Recipe: Sweet and Sour Sauce (using crushed pineapple)

SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped pimento
1/2 clove garlic, mashed
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
20 drops Tabasco sauce
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water

Use 1-quart glass or enamel saucepan. Combine pineapple, sugar, green pepper, pimento, garlic, vinegar, 1/4 cup water, soy sauce and Tabasco sauce. Mix and heat slowly 5 minutes. Remove garlic.

Stir cornstarch into 1/2 cup cold water until smooth. Stir into hot mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and clear, about 5 minutes boiling.

"Serve with deep-fat fried shrimp. In Chinese restaurants a spicy, hot mustard sauce, or a bland fruit sauce, such as stewed, sieved plums, is served with the sweet-and-sour sauces. Fried shrimp held by the tail are dipped first into one and then the other and eaten with the fingers."

Source: Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Cookbook by Amy Vanderbilt