Sweet and sour sauce can subtly highlight the taste of meat or fish and add new flavors to any dish. It is no coincidence that recipes for such dressings are present in all cuisines of the world. They are especially popular in Asian cuisine, but Europe has not ignored them either. To add sourness, fruit juices, vinegar, tomatoes, plums, and sour berries are most often used; to add a sweetish taste, sugar, honey, and jam are used. Sweet and sour sauce can be salty, spicy, moderately spicy - a variety of recipes allows you to choose the option to suit your taste and best suit the dish with which you want to serve the seasoning.
Cooking features
The difficulty of preparing sweet and sour sauce largely depends on the recipe chosen. There are simple options when a minimum set of ingredients is required, and they only need to be mixed together. There are more complex recipes where it is important to follow the instructions exactly and not violate the ratio of components in order to obtain a balanced taste and pleasant consistency. Due to the wide variety of recipes, there are few uniform rules for preparing sweet and sour sauce, but they still exist.
- The most delicious sweet and sour sauce is made from fresh fruits and vegetables, and their quality plays an important role.
- The consistency of the sauce is determined by the recipe. Some options involve obtaining the sauce with the smoothest possible consistency, in which case it is ground through a sieve; in other cases, it is enough to grind the ingredients included in the sauce with a blender; in others, you need to cut the ingredients with a knife so that their pieces are included in the sauce. The recommended method of grinding food must be followed, otherwise the taste of the sauce will not be exactly what is required.
- Very often, starch is used to thicken the sauce. It should not be poured directly into the hot mass, since in this case it is impossible to avoid the formation of lumps. To avoid this trouble, starch is first diluted in cool water and only then poured into the cooking sauce in a thin stream, while stirring the sauce itself with a spoon or spatula. It is also worth keeping in mind that after cooling, the sauce to which starch was added will be thicker than when it was hot.
Aluminum cookware is not suitable for preparing sweet and sour sauces. This material oxidizes upon contact with acidic foods, causing harmful substances to enter the food.
Sweet and sour sauce can be used in two forms: if it is hot, it replaces gravy, and cold sauce is served separately with meat or other dishes.
A simple recipe for sweet and sour sauce
- sugar – 40 g;
- ketchup or tomato paste – 40 ml;
- soy sauce – 5 ml;
- spices - to taste;
- starch - a pinch;
- water – 20 ml.
Cooking method:
- Dilute the starch with water.
- Mix ketchup with soy sauce, vinegar and sugar.
- Heat the mixture in a water bath, pour in the starch.
- After a couple of minutes, add the spices, heat the sauce for another minute and remove from the heat.
Festive video recipe:
Once cooled, the sauce can be served. It can be prepared without starch, but this will change the consistency slightly. This will not affect the taste of the sauce. In this case, all the ingredients are simply mixed together. So this sweet and sour sauce recipe is the easiest one you can find.
Chinese sweet and sour sauce recipe
- ginger root – 20 g;
- brown sugar – 100 g;
- ketchup – 100 ml;
- water – 100 ml;
- soy sauce – 100 ml;
- garlic – 3 cloves;
- vegetable oil – 60 ml;
- apple cider vinegar (6 percent) – 20 ml;
- starch – 20 g;
- onions – 100 g;
- fruit juice (apple or orange) – 150 ml.
Cooking method:
- Peel the onion and garlic, cut them into small pieces.
- Peel and grate the ginger root.
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, fry the onion in it until soft, transfer it to a bowl.
- Place the onion in place of the garlic and fry it for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the garlic from the onion, lightly fry the ginger in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic to it.
- Mix fruit juice with soy sauce and vinegar, dilute ketchup with this liquid. Add sugar and stir.
- Pour the resulting mixture into the pan with vegetables. Bring it to a boil over low heat.
- Dissolve starch in cool water. Pour it into the sauce, stirring it constantly. Continue cooking, stirring, until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and cool.
Sweet and sour sauce prepared according to a Chinese recipe is suitable not only for sushi and rolls. You can serve any fish dishes or rice with it. Some housewives also use it as a seasoning for soups.
