accidental sweet & sour sauce

My kiddos simply love sweet & sour meat, especially HQ. When there is sweet & sour meat on the menu, he eats at record speed :-D.

I attempted to cook this dish a few times before, but according to my fussy pot, my sweet sour meat is "Not nice. Popo cook nicer." :-(. Problem is, I cooked exactly like how popo taught me! So how come not nice??? *scratch head*

Then, this friend of mine posted this recipe on her blog. Her secret to succulent and tender meat is to tap the slices of meat with the cleaver. Clever ya?

- My family only eats lean meat and so I used lean meat. First I cut the meat to bite-sized pieces (about 2 inch squares). I followed her tip and whacked the pieces of meats without mercy. This step really tenderized the meat and made chewing so much easier for kids.

- Next, I marinated the meat (had time to marinate for 10 minutes only and didn't add cooking wine). I think the egg made the meat really tasty.

- Coated them in cornflour and fried them. After frying, they do looked good enough to eat, isn't it? - When it's time to mix the sweet & sour sauce, I discovered I do not have any tomato ketchup in my refrigerator... not even the fast food sachet kind. Oh dear... how? Lacking of ingredients often happen in this household :-S. Time to innovate...

- I found a can of whole tomatoes. I mixed the whole tomatoes (mashed) and sugar together, but it tasted horrible

- Rummaged the fridge and added a few ingredients *crossed my fingers*. I let the mixture simmer in a separate saucepan until thickens, and guess what? I had a winner sweet & sour sauce!

Accidental Sweet & Sour Sauce
1 can whole tomatoes - mashed
9 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons plum sauce (leftover in the fridge)
3 tablespoons lemon juice

The above is definitely too much for one sweet and sour dish. I spooned the remaining into a Lock & Lock container and put it into the freezer. Now I have sweet & sour sauce ready to use anytime! :-D

I think the plum sauce and lemon juice really turned the canned tomatoes around. They tasted so wonderful together! Just the correct amount of sweetness and sourness! I bet it will taste really great with chili sauce added as well!

So, if you're like me, and find yourself without any ketchup at home, try my accidental sweet & sour sauce. You'll be really surprised with the result. But if you have tomato ketchup, do try Penny's recipe :-).

Here's the final dish, meat pieces, carrot and onions in my accidental sweet & sour sauce (see the bits of mashed canned tomatoes?). Since I have ready sweet & sour sauce in the freezer now, I cook this dish more often. Tried ma yau fish with tomato wedges (sorry, I already dug half the fish before I remember to snap a photo). And fried chicken and canned pineapples. Yummy!My sweet & sour sauce is discovered accidentally, but it really gave a twist to the final dish... slightly different but yummy. My whole family, including my fussy pot loves it.

one of my favourite moments

One of my favourite moments is when HQ acts all brotherly towards his little sister :-D.

These pictures were taken when HQ’s school was having a parent-teacher meet up and a colouring competition on one Sunday. Hubby, QQ and I only arrived at the school later, after the kids had all done their colouring.

HQ was surprised and happy that we brought his little sister along. Hubby and I did not need to look after QQ, as HQ had taken up the responsibility himself :-)

Showing her sister around the school compound. Admiring the artworks done by the 6 year olds. HQ’s entry for the 4 year old, which didn’t win a prize. We told HQ “It’s ok, important thing is you participated :-)”. It's now on our refrigerator door. All the other 4 year old entries. As everyone waited for their turns to meet their kids’ class teachers, the kids were asked to sit in the main hall, with the television showing last year’s recorded concert. I managed to snap some photos of my kiddos while waiting.

And when I left to meet HQ’s class teacher (overall HQ is ok; he's placed 3rd among twenty six students for the term’s exams), hubby took over and managed to snap the rest:

Making sure meimei gets a seat “What is wrong, meimei?” A protective big brother :-D HQ is very proud of his meimei :-D Sharing his bread, given out by the school, with meimei “Sit properly, meimei...” HQ, who normally would have ran around, played chase, and nosed around, was very attentive to his little sister on that day. Hubby and I were amused, tickled and definitely very happy to see him so protective over his little sister :-D.

do we...?

Last Friday, I attended my company’s (group level) Annual Leadership Conference.

Like every year, there were colleagues coming from various subsidiary companies, located at different parts of the country, as well as from a number of oversea countries. There were a total of 366 participants this year.

Like every year, there’s a theme, or a focus for the Group’s direction. Presentations were made by different subsidiaries on the achievements, strategies, and plans based on the theme. And like the past Leadership Conferences, I’m impressed and blessed with the group’s achievements.

Unlike every year, there is no book of note (based on the theme) to bring home this time.

But like every year, yummy food was abundant:
- buffet breakfast from as early as 7.00am to 8.30am.
- tea break from 10.00am – 10.30am.
- lunch from 1.00pm – 2.00pm.
- tea break from 4.00pm – 4.30pm.
- Luckily there’s no dinner involved this year.

With all the yummy spread of food, it’s hard to decline. There was not a single moment I was hungry in the conference (whereas on normal working days, I am often hungry and frequently munching on snacks).

It’s a norm, isn’t it? Every conference/ seminar/ course that I attend, I am sure to be bombarded with food. Do we really need to eat so frequent? And so much? I mean food takes quite awhile to be digested. I wonder if this is a normal Malaysian practice or is this happening at other parts of the world as well?