Sweet And Sour Sauce

One of my favorite cuisine’s to cook now is Asian. Maybe it’s because there’s something so good about take-out food that you make yourself; maybe it’s because it’s practically impossible to eat out at an Chinese restaurant and avoid gluten; or maybe it’s because I’m Italian/French/Polish and have no place cooking with these flavors and I like being a rebel. Whatever it is, I think fake-out take-out dishes are the bee’s knees right now, and this sauce is a great condiment to pour on anything to give it that flavor. I’ve used it on tofu, broccoli, chicken—you name it—and it hasn’t disappointed.

Sweet And Sour Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon orange or lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring it to a slight boil. Continue boiling it until it has reduced half of its volume and the sauce has thickened.

You’ll know it’s done when it starts to coat the bottom of the pan like this as you tilt it.

Be careful not to over boil and turn this into a candy. In that case, remove it from the heat and stir in some hot water until it reaches the right consistency.

Store this in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This doesn’t make that much sauce, so you might want to double the recipe if you’re going to use it a lot. On the other hand, it packs a lot of flavor so you only need about 1/2 a tablespoon for each serving. It’s sweet; it’s sour; it’s delicious. And there’s no scary ingredients, too, when you make it yourself.