Tuesday's Kitchen - Sweet & Sour Chicken

This week my daughter has her Junior Cert Practical Cookery exam for Home Economics. She has to prepare this Sweet and Sour recipe for her examiner along with a fruit smoothie. I think this is worth about 35% of the overall grade so it's fairly important.

I thought I would share it with you because it is actually very nice and needless to say she has been up to high doe for the past week getting ready for this and we have had it for dinner almost every night. I'm not sure where the recipe has come from as it is just on a photocopied sheet.

She and all other students will get 30 minutes preparation time and 90 minutes exam time in which they must also prepare an evaluation. Sounds quite nerve wrecking for me never mind a 15 year old but she has already proved herself to be a very promising cook and I have no doubt she will deliver on the day!

Before you start you will need;

* Chopping Board
* Knife
* 2 Heavy Saucepans (or 1 wok)
* Wooden Spoon
* Side Plate
* Pot Stand
* Teaspoon
* Tablespoon
* Serving Dish

Ingredients;

* 2/3 chicken fillets (or you could also use pork chops)
* 1 onion
* 1 clove garlic
* 1 pepper (red/green/yellow)
* 1 carrot
* 1 tablespoon of oil
* 2 teaspoons of cornflour
* 1/2 can pineapple and juice
* 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon vinegar
* 1 teaspoon brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon tomato puree
* Salt and pepper to taste

Method;
1.  Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas3.

2.  Wash, de-seed and dice your pepper. Peel and slice the onion         finely.

3. Peel and crush the garlic. Peel and cut the carrot into thin strips.

4. Cut your chicken into pieces, heat the oil in the wok or saucepan and sear the meat. Remove to side plate once all  the meat has been seared.

5. Add the onion, carrot and garlic to the wok and saute for 2 mins.                                                             

Then return the chicken along with the peppers and cover. 

6. Add the pineapple juice to a measuring jug and make up to 400ml with water. Blend in the cornflour with the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.

7. Simmer this for about 30 minutes until the meat is nice and tender. Stir from time to time to stop it from sticking.

8. We used rice to serve it with but you could use noodles as well. Boil up your rice - we allow 75g per person.

9. Once the rice is boiled, place everything in your serving dish. 

This will serve 3/4 people.

Now, all I need to do is wish her the very best of luck!!