Sweet and Sour secret

Another saturday night and a chance to go crazy in the kitchen, It took me less than an hour to get this ready and it wasnt so bad.

My brother taught me this secret sweet and sour sauce which, according to him, was passed on to him by a cook at the old kowloon house in makati, right beside the Sulo Restaurant in quad at what is now a Rapide auto shop.

By 2 pm i had taken out and thawed a tilapia fillet cut into 1 inch wide strips and 6 shrimp (about 100 grams worth peeled and deveined with tails on)

First season your seafood with salt and pepper and let sit for 10-15 mins

While waiting slice a small golf ball sized red onion into 6 wedges, about 12 1 inch squares of a bell pepper, thinly slice half a thumb size of ginger and a small tomato

Dust your seafood with corn starch and drizzle with a wet handful of water just to moisten the mix. coat evenly and deep fry all the seafood, dropping them into hot oil one at a time and nudging them in the pan to prevent sticking.

Remove them when lightly browned and drain on paper towels.

Now you can do the sauce. Saute in a little oil all your vegetables, just put them all at once in the pan and saute and turn heat on to high. As it starts to sizzle put your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in this order:

a tablespoon of catsup (i used one jollibee sachet) - stir
a tablespoon of soy - stir
a tablespoon of cane vinegar - stir
a tablespoon of sugar - stir
it should be sizzling now
now pour 4 oz or a half a small glass of orange juice (instant is fine)
now wait for it to simmer then turn the heat down to low.

The secret is in smelling the aroma wafting into the kitchen at this point. if it smells like vinegar, its not ready.

when the vinegar smell is gone, just combine the drained seafod into the mix and toss turn onto a plate and time to eat with white rice.

The chilled Gray Goose on ice helped push this dish along.