[QUOTE="asumodeusu, post: 23856, member: 40691"]I am very interested in the "
Sweet and sour pork/fish" recipe, that sounds so delicious that I had to make this my first post on the forum.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE="Laina53, post: 23860, member: 182"]
Azrarillian I think we won't need more than one basket considering that we'll just be frying for the two of us! I did continue to search those brands, and it made me realize the fryer I grew up with was a Presto Fry Daddy that worked very well for us for at least a decade! Also Cohh usually gets sweet and sour chicken when we get Chinese food, so that will definitely be a recipe I'll try!!
[/QUOTE]
Happy to hear that. I called my mom for the recipe, so here it is. It's a very simple, but versatile recipe.
Usually Asian sweet and sour can be split into three parts:
- The protein
- You can use any protein you want. Pork, beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, lobster, squid, or even tofu if you want to make a vegetarian dish. Whatever protein you choose, make sure to cut it into 1 inch or 1½ pieces. If the meat is really delicate, like some fish are, you can cut it a bit bigger, or fry/bake it whole and serve it with the vegetables and sauce on top.
- The vegetables
- You can use nearly any vegetable you want, just make sure to cut all the vegetables into the same size and thickness (usually 1 inch long, 1/4 inch thick at most). Traditional vegetables are: Carrots, Cucumber (deseeded),broccoli, celery, bell peppers, cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower, sugar peas. It is also quite common to add pineapple. The vegetables are stir fried in a very hot wok or pan, with a little bit of neutral oil (groundnut oil or grapeseed oil - don't use oils with a lot of flavor, such as olive oil or sesame oil).
- The sauce
- Traditionally, Chinese sweet and sour sauce is a mixture of sugar/honey with a sharp and acidic liquid, such as vinegar and/or soy sauce. It's only in the more contemporary years that tomato paste has been added to the sauce. A really good way to get an understanding of the sauce is actually the wikipedia page.
These three parts are prepared separately and then mixed at the end. Sometimes, especially with fish dishes, the meat will be dipped in batter and fried whole, and then the sauce and vegetables are poured atop at the table. I once saw a whole fish which had been dipped in batter and fried, and then "posed" as if it was still wriggling on the plate. It looked like something from the underworld...
Anyway. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients serves 4-6:
The Meat
- 1 pound meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white sugar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon potato starch (or cornstarch)
Step 1 - Marinade
Mix the soy sauce, water, starch, sugar and salt and marinate the meat with it for at least an hour, preferably over night.
- 1/2 cup all purpose (plain) flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch or potato starch
Step 2 - Frying
Once the meat has marinated, mix the all purpose flour with the starch and put it in a bowl. Then take the meat, one or two pieces at a time, and dip it in the flour mix, to coat the meat. make sure it is properly coated, and set it aside for frying.
If you have a fryer, set the oil to 170 degrees celsius (340 fahrenheit) and fry the coated meat for a minute or two - until the meat starts to float at the top of the oil. Don't fry too much meat at a time, since this will lower the temperature of the oil a lot. Set the fried meat aside on paper to drain the excess oil.
After all the meat has been fried, raise the temperature to 200 C (400 F), then fry the meat one more time, until they are crispy and golden.
Set the meat aside until later.
The Sauce
As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways to make a sweet and sour sauce, and I recommend you experiment if you want. I've used my moms recipe here, but if you want you can exchange the tinned tomatoes with ketchup, plum sauce or plum jelly mixed with a bit of water.
The most important bit is to taste the sauce all the time, so that you can perfect the flavor to your suiting. Also, my mom uses rice wine vinegar, but you can also use other vinegar's, such as apple cider vinegar, which is a little bit less sharp.
- 1 small onion or ½ big onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- (optional) an inch of peeled ginger
- two tins of tomato (plum tomato are the best for this)
- rice wine vinegar
- soy sauce
- oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Cut the onion and the garlic (and ginger) into small pieces, or blend into a paste.
In a pot, heat a tbsp of oil and fry the onion and garlic (and ginger) for 30 seconds to a minute at medium heat.
Add the tomato to the pot and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. add the vinegar, soysauce and oyster sauce while tasting, to make it perfect for you. season with salt and pepper.
At this point, take a glass and put the cornstarch in it and mix with cold water. Add the starched water to the sauce a little bit at a time to thicken it. It should have the thickness of a syrup, not too thick, but not completely watery. If you want, you can blend the sauce to make it nice and smooth.
The Vegetables
For vegetables, you can pretty much get whatever you want, but here is what my mom usually got.
- 1 onion
- 1 cucumber
- 1 or 2 bell pepper
- 1 big carrot or 2 small ones
- 1 chili pepper
- (sometimes ginger)
Step 1 - Cutting the vegetables
Cut the vegetables into similar sizes and shapes. I've included a few images to illustrate, since that should be more useful than a drawnout explanation. All that really matters, is that they are of roughly same length and thickness. if you add any garlic or ginger, make sure to cut this quite thoroughly or even blend it to a paste. image1 image2 image3
Step 2 - Stir Frying
Get a wok, or a big pan or pot and add 1 tbsp of a neutral (flavorless) oil and heat it up until it is quite hot (though not smoking).
Add in your vegetables one at a time according to denseness - for example carrot, then onion, then celery and then the rest.
Saute the vegetables for 3-4 minutes, or until they are tender, but still with a bit of bite and texture.
remember that they will still cook, even after being removed from heat.
After the vegetables have been stir fried, add in the meat and sauce, reheat it and serve with white rice or noodles.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the recipe. The good thing about sweet and sour, is that the meat and the sauce can be frozen, so that you can save it for another time. I've also got quite a lot of other Indonesian and Chinese recipes, so if you're ever interested, just send me a message.
Also - today (February 19th) is the Chinese new year, so...
Happy new year from
AzraRillian
