Sweet and Sour Sauce

I made Green Peppered Steak for dinner last night. I used a well loved recipe that my mother in law gave me when Todd and I got married.

Since it's "Asian inspired" I decided to make the frozen egg rolls I purchased when I went to Costco hungry a few weeks ago. They were giving them out as samples and they were so good that buying a box of 24 egg rolls seemed like a good idea at the time. I'll admit it, most of my impulse purchases are food.

Anyway, once I put the egg rolls in the oven, I realized I had no dipping sauce. Honestly, I'd rather just not have an egg roll with out sauce. So, as much as I didn't want to, I got ready to run out to the store to grab some. But, it was 5:30 and no-one (read Gabe who was happily playing with lego people) wanted to go out. So, I pulled out my favorite cooking tool- the internet- and googled a recipe for it.

The first few recipes I found were labor intensive and since dinner was just about 30 minutes away, I needed easy. Then I found one that looked easy and, most importantly, required ingredients I had on hand.



Here it is. It was pretty good. I used rice cooking wine, because until I looked at the picture I didn't realize it wasn't vinegar, but overall it was a success.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:

* 1/3 cup white or rice vinegar (Note: rice vinegar gives better results)
* 4 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon ketchup
* 1 teaspoon soy sauce
* 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 4 teaspoons water

Preparation:
Mix the vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce together and bring to a boil in a small pot. Mix together the cornstarch and water, add to the other ingredients and stir to thicken.

(If desired, you can add 1 green pepper, cut into chunks, and pineapple chunks as desired after adding the cornstarch. For a thicker sauce, increase the cornstarch to 4 teaspoons while keeping the water constant.)