Sweet and Sour Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking

I'm Nigel Slater.

I love simple cooking

and my favourite dishes are often based on the simplest combinations.

And that's what I'll be looking at this series.

From soft and crisp, and surf and turf

to something spicy with something cool.

All those elements that make something quite exciting to eat.

It's acidic and hot and sweet and sour

and it's all mixed up.

I'll look at classic combinations and some surprising new twists.

Wow!

I want to show you why they work so well

so you'll feel confident to produce food marriages made in heaven.

Oh, that smells amazing!

I'm starting with an all-time favourite, sweet and sour.

My love of sweet and sour started with Mum's pancakes with lemon and sugar.

And now it's little meringues and lemon curd.

From light suppers and tasty snacks to a heavenly dessert.

This is going to be a wonderful treat for the taste buds.

A cook never stops learning, I'm no exception.

So as well as creating my favourite sweet and sour dishes,

I'll be meeting two friends to see how they cook theirs.

Just amazing. Thank you very much.

The combination of sweet and sour is the secret behind

so many of our meals, including one of my all-time favourites.

I do love the Sunday roast, that big family sized piece of meat

and all those luscious little accompaniments.

But until recently I hadn't worked out

what it really is that I so love about it.

What I realised is that it's the marriage

of a very sweet meat, quite rich and fatty...

..with that knife-sharp sauce that cuts through it

and my favourite of all, roast pork and apple sauce.

Of course it's not a weekday thing.

I want something quicker and cheaper.

So I cook a chop, a big pork chop.

People are often surprised to think of meat as sweet.

But it is, especially pork.

So to bring out that sweetness,

I'm going to simply pair my chop with some sharp gooseberries,

though a tart apple or pear would do.

I love a chop. Especially a big one with a bone in it.

And a lovely rim of fat to go with it.

Add nothing more than a sprinkling of salt and pepper,

before popping into the pan with a little butter and oil.

When the surface of the meat and the fat hits the hot pan,

the sugars in it start to caramelise

and you get this sweet, sticky goo forming on the bottom of the pan.

Once I put my sour fruit in there,

then the two come together to form the sweet and the sour.

It's a wonderful mixture.

There's always that temptation to move the chop around the pan.

But I don't want to. I want to leave it be to form a crust underneath.

So, a little bit of pepper.

I fancy a few herbs in there, too.

A few sprigs of thyme always works beautifully with pork.

I need a little bit of liquid in there.

And it's pork, so cider would work, white wine would work,

I'm going to use a bit of white vermouth.

This will sizzle and spit a bit.

Just about a wine glass full.

What's happening is that the liquid that I've poured in

is going to dissolve all the gooey sweetness stuck to the bottom of the pan.

And it will also help to soften my gooseberries,

which will only take a matter of minutes.

The only way to really tell, of course, is to taste.

There's a lovely sourness there.

But this is the point when I work out

whether I'm going to put a little bit more sugar in

or whether it needs more sourness, squirt of lemon juice.

Maybe a bit of cider vinegar.

I think that needs a tiny little bit of sugar, not much.

This is where it gets interesting and we can make the dish our own.

When the gooseberries are like a rough puree,

they are ready to serve up.

Don't forget the juices in the pan.

Because that's where the sweetness of the meat juices

and the sourness of the fruit get together,

and that's where the real magic is.

So...

It's got that sourness I was after and the sweetness from the meat.

You don't really think of meat being sweet,

but it actually is because the sugars caramelise

and then they nick all the sourness from the fruit,

and that's exactly what I'm after, that sweet and sour kick.

This is such an easy and tasty recipe

to show how sour and sweet works in the kitchen.

Pork and gooseberry is my favourite,

but you could use apple, or any sharp fruit you have around.

Just don't forget to let your meat caramelise in the pan,

for the most delicious results.

I'm a big believer that a cook should never stop learning.

Shopping is great for inspiration. Particularly the bakers.

There seems to be a new flavour of loaf each time I go.

Rye bread is a favourite, a classic sourdough loaf.

I've never really experimented with its bitter quality, though, other than in a safe sandwich.

But that's exactly what I want to try and do now,

and I have the perfect sweet partner in mind.

It occurred to me that I haven't yet used a sweet veg

for my sweet and sour.

I've gone for the sweetest of all, beetroot.

My first experience of it was pickled beetroot,

which I hated when I was a kid, and now I love.

