Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

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)