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I prefer Battered meat for dipping into the sauce.

Yes, some places here make a redder sauce, but I've not seen any with tomatoes in it.

I've made this a time or two without any batter on the meat, just plain straight up with the sauce. To me it was fine cause I'm not overly fond of S&S anyway. It's ok and I will eat it, but I could do just as well without it. The boys complained though.....'where's the batter???'

Here they put pineapple, green peppers and firm tomatoes in the sweet & sour sauce plus the sauce is red, not yellow/orange.

I’ve seen recipes that call for adding ketchup to the sauce to make it into the red sauce but I think it’s probably cherry juice added instead of ketchup. It doesn’t taste like ketchup/tomato, it’s sweeter.

I have used gluten free flour in place of regular flour to batter my fish and chicken with good results. I’ve omitted the eggs and used seltzer water or sparkling water to make the batter. If you have lemon, orange or pineapple flavored sparkling water that would probably work well for the batter if you are going to serve the battered food in a sweet & sour dish.

This one looks really good too. I will be trying this one for sure.

Sweet & Sour Chicken or Pork (or whatever meat you want to use)

1lb meat, cut into large chunks
oil for frying

Batter:

1 C flour
2 T cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp oil
2 eggs
enough water to make a smooth batter

Mix ingredients for batter, dip the meat till well coated and fry in oil till done & browned. Drain on paper towels

Sweet & Sour Sauce:

1 1/2 C water
1 C thick sliced celery
1 green pepper cut in chunks or strips
1/3 C cider vinegar
1/3 C brown sugar
2 T Soy Sauce
2 T cornstarch
Pineapple chunks

Cook celery & pepper in oil a few minutes. Add water, vinegar, brown sugar & soy sauce. Mix well. Bring to boil, turn down heat. Simmer 4 minutes. Mix cornstarch with 1/4 more water or pinapple juice till smooth. Add to sauce and stir till thickened & bubbly. Add pineapple and stir to heat thru.



Note*** I've never seen celery in S&S before, Here they usually add sliced carrots instead, so that can be used in place of the celery or added with it. For a GF version, maybe use a different type flour, or even skip the batter all together, cook the meat pieces, make the sauce and pour over the top