I want another way to introduce sourness to it.

And because it works so well with goats' cheeses,

it occurred to me that I can play with that somehow.

So it's a bit of an experiment, this dish.

I'll mix the beetroot with the goats' cheese

and see if I can use my loaf, too.

It's just a chance to explore the sweet and the sour relationship, really, and see what we get.

I've decided to roast the beets

with a little oil and simple seasoning.

I could boil them.

But when you roast beetroot, the sweetness intensifies.

And I really want to push the sweetness out.

A splash of water will help keep them moist.

I just wrap it up loosely and then bake it for

probably about 40 minutes,

until it's just tender to the point of a knife.

Those beautiful beetroot leaves are too tasty for the compost

so they just get a quick rinse and a steam, a two-minute job.

This is where the fun starts.

Now my beetroot is cooked,

I can start introducing some other flavours.

I'm just going to put a little bit of Vinegar in.

You could use red wine vinegar,

but I'm thinking I want something sweeter...and fruitier.

So this is a bit of raspberry vinegar.

I want something really sharp with this.

And I know that goats' cheese works very well with beetroot.

It's the only cheese that does.

The reason it works is that it's got that little piquancy,

that little spritz of sourness to it.

To push this sourness as far as I can

I'm adding some goats' yogurt to the cheese.

A little bit of seasoning, some salty gherkins

and a few chives will finish off my sour cheese mix.

Now for that juicy beetroot, with its raspberry vinegar dressing.

Those crunchy beetroot leaves and, lastly, my fresh sour bread.

So.

I've taken the sweetest veg, and made the sourest dressing.

So many things I make, I know exactly what it's going to be like.

And sometimes, it comes as a surprise.

I knew that the beetroot would be sweet and a little bit earthy

and I knew that the goats' cheese would be a little bit sour,

but by putting in the yoghurt and raspberry vinegar,

I've heightened the whole thing,

and it's absolutely delicious and it's very sweet and sour.

It just goes to show what you can do with one simple principle.

I've always been fascinated with food from other cultures.

And when it comes to sweet and sour,

the countries of Southeast Asia take some beating.

I grew up in a family and there was always a lot of cooking,

and we'd make meals two or three times a day,

and there was always anniversaries and big gatherings on Sundays.

How can I help you, please? Chicken, yeah?

I think food is something very personal,

it's the best way to express yourself.

People eat and people can tell how much love you put into it.

Anh and Van are best friends who share a passion for Vietnamese cuisine.

Down at their local market, they've developed quite a following

for their traditional sweet and sour street food.

I'd love to find out how these girls became such great cooks.

So they're rustling up one of their specials for me.

A sea bass summer roll with pineapple dip.

It all starts with a special marinade for the fish.

So, how come you're cooking? Who taught you to cook?

I have a lot of influence from my mother but then I observed a lot

when I came to this country, which was about ten years ago.

And I realised, oh, my God, the food is totally different.

And then you miss all the home-cooked meals.

And then I started to remember how my mother did it

and then I try to replicate it.

So, ginger, garlic, chilli, dill,

-water and a little bit of sugar.

-Yeah.

Maybe about four of lemon.

We usually put the fish sauce last.

Everything else you can kind of adjust,

but the fish sauce is very powerful and is very hard to sort of fix it,

so usually we add it last and we add it little by little.

Anh is using one of my favourite ingredients to flavour the fish - lemongrass.

So, we'll split the skin horizontally, maybe three times.

Simply so that the marinade gets right down?

-So that the marinade gets in.

-All the way in.

It is one of those dishes that is really, really easy to make.

You don't need a lot of crazy ingredients,

cos it's all, yeah, available.

While that cooks, the girls want to show me how they make

their sweet and sour dipping sauce, using a base of crushed pineapple.

This is the heavy one we have.

-This is the world's heaviest pestle and mortar. Shall I take that?

-Yeah.

OK, we start adding a bit of fish sauce in here.

-And the amount depends on the sweetness of the pineapple?

-Exactly.

Now, because I could say the pineapple's a bit sweet,

so I add a bit of lemon so that it's got that sourness.

Now, I think, just add a bit of chilli.

Have a taste of that, and see how...

-It's delicious!

-It's very simple. There's not...

-Three ingredients!

-Yes! The three ingredients.

That is the fish done now. The fish is off now.

-Magnificent looking fish.

-There we go.