Spicy sweet and sour sauce recipe
- pickled cucumber – 100 g;
- vegetable oil – 20 ml;
- potato starch – 10 g;
- apple cider vinegar (6 percent) – 5 ml;
- cognac – 10 ml;
- tomato paste – 35 g;
- sugar – 10 g;
- water – 40 ml;
- dried ginger - a pinch.
Cooking method:
- Cut the pickled cucumber into cubes as small as possible.
- In a separate bowl, mix vinegar, cognac, sugar and tomato paste. Whisk this mixture. Add ginger to taste. You can add a little salt.
- Heat oil in a frying pan and add pickled cucumber slices. Simmer them for 5 minutes, stirring.
- Pour the tomato mixture over the cucumbers and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Dissolve starch in water and pour into the pan with the sauce. Stir without removing from heat until the sauce becomes noticeably thicker.
A spicy sweet and sour sauce goes best with meat. It can be served cold on its own or used hot as a gravy.
Sweet and sour currant sauce
- red currant – 100 g;
- water – 100 ml;
- onions – 50 g;
- butter – 25 g;
- mint – 2–3 leaves;
- cherry leaves – 2–3 pcs.;
- allspice peas – 3 pcs.;
- cloves – 2 pcs.;
- salt, sugar - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Sort the currants, remove them from the branches, rinse and dry, placing them on a clean cloth.
- Place the currants in a bowl, add sugar and add water. You can take as much sugar as you see fit, but not less than a tablespoon.
- Add mint and cherry leaves, cloves and pepper to the currants. Add some salt.
- Place the pan with currants on the fire and cook for 10–15 minutes.
- Rub the resulting sauce through a sieve, first removing and discarding the mint, cherry leaves, pepper and cloves.
- Peel and finely chop the onion and add it to the sauce.
- Place the sauce on the fire and simmer until the onion in it becomes soft.
After this, the sauce will remain to cool. It will be quite thick, since red currants contain a component that promotes the formation of jelly. This sauce works best with poultry, but can be served with any type of meat.
Sweet and sour sauce is a popular seasoning in both European and Asian cuisine. It goes well with fish, meat, and poultry. It is easy to prepare it at home with your own hands.
Recipes for sweet and sour sauces are common in different cuisines of the world: Asian, Caucasian, European. It is valued for its unusual taste, pleasant consistency and bright color. The additive is based on fruit juice with a characteristic sourness: orange, lemon, apple, and sour berries. For sweetness, use granulated sugar or liquid honey. The addition of vinegar and ginger root gives it a special piquancy.
The five most commonly used ingredients in recipes are:
The ingredients do not require preliminary preparation; they are simply mixed and subjected to a short heat treatment. Only if starch is indicated in the recipe, it is diluted with water shortly before cooking. A sauce that harmoniously combines acidity and sweetness is served with fatty meats, fish dishes, and vegetable salads. It's nice to dip foods into it, for example, your favorite French fries, chicken nuggets, and deep-fried vegetables. Both children and adults like it for its new flavors and light fruity aroma.
Chinese cuisine is characterized by a variety of flavors: here you can rarely find only salty, spicy or sweet dishes. On the contrary, hot-spicy and sweet-sour shades predominate here. Each dish is an extravaganza of taste. And it becomes that way thanks to the sauce.
The most popular is Chinese sweet and sour sauce. Which, however, does not necessarily need to be used for preparing rice with vegetables or funchose with chicken: it also goes well with our more familiar dishes. So, it harmonizes perfectly with meat in any variation.
Traditional recipe
To make sweet and sour sauce, you will need:
- sugar - 20 g;
- vinegar - 50 ml;
- soy sauce - 50 ml;
- tomato paste - 25 g;
- orange juice - 75 ml;
- corn flour - 10 g;
- water - 100 ml.
To prepare this sauce, it is better to use a small, high-sided, thick-bottomed saucepan or a wok. Sugar is mixed with vinegar. In Chinese sauce, the vinegar should be rice vinegar. But if you don’t have it, apple cider vinegar is called a worthy replacement. And only if there is no apple cider vinegar on the kuna, should you take the usual six percent.
