Sweet and sour sauce - general principles and methods of preparation
Which sauce to cook? Sour - too harsh, sweet - sugary, and you can’t bring it to meat. And if you combine these tastes? Then you get a completely new, sweet and sour sauce, playing with different taste faces. This is a fervent sourness and a pleasant bitterness and a sweet soft note. Sauces with sweet and sour taste are in different cuisines - Jewish, Caucasian, but they are most common in Asian, in particular Chinese. Most often, the acidifying agent is lemon, apple, orange juice, sour berries, and the sweetener is honey, jam, sugar. Sweet and sour sauces will revive the fresh taste of boiled meat and are just perfect for fatty meat, making it more digestible for the stomach.
Sweet and sour sauce - preparation of products
If starch is included, it is diluted in water before being added to the sauce. Otherwise, the products for this sauce do not require special preparation, the ingredients are simply mixed and thermally processed.
Sweet and sour sauce - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Chinese Sweet and Sour Sauce
To try real Chinese sweet and sour sauce, it is not necessary to go to China or visit a Chinese restaurant. It can be prepared without leaving the apartment. It is very popular not only in China, but also in our country. Its success lies in its amazing taste and versatility, absolutely everything can be seasoned with this sauce. He will spice up both vegetables and meat and fish. Brown sugar will certainly be very appropriate, but if not, replace it with regular sugar.
Ingredients: ginger root (five centimeters slice), 2 tablespoons each - brown sugar, ketchup, water and soy sauce, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp. vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. l starch and table vinegar (6%), 1 onion, 150 ml fruit juice (with sourness - apple, orange).
Cooking method
Fry in vegetable oil, laying alternately, finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger. Pour in soy sauce, vinegar, add sugar, ketchup and juice. Stir and let it boil a little. Dilute starch with water and pour into a bubbling sauce. Bring to a boil, as it begins to thicken, turn off. Done!
Recipe 2: Sweet and Sour Meat Sauce
An interesting option for making sauce with slices of pickles. And sour and sweet and sharp, and in a word - delicious. And original. They serve it directly on a plate or separately, in special bowls and sauces. Cucumbers should be finely chopped, so the number in spoons is indicated in the recipe.
Ingredients: pickles - 3 tbsp., 2 tsp. starch, sugar and cognac, 0.5 tsp each. ground ginger (spices) and wine vinegar (can table 6%), a spoon grows. oil, 1 tsp tomato paste.
Cooking method
Moisten the pan slightly with vegetable oil, pouring a lot is not worth it. Heat oil and put cucumbers, simmer for five minutes.
In a bowl, mix the remaining ingredients and gradually add water, stirring the mass. Water will require approximately 1.5-2 cups - look at the consistency so that when the starch is brewed, it is not too thick or liquid. Add this mixture to the cucumbers and simmer for about five minutes over low heat.
Recipe 3: Sweet and Sour Red Currant Sauce
Tasty, unusual and absolutely natural, this sauce is the best suited for boiled meat, tongue, fat brisket. If it’s not the season, it can be prepared without mint or cherry leaves. But they bring a touch of astringency and a specific aroma. Fans of spicy can sprinkle a sauce with a pinch of another hot chili pepper.
Ingredients: red currant - 0.5 cups, water - 0.5 cup, half of the medium onion, creamy little - 25 g, salt, a couple of cherry leaves and a sprig of mint, 3-4 peppercorns and a couple of cloves (spices).
Cooking method
Heat water, add butter, sugar. As it dissolves, put currants, mint, spices. Stew until the currants give juice. Do not close the lid, make the fire bigger.
Finely chop the cherry leaves and onions, put in the sauce and stew. The sauce should thicken and the onions become softer. Cook, covered with a lid, over low heat. To salt.
Sweet and Sour Food Dishes
Recipe 1: Sweet and Sour Meatballs
The recipe for delicious hedgehogs is borrowed from Jewish cuisine. After all, sweet and sour sauce is not only China. You can take any meat. If no broth is at hand, dissolve the meat or chicken cube in water.
Ingredients: Meatballs: minced meat - 1 kg, rice - 0.5 cups, 2 eggs, salt and pepper. Sauce: 0.8l of broth, tomato paste - 1 table. l., sugar - 2 tbsp., honey - 1 teaspoon. spoon, salt, a pinch of citric acid, peas, 3 tablespoons of rye crackers.
Cooking method
Mix the minced meat, uncooked rice (no need to boil) and eggs, salt, pepper and knead. Roll round meatballs, fry them in oil, do not have to bring to readiness, just fry them.
Mix in a saucepan all the ingredients for the sauce, except for rye crackers, and bring to a boil. Add meatballs and simmer for 15 minutes. Now the turn of crackers has come. They make the sauce thicker and add extra acidity. Pour them into the pan and boil for another 15 minutes. Prepare meatballs with the lid closed.
Recipe 2: Sweet and Sour Chicken Wings
What can be cooked from chicken wings? Correctly, soot, bake in the grill, brown on the grill. It is tasty, but requires special equipment. You can still fry. It's fast, but commonplace, but I want something new. Why not cook them in sweet and sour sauce? Fast, original, simple. A new taste will be given to the dish by a sauce consisting of three ingredients - honey, lemon, soy sauce. Try it, you should like it.
Ingredients: chicken wings, soy sauce, honey - 1 tablespoon, lemon.
Cooking method
Fry the wings with the addition of a small amount of oil on both sides. Pour soy sauce into the pan so that it covers the wings by a third or slightly less than half. Add honey and juice of half a lemon. Simmer until the wings are soft on low heat, periodically turning them over. Try the sauce to taste, you may want to adjust it by increasing or decreasing the amount of honey and lemon juice.
