Sweet and Sour Chicken

This week's challenge was 'food you hated as a kid'. I had to go to my husband for this one, because personally, I continue to hate cauliflower and scallops, and in fact find that there are more tastes that have gone the other way for me - i.e. I used to like them and now do not - dark chocolate, Hostess snowballs, etc. So, after Dan failed to convince me that he really used to hate chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, we went for Chinese food. That is, I made it - not that we called it a night and went out for Chinese food. That wouldn't have been bad either, but less conducive to cooking blogs.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe that I used:

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Batter
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup lager beer

Sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbsp. cold water

4 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces for dipping
vegetable oil, for deep frying
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp cashews
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup canned pineapple chunks, drained

To make batter, sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the center, add 1/2 cup of beer and whisk, gradually adding the remaining beer. Let stand 30 minutes.

To make sauce, stir sauce ingredients except cornstarch in saucepan over low heat until honey is melted. Stir in dissolved cornstarch and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until just thickened.

At this point, the sauce refused to thicken for me, and I put in a little flour. Unfortunately, I put it in too quickly and it formed lumps, which I had to strain out later. Don't do that.

Preheat oven to 200F. Fill a wok halfway with oil and heat it. Place the flour in a bowl. In batches, toss the chicken in the flour, then coat in batter and add to hot oil. Deep fry for about 3 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a baking sheet lined with paper towels and keep warm in the oven.

I didn't have as much cooking oil as I expected, and ended up pan frying instead of deep frying, which took longer. Also, the coating got a little flaky, and some of it fell off. As a result, my husband and I purchased a deep fryer that night, so next time we can do it in style, and hopefully make chicken that tastes just like a Chinese restaurant. Or closer, anyway!

Assuming you deep fried in a pan, pour all but 2 tbsp of oil from the wok and return to high heat. (Or, if you have considerably less oil in the pan, as I did, leave it there) Add the cashews and stir fry 30 seconds. Transfer to baking sheet. Add red pepper and stir fry 2 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Add green onions and pineapple and stir fry 1 minute.

I served the sauce on the side, but put the cashews and veggies in with the chicken, because we wanted Chinese restaurant sweet and sour chicken, which you dip in the sauce. It turned out like this:

 What do you think, readers? If you were forced to cook something now that you hated as a kid, what would it be? How have your tastes changed as you've gotten older? Do you love more things you once hated, or hate more things you once loved?