Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Quick Dish: Sweet and Sour Sauce

Never before have such seemingly incongruous ingredients come together so quickly to make such a delicious quick dish. It's no wonder the recipe for this ridiculously easy, perfectly balanced sweet and sour sauce comes from my dad's mother, who, other than her fabulous brisket, always believed there were more important things to do in life than waste one's time in the kitchen.

My mom, though tending to agree with her mother-in-law's view of kitchen duty after a long day at work, is still one heck of a cook. Way back when, she tried adding her family's Italian meatballs (recipe here) to my Jewish grandma's sauce, and voila! - the perfect blending of my heritages was born.

Of course, you can add this sauce to just about anything that needs a sweet and source kick - spooned over baked chicken for example, or as a dipping sauce for egg rolls or satay - but I'll always be partial to the classic pairing my mom so greatly improved upon.


Sweet and Sour Sauce
2 cans whole cranberry sauce
1 can crushed pineapple in juice
1 cup ketchup
½ cup water

Heat all ingredients together on stove. If making sweet and sour meatballs, add meatballs to sauce and simmer on medium low until the meatballs are cooked through, about 20-25 minutes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's something to be learned from those women in our families who could pull a hellova meal together during their busy days. Simple, ready made ingredients can have peoples mouths watering! Speaking of brisket...I'm not Jewish, so I have little experience but to have listened to someone a while ago when he told me that the secret to brisket was Coca Cola. I was surprised, but never forgot it. A short time ago, I made a braised brisket with 3 pantry items. A can of Coke, a packet of Liption beef/onion soup mix and chili sauce.
Oh, how Sandra Lee and I couldn't care less. It was the best damn thing I ate last year, and made for hearty and delicious sandwiches for a week!
PS...I can't see the pics in this post ;-(

Lisa said...

Hey Ramona, thanks for the great post. Sorry you can't see the pics. I will look into that.

As for the brisket, stay tuned for my grandma's recipe - no coke in this one, but still super simple and delicious.