I always make it from scratch. It's very simple, I do not have a recipe written down because the concept is do simple.


the sweet and sour sauce...

to make sweet and sour sauce all you really need is to understand the concept of why it is sweet, why it is sour, and why it is thick. basic ingredients are as follows.

Soy sauce (experiment with different kinds such as tamari, low sodium, light soy and dark soy).
Corn Starch (thickens the sweet and sour sauce).
Sugar (both white and brown sugars have different flavors and will change your sauce in their own way).
Ginger (simply imparts a delicious flavor)
Rice Vinegar (gives you the sour)
pineapple (pineapple juice and chunks impart a fruity taste on the sauce)

Many kinds of sweet and sour sauce that you find at the grocery store and in restaurants have a red color. this is often done with food coloring or ketchup (believe it or not) and often times a lack of soy sauce or they use light soy which is more amber in color.

of course there are common ingredients that go into sweet and sour recipes besides the sauce. there's green bell pepper's, red peppers, carrots, onions, and of course whatever meat you want in the recipe, chicken, pork, shrimp, etc.

if making sweet and sour shrimp be careful not to overcook the shrimp because chewy shrimp is no fun.

often times when you eat sweet and sour pork, the pork has breading on it. that breading is very simple. it's cornstarch. that's all. just coat the meat in cornstarch and deep fry it.

Enjoy. :)

I made some last night and in general I prefer to use dark tamari soy in my sauce. here's a pic from last night.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9201/1000935wu4.jpg

on a side note, in asian cooking, garlic and crushed red pepper are your friend.