Keep Cookin'

There is nothing quite like ordering a take-away sweet and sour; the aroma that hits you when you open up that little tub of sauce, the ritual of pouring it over the chicken or pork balls and mixing it with fried rice….or so I thought until I learnt this little beauty whilst in Thailand. Personally, I haven’t eaten a take away S ‘n’ S since and swear by this recipe – I guarantee that the fragrant flavours that emanate from this when you serve it up will distill any take-away cravings you may have otherwise experienced.

Sweet ‘n’ sour is, by nature of it’s title, a combination of flavours that leaves your palet semi-confused with each mouthful, yet somehow they combine perfectly to perform a merry dance across the taste buds; just fantastic!

The problem with most traditional take away sweet ‘n’ sours is that the sauce seems somewhat radioactive in colour and ever-so slightly plastic in flavour. This recipe provides the ability to create a really fresh combination of flavours, whilst not compromising on aesthetics or aroma and, from start to finish, takes a mere 15 minutes or so to cook. I cooked this for my daughter and she ate every last mouthful, which in my eyes is a great testimony to the recipe – a big thank you to the cooking school in Thailand from which I was fortunate enough to learn this from.

Ok, the ingredients are as follows and as with every other recipe, feel free to ad-lib:

• 1/2 Onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Several tomatoes (nothing scientific here, as many or few as you wish), cut into bit-sized pieces
• Several bite-sized pieces of pineapple (again, down to personal taste)
• 1 Pepper (red, green, yellow or orange) cut into bite-sized pieces
• Chicken – usually I use 2 or 3 thighs, de-boned and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Tablespoon of chopped garlic
• 1 or 2 Spring onions sliced into approx. 1 inch pieces

Make the following sauce in a seperate bowl:

• 1 Tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar (palm or brown)
• 2 Tablespoons of tomato sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce

If you wish, you can spice up the sauce and add an extra dimension to the dish a little by adding chopped, dried chilli – I tend to include 2 or 3.

And on to the cooking:

1. Heat up your wok with a little oil and fry the garlic until it turns yellow
2. Add the chicken and stir-fry until cooked
3. Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for about 30 seconds or so
4. Add the sauce and stir in
5. Add the pineapple and tomato and stir in
6. Add the spring onion and stir in
7. Turn off the heat and sprinkle in some freshly ground black pepper

Serve imediately with either steamed basmati rice or medium noodles and enjoy!