I have been looking for a good (ie to suit my taste) recipe for Sweet and Sour. In the end I gave up, put the cookery books away and looked through my old scrap book of recipes scribbled out and altered over the years. Much to my annoyance, this is the only one I could find, so try it if you want, but it is to suit my taste, so it may not suit yours. I like arrowroot as a thickener for this dish rather than cornflour as it makes the sauce look “pretty”, but care must be taken you don´t overcook the arrowroot as it will go thin again! The original recipe was for just plain oil, ordinary olive oil if you must, but I have changed it to groundnut oil, mainly because it doesn´t add it´s own flavour to the finished dish! I tried it with tomato frito instead of tomato ketchup - it was not too good, didn´t look right, a bit too “red”, could have been the peppers in the tomato frito. I also tried picked garlic, not my best idea!

2 tbsp groundnut oil
4 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
Pineapple juice from an 11 oz can of pineapple chunks or rings (in juice! not syrup)
Use 5.5 oz pineapple - chop finely
1/2 cup of tomato ketchup
1/2 cup of soft light brown sugar
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar (or white if you prefer)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp chilli powder
Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place 2 level tbsp cornflour into a bowl and mix to a paste with 1/2 cup cold water
Place the oil in a medium saucepan set over a medium heat
Add the prepared onions and garlic, sweat until opaque
Add the finely chopped pineapple and cook (stirring) for one minute
Then stir in the pineapple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, white vinegar and Worcestershire sauce
When combined, bring up to the boil while stirring (do not allow the mixture to burn - a heat diffuser may help)
When it reaches boiling point add the chilli and turn the heat down to a simmer
Leave to cook very slowly (ie simmer) for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally
Remove from heat and taste to check seasoning, adding salt/pepper to taste (if required - I don´t think it is necessary to add either salt or pepper)
To thicken the sauce turn the heat up to medium and return the pan to the heat
Whisk in the cornflour paste again then add (slowly while stirring the sauce continuously), continue cooking until the sauce has thickened to suit your taste

If keeping for the storecupboard, leave to cool before refrigerating, alternatively use immediately with egg noodles and fried pork or chicken strips (quickly stir fry the latter, add some thinly sliced vegetables also, ie baby sweetcorn, snow peas, onion and whatever else you fancy throwing in), remove from heat, add sauce and noodles, serve and enjoy