Adapted from Chow.com
My daughter and I were discussing making egg rolls on the way home one evening. She was on board with that idea right away because we share a mutual fascination with egg rolls. Then I realized that we don’t have any of that bright red sweet & sour sauce you get at the Chinese restaurants that she likes to dip her egg rolls in. She casually tells me to Google it … there has to be a recipe out there for it. It can’t be that hard to make. She is telling ME this–it was a little freaky because I don’t know how many times I’ve said that to her! I almost felt, for a moment, like we’d somehow had our minds switched and I was in her body and she was in mine. But then I looked down and discovered that nope, I was still in my little mom short body with the same long-ish salt-and-pepper hair, dressed in my black yoga pants and yoga shirt and she was still in her skinny tall body with the short bright pixie pink hair, shabby jeans and black hoodie.
So per her brilliant google-fairy idea, I searched for sweet & sour sauce and within a few minutes, I had some homemade sweet & sour sauce that I was most pleased with. She wasn’t too crazy about my first attempt, though–I had done it more to my tastes than to hers. So I poured my yummy semi-spicy version into a jar (for ME!) and started over, using honey in place of sugar, skipping the Sriracha, leaving out the red pepper, toning down the vinegar a bit and substituting candied ginger for the freshly grated ginger. “Perfect!” she exclaimed.
She and I rolled up several egg rolls together, then I baked up some for me and fried up a few for her. We each had our own version of sweet & sour sauce that we were quite happy with. It was a total win dinner! What else do you need? Oh yes, a nice cold hoppy beer for me and a big ol’ glass of milk for her. Perfection.
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Asian Sweet & Sour Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: About 2/3 cup of sauce 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar or honey
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon chopped roasted red bell pepper (optional)
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root OR 1 Tablespoon finely chopped Candied Ginger
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha
(use more or less to taste)
- 1 – 2 Tablespoons ketchup
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 – 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
For thickening:
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Put all ingredients except the thickening agents in a small saucepan. Stir and heat over medium heat to boiling.
- In a cup or small bowl, stir together the water and cornstarch until dissolved. While stirring the sauce in the saucepan, slowly add the cornstarch mixture. Cook for a minute or two longer, until the sauce is thickened.
- Remove from heat. Use as a dipping sauce for egg rolls or as a sauce to coat chunks of cooked chicken, pork, beef or shrimp. Store leftovers in an airtight covered jar in the fridge.
Notes
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/
© Copyright 2015, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
This recipe was shared at Treasure Box Tuesday, Simple Supper Tuesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Gluten Free Friday, What to Do Weekends, Weekend Potluck and Moonlight & Mason Jars.
