Home Made sweet and sour sauce

Noozan

halloweenqueen wrote:

I'd really like to make the sweet and sour sauce that you get with the chicken balls from the chinese takeaway, I don't mind how long it takes me to cook to get that takeaway taste! Can anyone help? Theres just that hint of ginger in it mmmn...breakfast!!!

The recipe varies from each place but to do ours....

(Not sure of quantities so scale it down as you see fit)

Big pot with 20 litres of vinegar and 5 bags of sugar. This gets simmered for several hours with all the trimmings from red and green peppers, ends of lemons and oranges, apple peelings and about a 1lb of root ginger - unpeeled and given a good bashing to release juice. Powdered food colouring is also added at this point*. It then gets left to cool and is stored in a big vat for a minimum of two weeks before use. During this time, any juice from tins of pineapple is added to it. When it's needed, it gets heated to boiling point and cornflour solution is added to thicken and bits of pineapple and pepper added at this point too.


*About a year ago, we tried to cut out food colouring on this sauce, the BBQ sauce, spare ribs and roast pork but so many people complained that the it didn't taste "right", we ended up having to use it again. I think it's psychology thing and it's a shame as it really doesn't taste any different!

halloweenqueen_2

Thanks for that Noozan, is it white vinegar or the brown stuff? I have to add red colouring when i make char sui pork or it doesn't look right! Do you strain it after the storing of it as the takeaway stuff is always smooth?:D

Noozan

halloweenqueen wrote:

Thanks for that Noozan, is it white vinegar or the brown stuff? I have to add red colouring when i make char sui pork or it doesn't look right! Do you strain it after the storing of it as the takeaway stuff is always smooth?:D

We use distilled white vinegar - I'm sure I've seen it in 5 litre bottles in the fruit shop. It's strained before it gets reheated for thickening (sorry, forgot to mention that in first post!), but any vinegar mix not needed for immediate use is kept with the bits in it steeping.

halloweenqueen_2

Thanks Noozan, will scale it down a bit or I won't have a pan big enough, can you have too many veg trimmings in or the more the merrier!?

halloweenqueen_2

While I'm on a roll - whats the secret to the chicken ball batter/recipe - mine are never 'quite right'

Curry_Queen

For those struggling with the math, I've worked it out to make approx a pint of sauce

1 bottle sarsons white vinegar (568ml)
125g sugar
10g root ginger

plus trimmings etc ...

HTH

BTW, thanks for posting that Noozan :T


Edit: for anyone following this recipe and using my scaled down ingredients above please remember that you also need to add pineapple juice to sweeten it as well as adding the trimmings. Apologies for not making that clear beforehand

Curry_Queen

halloweenqueen wrote:

While I'm on a roll - whats the secret to the chicken ball batter/recipe - mine are never 'quite right'

I think it's cornflour, egg white and soy sauce ... called velveting ... but I'm sure Noozan will either confirm or give us a different recipe

Noozan

halloweenqueen wrote:

Thanks Noozan, will scale it down a bit or I won't have a pan big enough, can you have too many veg trimmings in or the more the merrier!?

The more the merrier!

halloweenqueen wrote:

While I'm on a roll - whats the secret to the chicken ball batter/recipe - mine are never 'quite right'

If you want the batter for regular balls - Self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, very cold water, mixed to double cream type consistency, add splash of oil, mix again, leave for about an hour before using. Use very hot and very fresh oil to deep fry.

For the "Hong Kong Style" batter - dip meat in egg, cornflour, egg, cornflour and fry. You can also do egg, cornflour, egg, cornflour, egg for a slightly different finish (This also doesn't make the oil so messy)

Curry_Queen wrote:

For those struggling with the math, I've worked it out to make approx a pint of sauce

1 bottle sarsons white vinegar (568ml)
125g sugar
10g root ginger

plus trimmings etc ...

HTH

BTW, thanks for posting that Noozan :T

Thanks for scaling it down Curry Queen! Don't forget to dilute the vinegar solution with juice or it will be very sour!


*Noozan runs away and hides from the wrath of takeaway owners for divulging "trade" recipes!*

halloweenqueen_2

Many Thanks for the trade secrets Noozan!! I'm sure theres a kitchen I can hide you in somewhere!! Thanks curry queen for the scaling down!
I'm going to make some sauce at the weekend hopefully so in a couple of weeks time I can sweet and sour overdose!:j

Zziggi

Just wondering how long the sweet & sour mixture would keep in the fridge?

Also what is the cornflour solution quantity/ratio that's put in at the end to thicken it if i was using curry_queen's scaled down version (569ml vinegar, 125g sugar, 10g root ginger)?

Thanks in advance