Stir thoroughly. When there are no individual grains of sugar left, soy sauce is added to the mixture. By the way, in oriental cuisine it performs the function of salt, has the same properties, but is more convenient to use, since the liquid consistency penetrates better into the depths of the product and does not remain on the outer shell. That is why, when studying other recipes for Chinese cuisine, you should not be surprised if you do not find our most popular spice there.
Add tomato paste and orange juice to the saucepan here. Stir everything thoroughly again until the mixture is homogeneous.
Advice! Orange juice can be replaced with pineapple juice. This is especially convenient if, for example, you are preparing meat with pineapples, and there is some unclaimed juice left - a sweet and sour sauce based on it will perfectly highlight the taste of the dish.
The mixture can now be placed on low heat to warm up. Meanwhile, in a separate container, corn flour is mixed with water. In this recipe, cornmeal plays the role of a thickener, because it is important for us that the mixture does not spread over the plate.
When the mixture begins to boil, add the cornmeal solution to it and, stirring constantly but slowly, bring to a thickening point. The Chinese sauce is served hot, but if the main dish is not ready yet, it can be reheated before serving - over the same low heat, but covered with a lid.
Varieties of the recipe
Like any dish that does not have one author, this sauce has different recipe variations. So, it can be cooked with onions and garlic. In this case, the vegetables are cut into small pieces and lightly fried beforehand - this will make them more flavorful. They are then added to the saucepan along with soy sauce.
Or you can use ginger. This is a very extraordinary root vegetable, and all people can be divided into two categories: those who love it and those who don’t. It is extremely difficult to remain indifferent to him. It slightly burns the throat, giving the dish (or drink) in which it is used a brighter and spicy taste. And it is definitely appropriate in this sauce, as, indeed, in many other Chinese dishes. Ginger is cut into thin strips or grated and added along with tomato paste.
Instead of corn flour, you can use the more familiar potato starch. It is also a thickener, but it is consumed about a third less.
Advice! If you add a little finely chopped chili pepper or a few drops of Tabasco to the sauce, it will no longer become sweet and sour, but spicy, sweet and sour. This sauce goes well with meat cooked over an open fire.
The flavor of the sauce will change if you add juicy red bell pepper, canned pineapple, or even honey. Some experimenters add dry white wine, coarsely chopped plums and even jasmine tea bags to add a more refined oriental aroma.
By changing the proportions, you can “play” with the taste, making the sauce more sour or sweeter. Everyone will definitely like this dish - you just need to find “your” recipe.
Hello! Today I will tell you how to quickly and easily make sweet and sour sauce. Not even just one - I will offer you several options. From gourmet to the kind that uses fast food. By the way, you will see that not all fast food is as scary as they make it out to be. Especially with sweet and sour sauce.
As the name suggests, the seasoning will be sweet and sour at the same time. Sugar (honey) is responsible for the sweet component, and vinegar for the sour component. And then, in fact, the art of cooking begins. Depending on the recipe, ginger, tomatoes, berries and even wine can be used. It all depends on the ingenuity of the recipe author. Once upon a time in ancient times, the Chinese came up with this seasoning to mask the not very pleasant smell of river fish. I'm sure your fish smells great. And the sweet and sour sauce will only emphasize its advantages.
Fish with sweet and sour sauce
Although why only fish? Nowadays, literally everything is served with different variations of sweet and sour sauce. Lamb, beef, turkey, scrambled eggs, baked vegetarian rice rolls and pork ribs, udon noodles with vegetables and summer sandwiches, zucchini quesadillas and broccoli salad... In general, whatever you decide to cook, sweet and sour sauce will come in handy. Why don't they eat it!
I’ll say right away that if you decide to cook in aluminum cookware, nothing will come of it. Making seasoning in an old aluminum ladle puts your health at risk. When it comes into contact with acid, aluminum will begin to release harmful substances, and the meal may end, if not in the hospital, then with stomach discomfort, for sure.
