Everyone knows the sweet and sour sauce from the Chinese restaurant, often served with spring rolls, and also available inexpensively in the Asian shop or e.g., from Bamboo Garden in the supermarket. But nobody knows that you can make this sauce yourself in no time at all, especially if you have tomato sauce made from skinned, cooked tomatoes in stock. However, the recipes here in Chef are usually more complex. Hence the fast option here.
Dissolve the starch in 100 ml of cold water.
Put the sugar in a pan, spread it evenly on the bottom, and heat until the sugar melts and turns into brown caramel. Deglaze with 100 ml of water and wait for the caramel to dissolve in the water.
Then add the tomato sauce. If you don`t have one on hand, take it out of a can of skinned tomatoes. It is important that the seeds are included, so do not use tomato strained or tomato paste. Add the soy sauce, a pinch of Sambal Oelek and, when the water has boiled away, add the water with the dissolved starch powder. The sauce thickens orange-transparent and can be served in a minute.
No vinegar? Right, I wanted a sweet and spicy sauce, not a sweet and sour sauce, which in my opinion always has too much vinegar in it.
No paprika? Right, it boils over slowly and often brings a bitter note. There is enough salt in the soy sauce.
You can add other spices along with the tomatoes if you feel like it. As a suggestion: garlic, ginger, fennel seeds, onions in the smallest cubes or pineapple for the fruity sweetness.
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