Sweet and sour chicken

How often do we feel like trying something with a completely different flavour, perhaps on a limited budget? With this recipe you can transform some simple chicken - in this case organic chicken pieces - into a superb, economical dish inspired by the Far East. It's a chance to recreate at home the flavours you might have tried at a Chinese restaurant, and to discover that recipes that might seem complicated, are often, in the end, nothing of the kind!

Start with the sauce: put a two-finger depth of water in a saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients: tomato paste, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, cornflour. Mix well, bring to the boil and simmer until this Chinese sweet and sour sauce reaches the correct gelatinous consistency and the desired density. Remove from heat. Dip the chicken pieces in flour and shake off the excess. Brown them well on both sides in a frying pan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add the bell pepper chopped into small chunks, and the sliced onion. Fry everything for 10 minutes, then add the white wine and reduce. When cooked, add the cubed pineapple and cook for two minutes more. Finish with three or four tablespoons of the sweet and sour sauce. Mix well and serve hot.