Let me clarify before cooking - don’t expect all sweet and sour seasonings to be the same. Some assume a smooth consistency - they are whipped in blenders and even rubbed through a sieve. Others, on the contrary, include pieces of vegetables and fruits. Some are served hot, others cold. By the way, keep in mind that if starch is used in the recipe, then it is reckless to make this seasoning in reserve. In the refrigerator, the sauce will turn into jelly. So, if a recipe says “serve hot,” make only as much as you can eat in one meal.
Let's start with the most traditional recipe - CHINESE. For it we will need: - vinegar (2 tablespoons) - sugar (1.5 tablespoons) - soy sauce (1 tablespoon) - tomato paste (1 tablespoon) - orange juice (3 tablespoons) - corn flour (1 teaspoon) - water (4 tablespoons) First, mix vinegar, soy sauce, tomato puree and orange juice in a fireproof container. Let's add sugar. Heat over low heat, stirring. Make sure that the sugar has dissolved and will not creak on your teeth. In a separate cup, mix flour and water. It’s good if you can do it without lumps. For this it is better to use ice water. And gradually pour it into the flour. So that first you get a dough, then a mush. We pour it into our mixture, which (remember?) is slowly heated over the fire. Bring the mixture to a boil and voila! - all is ready! Of course, different recipes compete for the title of traditional Chinese sauce. China is big - there are many traditions. It's like borscht. Every Russian family has its own most correct recipe. Let's return to the Chinese. This simple recipe is also considered a CLASSIC. Take: - apple cider vinegar (20 ml) - sugar (40 grams) - ketchup (40 grams) - soy sauce (5 ml) - spices (to taste) - starch (on the tip of a knife) - water (20 ml) Add starch to water. Mix ketchup with sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Heat this mixture in a water bath. Stirring continuously, pour water and starch into it. Add spices. Wait until the mixture is thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Yes, you don't have to add starch to this recipe. Of course, then it will be more liquid. But you won’t have to worry about using a water bath - all the ingredients can simply be mixed cold and served immediately. This option is perfect for meat. Sweet and sour sauce is so popular that fast food cooks could not ignore it. Let's make the one they SERVE AT MCDONALD'S. For this we need: - plums. Any, but sweet and sour is better. To avoid breaking twice, we take a lot at once - three kilograms. - chilli. One pod. - garlic. Two heads - coriander. 1.5 teaspoons - sugar. A little less than a kilogram. Exactly how much is needed depends on the acidity of the drain. And depending on your own taste, you will find your way along the way. - salt - 1 - 2 tablespoons. Yet again. Focus on your taste. - dry adjika. 1 tablespoon. We wash the plums, put them in a deep enamel pan and put it all on low heat. When the plums soften and release juice (be careful not to burn them!), cool them. Remove from the pan, remove the seeds and remove the skin. We rub the resulting slurry through a sieve. We return this puree to the pan (you managed to wash it, right?). Bring it to a boil, cook for a couple of minutes. And we remember the remaining ingredients: chili adjika, coriander, salt and sugar. The first three are thrown into the boiling puree. Add salt and sugar a little at a time, tasting your creation all the time. When it has reached perfection to your taste, set the sugar and salt aside. Boil the brew for another 15 minutes. At the end, add the peeled and chopped garlic. All! The sauce is ready. Like McDonald's, only better. Because you made it yourself. If you add mushrooms to the recipe, you get SWEET AND SOUR MUSHROOM SAUCE. It’s not so traditional anymore, but it still smacks of the author’s style. It’s good to make when you have a supply of mushroom gravy at home, which for some reason everyone is tired of. This is exactly what she will do. For 850 grams of ready-made mushroom gravy you need to take - 75 grams of prunes - 1.5 tablespoons of sugar - 1 tablespoon wine vinegar - 1 tablespoon raisins - 40 grams of tomato paste - 2.5 grams of odorless vegetable oil - salt and spices to taste Chop the prunes, simply put the remaining ingredients in one container with the mushroom sauce. Put it on the fire and boil it all for about fifteen minutes, stirring constantly so as not to burn. And your mushroom sweet and sour sauce is ready! Or here's another example. We will assume that you do not have mushroom watering. But the refrigerator is full of fresh mushrooms. What do we do? Right. Mushrooms in sweet and sour sauce. If the fresh mushrooms are oyster mushrooms, the Chinese nod approvingly. But in our opinion, any mushrooms are suitable - from champignons to porcini. Even chanterelles will do. Because, as usual, it's all in the sauce. How to cook it? So, what do we need for the recipe: - 400 grams of fresh mushrooms, - celery root 200 grams - 1 carrot - garlic 4 cloves - white onion 1 head (you can also use regular, yellow, if there is no other) - sunflower oil 1 tsp. - sesame oil 1 tsp. (if you don’t have it, take 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil) - sesame and coriander seeds - 1 tsp each. — liquid honey 60 ml - soy sauce 60 ml - balsamic vinegar 35 ml Pour all the vegetable oil into the frying pan and immediately add the onion, chopped into half rings. While it is browning, peel the carrots and celery. Cut the carrots into straw and add them to the onion. You need to cut the celery root into the same strips. But don’t throw it into the frying pan just yet—let it wait until we wash and prepare the mushrooms. Ready? Throw the mushrooms and celery into the pan. Cover with a lid and turn on your favorite movie. This mixture should simmer under the lid for ten minutes. And then the same amount - with the lid open. So that the liquid produced by the mushrooms evaporates. While watching the movie, mix soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and honey in one bowl. Squeeze the garlic on top using a garlic press. Throw in sesame seeds and coriander. Stir. Pause the movie. Check to see if the water has evaporated from the mushroom mixture and pour the mixture into it. Mix it all and leave on the fire for another 4-5 minutes. All! Mushrooms in sweet and sour sauce can be served! By the way, this dish goes well with Chinese noodles. A separate song is the sweet and sour sauce FOR FISH. There are some nuances here. The purpose of seasoning is to highlight the taste of the fish, and not to overwhelm it. We will need: - fish broth 500 ml - 3 tablespoons raisins - butter 50 gr. - 1.5 tablespoons of three percent vinegar - tablespoon of flour - a tablespoon of sugar - finely chopped parsley and dill - to taste - 3 tablespoons raisins The first stage is the longest. Fry the flour in butter until golden brown. Then pour the fish broth into the saucepan and evaporate it for about 40 minutes. Of course, don't forget to stir. Then add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan. Bring the sauce to a boil. Cool. And serve on the table - with fried or baked fish. Since vinegar is used in sweet and sour sauce, it’s clear that it can also be made WITH WINE. Shall we try? For this we will need fish broth again. - 2 cups fish broth - half a glass of white sour wine (and another half glass can be drunk during cooking) - a quarter glass of cognac (it is better to leave the rest for the second serving of the dish) - a tablespoon of soy sauce - 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter - 2 tablespoons sugar - juice of half a lemon Fry the flour in oil until golden brown. Pour in the broth. Boil the mixture for 5-7 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Stirring, bring the sauce to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool. And serve with fish dishes. By the way, if you use meat broth rather than fish broth, the seasoning will go well with meat and meat dishes. Sweet and sour sauce WITH VEGETABLES is suitable for vegetarians. For this you will need: - 2 onions - carrot - cucumber - tomato - 40 grams of sugar - a glass of sour white wine - a pinch of cinnamon Scald the tomato and remove the skin. Finely chop the remaining ingredients. Place it all in a saucepan. Pour in wine and simmer over low heat for about half an hour. This sauce can be served with vegetarian cutlets, rolls, and soy meat. And, if you are not a vegetarian, then it will go perfectly with a chop. There are also domestic variations on the theme of Chinese sweet and sour sauce. For example, sweet and sour sauce WITH CRANBERRY. To do this, of course, you must have cranberries. - cranberries 250 gr — orange 1 piece - onions 1 pc. - butter 50 g - honey 2 tablespoons - red pepper - on the tip of a knife - salt to taste First, let's deal with the onion. Peel it, chop it finely and fry it in butter. We need zest and juice from the orange. Place both in a frying pan with onions that have already acquired a golden color. Throw honey and cranberries in there. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Then remove the lid and cook, stirring, for another 7 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Cool. Beat in a blender or rub through a sieve. The sauce is ready to serve! Another purely Russian variation includes black currants in the recipe. Take two glasses of berries. They are passed through a blender. There, one bunch of dill and parsley are chopped. Garlic is added to the greens - 1-2 heads. Berry puree is mixed with green puree. Add sugar, salt and black pepper to taste. The sauce is served cold with anything. Try spreading it on Borodino bread - you won’t regret it! As you can see, there are a lot of options for sweet and sour sauce. It's difficult to tell about everyone. But I can’t get around the recipe with pork. So, listen up. First, remember the phrase GO BAO ZOU. This is what your dish will be called. Sounds better than “Pork in Sweet and Sour Sauce,” right?
SauceSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE RECIPE CHINESE
Traditional sweet and sour sauce
SauceSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE FROM MCDONALD'S
McDonald's sauceMUSHROOM SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE
Sweet and sour mushroom sauce
Mushroom sauceSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE FOR FISH
Sauce for fishSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE WITH WINE
Sauce with wineSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE WITH VEGETABLES
Sauce with vegetablesSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE WITH CRANBERRY
Cranberry sauceSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE WITH CURRANTS
Sauce with currantsSWEET AND SOUR SAUCE FOR PORK
A well-prepared sauce can give even a simple dish an unforgettable taste. You can simply serve fried chicken or pork, but if you add the right sauce, an ordinary dish will turn into a culinary masterpiece.
What is sauce
Sauce is a thin mass served as a side dish or main dish. It emphasizes, complements and improves the taste of the dish. Sauces can have different consistencies and differ in the composition of ingredients. They are prepared on the basis of milk, cream, sour cream, broths and tomatoes, so white, red and colored gravies can be found among them.
Sauces for meat can be sweet and sour, spicy, piquant or hot. They can be poured over a dish, served separately in bowls, or stewed or baked in them.
Sweet and sour sauce for meat
Sweet and sour sauces have a sour taste with a delicate sweet note and bitterness, which, when combined, give the meat a unique taste. China is considered its homeland, but since similar sauces are used in Jewish, Caucasian and all Asian cuisine. It is served not only with meat dishes, but also with chicken, fish, vegetables and rice.
Sweet and sour sauce for meat improves the digestion of fatty foods that are difficult for the stomach to handle.
The main sour and sweet notes are obtained by using fruit juices: orange, apple or lemon, sour berries or fruits, honey and sugar.
In Chinese
- 120 ml. apple or orange juice;
- medium bulb;
- 5 cm ginger root;
- 2 tbsp. l. olive oil;
- 2 teeth garlic
- 1 tbsp each vinegar and starch;
- 2 tbsp. l. water, soy sauce, brown sugar and ketchup;
Grate the ginger and garlic on a fine grater, finely chop the onion and fry in a frying pan with vegetable oil. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir and boil for a few minutes. Dissolve the starch in water and, stirring in a thin stream, pour into the pan. Wait for the sauce to thicken and remove it from the heat.
With pineapple
- 2 circles of canned pineapple;
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice;
- 1/4 cup each apple cider vinegar and sugar;
- 2 tbsp each ketchup and soy sauce;
- 1 tsp ginger and 1 tbsp. starch.
Mix all ingredients and, stirring, wait until the mixture boils. Then pour in the starch diluted with water and bring the sauce until thick.
Cranberry sauce for meat
This sauce will delight you with a fresh, bright and unusual taste. The berry flavor will complement any meat or chicken, making the dish tender.
- 1/2 kg cranberries;
- 300 gr. Sahara;
- bulb;
- 150 ml apple cider vinegar;
- 1 tsp each salt, black pepper, celery seeds, allspice and cinnamon.
Place the onions and cranberries in a saucepan and add a glass of water. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. under a closed lid. Using a blender, puree the mixture until smooth and add the remaining ingredients. Place on fire and boil for 30 minutes. or until it becomes similar in consistency to ketchup.
This sauce is prepared from a glass of sour cream, a tablespoon of flour and butter. You need to melt the butter in a frying pan, then add flour to it and fry everything. Then, stirring constantly, pour in sour cream, bring to the desired thickness and season with spices. You can use garlic, dill, green onions, pepper and basil as seasonings.
