Sweet & Sour vegetarian chicken with pineapple and cucumber
This is one of those Chinese dish that my mom had been cooking since I was very small. However, she used chicken gizzards and giblets to prepare it as it is considered a poor man’s dish. What makes this sweet and sour different from the regular ones is the cucumber and carrots that need to be pickled in white vinegar to provide the crunch.
The ingredients I used are :
1 slice pineapple, cut into small triangles (you can buy just one slice from the fruits stall)
2 red chillies cut lengthwise
1 onion, quartered
Half a cucumber, remove skin and seed, cut in slants
Half a carrot, cut into tiny pieces
Soak both the cucumber and carrots in two tablespoons of white vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar for several minutes. This will make the cucumber and carrot very crunchy. Don’t keep too long or they turn too soft.
Meantime, make the sauce using a tiny bowl of water, corn flour and flavour with two tablespoons of tomato ketchup and chili sauce.
Instead of chicken gizzards, I use vegetarian chicken chunks (from Veaty bites). Heat oil, stir fry the onion and the chicken pieces. I use about half packet or about 300 grams.
Pour away the vinegar from the cucumber. Add all the vegetables and the gravy. Simmer for a while. You do not need to cook for too long as all the vegetables are ready to be eaten. I added some green peppers for colour as well.
Before removing from the wok, taste and adjust seasonings. The dish should have the zing to make you drool. It goes perfectly with white rice. In fact, one of this dish is almost enough to make a meal as it has all the flavours and crunch.
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that’s not any poor man’s dish… i personally like this kind of food, sweet and sour chicken, fish, pork la… anything sweet and sour….
sweet n sour is many people’s comfort food! simple n delicious =)
Ah… the secret of crunch vegies.
I cam here from from Muffin 53′s ppp (http://muffin53.blogspot.com/2007/08/recipe-blog-its-great.html)
and this site is a keeper… you’re bookmarked.
btw, this dish sounds totally YUM!
Lois – Thanks for dropping by! Glad you like it.
h.q. – Yeah, totally crunchy, not limpy.
ironeaters – It is very appetising indeed.
cindy – If using chicken giblets, it is cheap really.
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