Sweet and Spicy Fishball Sauce

I know each and every Filipino has tried the “making tusok–tusok the fishball”  experience on the food cart of “manong  fishball “ vendor, it started out originally at 10 centavos each, but now it costs 50 cents a piece. In the early days

of this very popular street food favorite, it was only fishball and a set of at least three kinds of dipping sauces, sweet, spicy and vinegar. As years pass by manong fishball began adding other variety of food to fry like squid balls, kikiam, cocktail hotdogs, kwek-kwek  & tokneneng. The horrible news of getting hepatitis A and e-coli bacteria from those dipping sauces created a stigma and for awhile people try to avoid eating this famed street food. Now all vendors clearly advise or put up a sign near the sauce warning every buyer to dip the fishball only once to avoid the sauce from being contaminated.

 I have always tried to make my own homemade sauce but I had no success on coming up with a staple recipe. Browsing on YouTube I found 
 “Nanay Lilay's Fishball Sauce” recipe here. Check out her channel " NanayniKikay" for other interesting dishes she whips up on her kitchen.

 I am thankful that she gave the exact measurements and a procedure that is easy to follow with a clear explanation and video too. Since fishballs are easily available anywhere in the Asian market, I decided to  buy a pack of each variety and try her recipe for the sauce and it turned out real good. The sauce adheres and easily coats the fried squid balls and kikiam that I have bought from the grocery. Aside from being tasty it is so yummy and the balance of sweet and spicy blended so well. 

Thanks Pinay Cooking Lessons for sharing this wonderful recipe! :) -hir.

Ingredients:

¼ cup All Purpose Flour

¾ cup White Sugar

2 cups Water

5 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

½ Knorr Chicken Cubes or 1 pack Magic Sarap

¼ tsp. of red dye food color

2-3 pcs. Red Siling labuyo (bird’s eye chilies) finely chopped

1 tsp. iodized salt

Procedure:

Mix water, flour in a cooking pot, mix well until no lumps appear. 

Add sugar, onion, garlic, knorr cube and red chilies.

Mix well all the ingredients before cooking. 

Add the red food coloring and bring to a boil on medium heat. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency. 

 Allow to cool before serving.

Testing the quality-not too syrupy, nor too thick and quickly adheres to the squid balls i used...perfect.

Serve along with fried fishball, squid balls and kikiam. 

 Yummy sauce! Enjoy it.