Thursday 17 February 2011
Sweet and Sour Chicken and Pineapple
I HATE the sweet and sour stuff you get at most Chinese restaurants - way too sweet AND sour, with a gloopy sauce. Most recipes sound gross too, with pineapple juice, too much vinegar and huge quantities of sugar. But, we had some lovely fresh pineapple in the house, so I thought, why not try to make it with a lot of these elements reined in? And it worked - we ended up with a lovely dish of delicate, subtle falvours and textures, and I am quite converted to this now. Here's what I did, for two people. I made the sauce first by dissolving a dessertspoon of honey and a teaspoon of tomato puree in 1/4 of a pint of boiling water in a jug. To this, I added 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar (but any white vinegar would do), along with 2 teaspoons of sweet chilli sauce, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce (I use reduced sodium) and stir well. Now add a clove of garlic, grated or finely chopped, and about an inch of fresh ginger, grated. Top it up to 1/2 a pint with cold water, and then whisk in a heaped teaspoon of cornflour, and set aside. Get on with your stir-fry - I used sliced chicken breasts, red onions and a red pepper, but you can use pork, mange touts, courgettes, anything that takes your fancy. I also chopped about a quarter of a fresh pineapple into medium chunks - do use fresh, as I think tinned is too sweet and mushy. Stir-fry everything in the usual way in a really hot wok, then at the end, add the sauce and let it bubble and glaze everything for a minute. Sprinkle with a little crushed dried red chilli for even more 'poke' if liked. Serve with rice. Lovely, piquant meal and miles better than commercial sweet 'n' sours!
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I'm definitely goijg to try this at the weekend or next week in half term. It looks delicious and I, too, dislike the commercial sauces.
ReplyDeleteJ x
do try it Joy, very fresh and delicious. Do taste the mix and adjust the sweetness or sourness to taste with either more honey or more vinegar. A little extra soy or some salt can balance the flavours too. Let me know how you get on!
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