[Chinese Recipes] Sweet and Sour Sauce

Chinese sweet and sour sauce possibly is the most famous Chinese sauce. There are so many yummy dish made with this sauce including sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour pork etc. I have received e-mails and facebook message asking about how to make Chinese sweet and sour sauce. Elaine has decided to introduce different Chinese combined stir-fry sauces so you can use them directly with your own recipe creations.

Chinese sweet and sour sauce is known as 糖醋汁 in Chinese and is a type of sauce used mainly in quick stir-fry recipes in China. Basically, the main ingredient should be deep-fried or pan-fried firstly before tossing with the sauce in wok . This cooking method is named as “溜” in Chinese which meaning stir-fry and cook very quickly.

Everyone may have a unique sweet and sour sauce. If you do not like sour taste that much, you can reduce the vinegar or lemon juice slightly or add a little bit more sugar.In different Chinese cuisines, Chinese sweet and sour sauce is widely been used. For example, sweet and sour pork tenderloin（糖醋里脊） from Sichuan cuisine, Guo Bao Rou (锅包肉) from Northern China, sweet and sour ribs and sweet and sour fish in Jiangsu province.

There are many variations of Chinese sweet and sour sauce. Some use tomato sauce while others just use vinegar and sugar directly. Following are two most commonly used recipe for tuning Chinese sweet and sour sauce.

Have a look of all of the basic sauces and condiments we are going to use for perfect Chinese sweet and sour sauce. They are green onion, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, ketchup, and black vinegar, and dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar and starch. You do not need to use them all in one type of Chinese sweet and sour sauces. Just basic information for ingredients! If you need more information about the sauces and condiments for Chinese cooking, check Chinese Sauces.

Now comes to this Chinese sweet and sour sauce with ketchup—this is the all-purpose sauce for around 500 g foods or making a rice bowl dipping sauce

You can follow the step to make a perfect Chinese sweet and sour sauce or mixing all the ingredients together for a quicker version.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Sauce

All-purpose Chinese sweet and sour sauce, for around 500g food or a small rice bowl of dipping sauce! How to use it, add your fried chicken, pork, fish, shrimp, tofu and whatever you want before or after adding water starch!

Ingredients

2 middle size garlic cloves
1 inch root ginger
1 green onion
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Basic sweet and sour sauce
4 tablespoons ketchup
8 tablespoons water= 1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Water starch
3 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water

Instructions

Heat up vegetable oil in pan or wok; add garlic, green onions and ginger to stir-fry for around 2 minutes or until aroma with low fire.
Then pour the basic sauce to the wok, bring all the content to a boiling. And add water starch in. Keep on stirring in the process.

Notes

If rice vinegar is not available, you can use lemon juice to replace it.

This sauce with ketchup is mainly used for recipes with a bright color including sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour pork with pineapple, sweet and sour shrimp.

Wait, it is still not the end.

Another way to prepare Chinese sweet and sour sauce: Ginger, garlic and green onions are always needed for a basic taste layer. However if the main ingredients is marinated with ginger and green onion water previously, they can be skipped.

Chinese sweet and sour sauce with darker color
2 middle size garlic cloves
1 root ginger
1 green onion
1 tablespoon cooking wine
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons vinegar
5 tablespoons water

This is a traditional Chinese sweet and sour sauce mainly used in traditional dishes for example sweet and sour ribs and sweet and sour fish etc. However, if the sauce is used for marinating before frying, water can be skipped. Example dish: sweet and sour ribs.

When seeing a recipe calls for vinegar, you may wonder whether to use white vinegar or black vinegar, right? For some recipes needing a bright color, please use white vinegar and light soy sauce only. And for others with a heavier caramelized color, black vinegar should be the first choice.

Combined spicy Chinese sweet and sour sauce

2 middle size garlic cloves
1 root ginger
1 green onion
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 teaspoon spicy chili oil or several dried chili peppers (a combination is also great)
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon black vinegar
4 tablespoons water

This can be used in many spicy and sour meat dishes, for example spicy and sour pork belly, spicy and sour meat ball etc.

Please note that the amounts of the basic ingredients might be changed depending on the particular recipe for example if pineapple is add as side vegetables, then reduce the amount according and vinegar should be avoided.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website:  Chinasichuanfood.com. Thanks so much!