan. If it sploshes over the edge of the spoon, that's okay. This makes the sauce quite sharp, so if you're not as fond of sour things as me, I suggest putting less in.
Give that a good mix. Don't worry if the cornflour clumps, it's going to do that, and we're going to fix it with the next few steps.
5. Drain the can of pineapple into a measuring jug, and top up with water to make half a pint of liquid. Pour that into the pan, and stir in until the mixture in the pan looks mixed in. It may be quite stiff at this point, but I think that has to do with how heat and motion affect cornflour. It will also look brownish because of the vinegar. Don't be put off.
6. Open and add the can of tomatoes. Stir in. Also add some of the tomato purée. Again, it's down to taste. I like to put in a good squeeze. Stir that in, too.
7. Chop the pineapple into chunks if you need to. Add to the pan, and stir in.
8. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down low and leave to simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.
9. Turn off all heat sources. Drain rice, and serve!
I typically give four to five large spoonfuls* per person of sweet and sour to three large spoonfuls* of rice, but it's down to how many people you're serving + how hungry you are.
*The spoon I use is larger than a tablespoon. I have no idea how much it actually holds.
~
I hope to high heaven that this makes sense and is followable! I've never written it down before, and wasn't taught from a recipe (I learnt from watching my mum make it; she learnt it from a recipe, though, but adapted it to suit us).
If you have any problems, please let me know, and I will do my level best to solve them for you!
One caveat, however: a lot of it is how ever much of an ingredient you have lying around/feel like putting in. Like, I can't tell you how much meat we actually use, because it varies from time to time, so the amount I'm going to give is complete guess work.
~
What you need:
- a large frying pan or wok
- 250g cooked pork (we use leftovers from a roast joint). You could use other (precooked or not) meat, or veggies (which will bring the cooking time down somewhat).
- one average sized onion
- chopped garlic (I use the stuff from a jar)
- demerara sugar (though you can use others, if you prefer)
- cornflour
- malt vinegar
- 250g (ish) can of pineapple, either rings or chunks (chunks saves you chopping it up, though)
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- one tube of tomato purée
- a small amount of fat, but this is not necessary.
- 3 to 4 handfuls of rice, depending on how many people you're serving (this does enough rice for two). Also depending on how big your hands are ;)
The entire thing will serve three people decently, and four people okay-ish.
Preparation plus cooking time is approximately forty-five minutes.
What to do:
Before you start - place the rice, plus a small amount of salt into a separate pan. Fill the pan with water to about halfway up. This is just to save faffing about when it comes time to put the rice onto cook.
1. Place the fat (if using) into your wok. Skin and chop your onion into chunks. Chuck in as much garlic as you want. Fry this off in the pan.
2. While the onions are cooking, chop up your meat/vegetables. I like quite chunky pieces, though obviously you don't want to make them too big, or they won't cook through.
3. Put your rice on to boil.
4. This is the most handwavy part of the recipe. Ultimately it depends on how sweet/sour you want the end product to be. I like sour stuff, so I tend to load the vinegar. I'll write down what I usually do, though, and then you can decide for yourself.
4a. Put two and a half tablespoons of demerara sugar into the pan. If you're not using demerara, you may want to use less sugar here. Stir it into the rest of the mixture in the pan. Give it a couple of minutes before the next step, so that the sugar caramelises a little bit.
4b. Make sure the vinegar bottle is open because cornflour gets everywhere, and you're not going to want to put your spoon down if you can help it.
Put one and a half tablespoons of cornflour into the pan. Again, this depends on how runny/thick you want your sauce to end up. Two and a half makes a really good, thick sauce.
DO NOT MIX IT IN YET.
Add four tablespoons of vinegar to the pan. If it sploshes over the edge of the spoon, that's okay. This makes the sauce quite sharp, so if you're not as fond of sour things as me, I suggest putting less in.
Give that a good mix. Don't worry if the cornflour clumps, it's going to do that, and we're going to fix it with the next few steps.
5. Drain the can of pineapple into a measuring jug, and top up with water to make half a pint of liquid. Pour that into the pan, and stir in until the mixture in the pan looks mixed in. It may be quite stiff at this point, but I think that has to do with how heat and motion affect cornflour. It will also look brownish because of the vinegar. Don't be put off.
6. Open and add the can of tomatoes. Stir in. Also add some of the tomato purée. Again, it's down to taste. I like to put in a good squeeze. Stir that in, too.
7. Chop the pineapple into chunks if you need to. Add to the pan, and stir in.
8. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down low and leave to simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.
9. Turn off all heat sources. Drain rice, and serve!
I typically give four to five large spoonfuls* per person of sweet and sour to three large spoonfuls* of rice, but it's down to how many people you're serving + how hungry you are.
*The spoon I use is larger than a tablespoon. I have no idea how much it actually holds.
~
I hope to high heaven that this makes sense and is followable! I've never written it down before, and wasn't taught from a recipe (I learnt from watching my mum make it; she learnt it from a recipe, though, but adapted it to suit us).
If you have any problems, please let me know, and I will do my level best to solve them for you!
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Anyway, this sounds delicious <3
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IT IS.