Sweet &sour chicken in batter.

[Tarot]

Does anyone know what takeaway does the best tasty sweet and sour chicken in batter, with fried rice and chow mein, I dont mean those grisly little marble chicken balls, most of them sell. Chopsticks used to do a fair sauce, not to bitter. Any suggestions?

[Captain Scarlet]

You have to find one first which is using real chicken!...ok if you like cat n dog meat!

Meowwwwww woof woof stand still! while i'll chop ya!

[Tarot]

Well Captain Scarlet. most of the chicken in batter, tastes very similar to the grisly stuff in bags that they sell in Iceland. The last takeaways chicken balls tasted like ground up chicken feet, it was vile. If your chicken is shaped into little balls dont eat it. Big chunks in batter are best.

[Mick Mac]

In general I don't think there are many chinese take aways that cook with good chicken.

I usually get chinese from the noodle place beside franklins which might be ok, but I'm no expert.

[Captain Scarlet]

Tarot Wrote:

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> Well Captain Scarlet. most of the chicken in

> batter, tastes very similar to the grisly stuff in

> bags that they sell in Iceland. The last takeaways

> chicken balls tasted like ground up chicken feet,

> it was vile. If your chicken is shaped into little

> balls dont eat it. Big chunks in batter are best.

Thank you for the advice Tarot but may I ask...Are they using real chicken balls?...They would be tiny!

[Panda]

oriental fusion in forest hill - they do it and its very nice

[V511]

Hong Hong next to the Kwik Fit on Grove Vale do really good Sweet & Sour chicken balls. They use good quality chicken, the batter is crispy and not to stodgy and the sauce doesn't taste artificial.

[emc]

Mr Liu on Lordship Lane do lovely sweet and sour chicken...not the balls, really nice chicken, great sauce.

[HAL9000]

If anyone is interested in making Chinese (pork, chicken or prawn) batter balls at home: the batter is made with beaten egg and 'potato starch flour' (available from Khan's in Rye Lane under the name 'Farina' - not to be confused with ordinary 'potato flour' which doesn't work), seasoned with a little salt and deep fried at a medium to high temperature until crisp and golden brown.

The filling should be pre-cooked - pieces of raw pork and chicken don't have time to cook properly in the short time it takes to fry the batter.

[HAL9000]

As for the sweet and sour sauce, there are gazillions of recipes online, but, basically, it's made from sugar, vinegar, tomato sauce (i.e. ketchup), soy sauce and cornstarch. Couldn't be easier, really.

[Townleygreen]

Thanks for that HAL - useful advice for sure. x

[Tarot]

The soy sauce would that be the mild one, and is the sugar brown,and if i wanted it sweeter, as opposed to sour, what s best Hal, Someone mentioned pineapple, wheres that come in, I dont like the sauce with that bitter kickback.

[HAL9000]

The advantage with home cooking is that one can experiment with standard recipes to create a taste that precisely suites one's palate.

With sweet and sour sauce, one can use either mild or dark soy sauce, brown or white sugar and rice, malt, distilled or other types of vinegar. Also, many other ingredients may be added to expand the taste and texture, including: shredded carrot or sliced green pepper, orange or pineapple juice and fruit chunks, a dash of hot chilli pepper and/or oyster, plum or Worcestershire sauces, for example.

Most Chinese restaurants add relatively large quantities of Monosodium glutamate (MSG) to their dishes ? which, although controversial, is necessary to capture the authentic 'umami' taste of commercial Anglo-Chinese cuisine.

[womanofdulwich]

We have started buying sainsburys ready Chinese meals, under the assumption it is really chicken in there.

[Tarot]

Thanks Hal, that sounds really professional.Where as I would probably poison people. I tried to cook fried rice once, I put a pint of cooking oil in a wok. poured on the rice and heated it for half an hour, served it up with very poorly battered chicken.It was swimming in oil. No one ate it and never want to try my cooking again.

[HAL9000]

I can see how that went wrong - the rice is first boiled normally, left to stand until dry and fluffy and then very lightly fried in a little hot soybean oil with constant stirring along with the other pre-cooked ingredients.

[PeckhamRose]

Moon Lam Hong on Cheltenham Road is a rather good Chinese and we have been going there on and off 27 years.

MrPR likes chicken in batter with Sweet and sour and reckons they do a reasonable job of it.

If that helps!

[Tarot]

Hal re you a chef? I think you knowledge of cooking is admiarable, and I think you should be the forums cooking advisor. I like watching cooking, my favourite programme was Rosemary Shragers. chef school,dont know when its on again. But I guess i,ll have to watch more careful, Thank you all , all places been noted, advice taken.

[Tarot]

:) Sorry about the letterig I was eating a sandwich at the same time.:)

[VeryBerryCherry]

I think I may need to try this recipe out - sounds great. Especially as it does always bug me the way the Sweet and Sour Sauce can vary so much from place to place.

Tarot, I am sorry, but I did laugh quite hard at your Fried Rice. In theory you "did exactly what it said on the tin" But that really is funny! Another good suggestion is to use old rice i.e. a day old or so that has been in the fridge. If you can't to that then cook your rice a bit earlier and dry it out in a low heat oven. Try not to burn it, but basically the dryer the rice the better it fries.

And to make the egg, mix 1-2 eggs with dark soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil. Heat wok, add egg mixture, let it cook a little then using a fork or spatula try and scramble it almost. Then add a touch more oil before adding the rice to the mixture, and then dark soy and blend together. It should only need to cook for a few minutes and keep mixing well to heat evenly.

[HAL9000]

Tarot Wrote:

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> Hal re you a chef?

No, just an enthusiastic amateur. I'm mainly self-taught in Chinese but have taken a course in Anglo-Indian style cuisine.

[katie1997]

but have taken a course in Anglo-Indian style cuisine.

... so how's the chicken tikka and chips coming along? :))

[HAL9000]

Chicken tikka with chips ? you philistine!

It has to be fragrant pilau rice or bust in my kitchen :)

[Ladymuck]

HAL9000 Wrote:

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> It has to be fragrant pilau rice or bust in my

> kitchen :)

Bust?:-S

[Ladymuck]

Tarot Wrote:

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> Hal re you a chef? I think you knowledge of

> cooking is admiarable, and I think you should be

> the forums cooking advisor.

HAL, you used to have a cookery thread. Why don't you revive it?