Name: Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Yield: Makes 1½ to 2 Cups
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon ground turmeric; ½ cup coconut milk, canned or homemade; 2 heads garlic, peeled; 6 to 8 jalapeños or other hot peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped (for a hotter sauce, leave the seeds in); ½ cup vegetable oil; 8 ounces shallots (about 1½ cups), coarsely chopped; 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice or additional lime juice; ⅓ cup fresh lime juice, or more to taste; 3 to 4 large stalks fresh lemongrass, trimmed and coarsely chopped, or 3 strips lemon zest (each 2 by ½ inches) removed with a vegetable peeler; 1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste; 2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste; 4½ teaspoons soy sauce, or more to taste

Preparation info

Makes
1½ to 2 Cups

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Barbecue Bible

By Steven Raichlen

Published 1998

About

This sauce bears the name sweet-and-sour, but I promise you it’s unlike any sweet-and-sour sauce you’ve ever tasted. Garlic and shallots give it pungency and lemon-grass provides fragrance, while jalapeños instill a gentle heat. To be strictly authentic, you’d thin the spice paste to a spreadable consistency with oil, but I like to use another popular Nonya ingredient, coconut milk. Also, a Nonya would probably add a teaspoon of MSG (which of course you can do, too).