I'd normally just tuck right into that fish,

but there's one last thing to do before the roll is ready to eat.

This is the rice paper. I normally use the thin one.

Then you just add a bit of water, so to wet it.

Ah! I've been soaking that. That's where I've been going wrong.

Because, when you're soaking them, it becomes much too soft.

-Very fragile?

-Yes.

So, not too much noodles because you want to taste everything else.

-Like that, and then I would take the fish. Just take the fish out.

-OK.

I roll this first. And then, you now, you can add cucumber.

-Courgette.

-Courgette. Or something.

-The temptation is always to add lots of things and make them very big.

-Then you roll it.

So, now, you just roll it, slowly.

-Then you fold it over. Then we roll a bit more.

-And that's it.

-You probably want to put it in a plate.

-Yep.

-Isn't that gorgeous?

-Yeah.

So, that eats so good.

And you know what I love about it, more than anything else?

It's when you get a bit of the fish skin. The grilled fish skin.

With the pineapple. And with all the crunchiness. Just amazing.

-Thank you very much. So good.

-I'm glad you enjoyed it.

-I do.

Now I can sleep!

What a treat for the taste buds.

I'll certainly be giving that one a go.

There's usually some sweet and sour in almost everyone's kitchen.

That jar of chutney, either commercial stuff

or something that has been given as a gift.

Those wonderful people who make chutney themselves and give it away as presents.

It's so useful.

And for far more than just sticking with your ploughman's.

You can have it with roast beef, or maybe a bit of salmon.

I like to call this my quick and easy oven chutney.

It really couldn't be simpler

and will be the perfect partner to some oily salmon I've got tucked in the fridge.

I'm using sweet shallots, but you could use small onions.

I boil them for 10 to 15 minutes to soften them.

It also makes the skins easier to get off.

So, I start my a chutney recipe with some lovely, soft brown sugar.

Like muscovado,

but you can use a dark one if you like a really rich chutney.

You need a good four tablespoons.

The sugar gives it a deep, rich bass note,

but that's not the only sweetness I'm going to use.

Stick some dried fruit in it.

I've got raisins, I've got golden sultanas.

You could use almost any dried fruit,

like dried cranberries or even dried cherries.

A few spices will balance the sweetness of the sugar and dried fruit.

Allspice berries will give warmth

and a sprinkling of mustard seeds will give a lovely crunch.

So, that's the sweetness and the spice.

I need a little bit of acidity in there.

And for that, I'm using quite a bit of cider vinegar.

Fruit vinegars tend to be quite mellow, so be generous.

This chutney needs some extra savour,

so a good handful of thyme is going in.

Give it a generous seasoning before the onions go in.

This needs a... Squeeze them out of their skins.

I want a hint of garlic, too. So some whole cloves.

Lastly, some cooking liquid from the onion water

and some silky rapeseed oil. Olive oil would be just as lovely.

Beautiful colour.

I put in three tablespoonfuls of this. A good stir.

That will need around an hour in a moderate oven.

This is my kind of chutney making!

Just have a quick look at it. Just to see how it's coming along.

Just a little taste.

There's plenty of sweetness there and a little bit of spice

but it needs a little bit more punch.

So, I'm just going to put in a wee bit more vinegar.

This is the bit I really like, when you actually make a recipe your own.

And you think it needs a little bit more spice, a little bit more salt,

and a little bit more sweetening.

And it's when you put your fingerprint on it.

I reckon the sour fruit and vinegars will be perfect with this oily salmon.

All it needs is a little seasoning and a trickle of oil.

That should only need another ten minutes before it's ready to eat.

Smells very good.

Little bit sharp, a bit fruity, I'd be happy to eat it like that,

but I always like a bit of green on the plate,

so I'm tempted to put a little bit of watercress on there, too.

I worried for a minute

that the salmon wouldn't stand up to the pickle, but it so does.

In fact, it's sensational. It really, really works.

And a much better use for chutney than a ploughman's!

It's a lovely little dish.

It's the combination of the sweet dried fruits, silky onions

and sour vinegar that makes this simple chutney work.

Put in with some juicy salmon or cold meat

and I promise, you've got a truly divine supper.

Best friends Anh and Van have inspired me with their Vietnamese stall food.

I love how they use the freshest sweet and sour ingredients to make a delicious takeaway.

I want to cook them something just as simple and tasty.

