Quickly made, Asian-sweet chili sauce

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 5 g sugar
• 200 ml water
• 50 g tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes from the can
• 5 ml soy sauce
• 2 g potato starch
• 1 g sambal oelek

Instructions

Working time approx. 7 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 5 minutes; Total time approx. 12 minutes

Sweet Chili Sauce

Everyone knows the sweet and sour sauce from Chinese restaurants, often served with spring rolls, and also available inexpensively in Asian shops or from brands like Bamboo Garden in the supermarket. But no one knows that you can make this sauce yourself in no time and with better results, especially if you have tomato sauce made from skinned, cooked tomatoes on hand. The recipes here on Chefkoch are usually more complicated, so here’s the quick version. Dissolve the cornstarch in 100 ml of cold water. Add the sugar to a pan, spread it evenly over the base, and heat until the sugar melts and turns to brown caramel. Deglaze with 100 ml of water and wait until the caramel has dissolved in the water. Then add the tomato sauce. If you don’t have any on hand, use a can of skinned tomatoes. It’s important that the seeds are included, so don’t use strained tomatoes or tomato paste. Add the soy sauce, a pinch of sambal oelek, and, once the water has evaporated, the water with the dissolved starch powder. The sauce will thicken to a translucent orange and be ready to serve in a minute. No vinegar? That’s right. I wanted a sweet and spicy sauce, not a sweet and sour sauce, which I find always contains too much vinegar. No paprika? That’s right. It cooks down rather slowly and often adds a bitter note. There’s enough salt in the soy sauce. You can add other spices along with the tomatoes if you like. Suggestions: garlic, ginger, fennel seeds, tiny diced onions, or pineapple for a fruitier sweetness.