It's my take on a fish-finger sandwich,

using my favourite - monkfish.

This is almost so simple, it's barely a recipe.

I think, you know, food is the best when it's very simple.

It's slightly fashionable in Britain

to throw as many ingredients as you can at something

and I'm fighting against it.

I like to take things away rather than add them, most of the time.

-Now, I've got some limes here. I know you used lemons.

-Yeah, yeah.

I think of the spring onion as the sweetest of the onions,

and what I'm hoping is that the sweetness of the onion

and then the sour of the limes,

and then just the natural sweetness of the fish

will work together in a very simple way.

-Yeah.

-I want to roll it up.

-I'm going to put a little bit of water in there.

-Yeah.

-And hopefully will create its own steam.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-And put that on...

-Yeah.

..the heat. Let's see.

It's a bit of an experiment, this, I have to be honest with you.

So we'll see.

These lovely crisp chicory leaves are going to be the bread in my sandwich.

Well, something's happening!

Its bubbling, and I think there's juice that's seeping out.

It smells really, really good.

Oh, look! Oh, fantastic! Look at that.

It smells really, really nice. It almost smells like the sea, to me.

Cos you've got the sea salt

and then you've got the sweetness of the fish

and then the fish and the sea salt.

And the lime, the lime also rises, doesn't it?

That's lovely to hear.

-Mind you don't dribble that juice down you.

-Mmm!

OK, thank you so much.

Mmm! It's really good.

What I'd really like to know...

is that, exactly as it is... You know that marinade you made?

-Mmm.

-Yeah.

-Just a little bit of that marinade!

-Mm-hm!

That's what I'd like.

Simple recipes like this are definitely the best way to taste the different flavours.

It really is worth experimenting, though,

so check out the website for lots of sweet and sour inspiration.

You know, I think my love of sweet and sour goes right back to when I was a kid

and I found the sourest thing you could possibly find,

which was a cooking apple, or a stick of rhubarb.

And I used to cut it into chunks and dip it into the sugar bag.

It drove my mother mad, but I loved doing it.

What I loved about it was that intense sweetness

followed by a real punch in the face from the rhubarb.

That real sourness.

My grown-up version is a quick dish of rhubarb and caramel sauce.

Real comfort food,

but still gives me that sour hit with a wonderfully sugary sauce.

Just throw a few sticks of chopped rhubarb into a pan with some sugar,

just to take the sour edge off it.

And the amount of sugar really depends on the rhubarb itself.

So, in the spring, when the rhubarb is actually quite sweet

and very delicately flavoured, it doesn't need that much sugar at all.

And as the year progresses, I put a little bit more in.

A drop of water will help soften the rhubarb.

Just enough to poach it. And to end up with a syrup.

Cover that with a lid, and just leave it to stew for a few minutes.

Once the rhubarb is tender enough to take the point of a knife easily, it's ready.

I'm just going to lift the rhubarb out.

It's rather important that it's really soft and silky.

Undercooked rhubarb is no fun at all.

And what's left in the pan is really the very essence of the rhubarb.

So, to that, we add some sugar.

I'm using light muscovado sugar to give my sauce an almost butterscotch flavour.

Just let that melt into the rhubarb juices.

Add to that, a little bit of cream.

Cream works beautifully with any sour fruit.

About 125ml.

Just stir that into the sugar and rhubarb juice.

It's almost like making rhubarb and custard,

except without the faff of making custard.

Finally, a few drops of vanilla extract for extra sweetness.

So...

The poached rhubarb, the rhubarb juice

and then this butterscotch-sweet sauce.

It tastes of sugar...

and it tastes of vanilla, but at its heart,

is the very essence of the rhubarb. So it's a mixture of sweet and sour.

It's so lovely.

It's got the intense butterscotch sweetness

and then a hit of true sourness.

It's almost like a grown-up version of sticking my rhubarb into the sugar bag.

Considering it was so little trouble, that's a real sweet treat.

This twist on the classic rhubarb and custard

marries the sweetest and the sourest to perfection.

Just make sure your rhubarb is really soft.

I've made some very different dishes here,

but all share one thing in common.

They taste great because of the marriage of two flavours.

In this case, the sweet with the sour.

Next time, I'll be exploring a very different pairing in the kitchen...

surf and turf.

I'll be rustling up some of my favourites

and heading out to find out how other people do it, too.

It's absolutely gorgeous!

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