Preparation / Directions:
Many of us are adept at doing a quick stir-fry-hot wok, hot oil, marinated meat, then vegetable, then a dollop of a special sauce. Done. Dinner. Yet, even though we know how to vary the dish with a wide variety of meats and vegetables, too often they taste the same. We use ginger, garlic, and soy sauce as seasonings, and occasionally the more adventurous throw in a couple of dried Sichuan peppers. If your taste buds ask, "Is this all there is?" maybe it's time to explore bottled Asian sauces. Lemon sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese barbecue, hoisin, and hot bean sauce are just some of the possibilities. Each of them can add a surprising amount of zest to your dinner. Once you understand the basics of stir-frying, you're ready to consider those sauces. For hundreds of years ceramic jars filled with sauces have been sold in marketplaces all over china. The sauces kept well on a shelf and were used by both chefs and housewives. Just a few people made their own soy sauce, few tried to re-create these aromatic combinations. They included, and still include, a whole group of sauces made with beans: hot bean sauce, hoisin sauce, yellow bean sauce, thick soy sauce, sweetened soy sauce and mushroom soy sauce. Vinegar, too, comes in a variety of flavors. Rice vinegar is most often seen in supermarkets as the clear yellow vinegar that comes from Japan. It may be used in any recipe, but just as raspberry vinegar and balsamic vinegar will give different tastes to a dish so will red and brown Chinese vinegars. Red vinegar is made from sorghum, rice and millet. Brown vinegar is made from glutinous rice and has an aged quality to it. If you have been trying to make Sesame Chicken or General Tso's Chicken and can't get it to taste quite right, the vinegar may be your missing ingredient. Lemon sauce is made with lemons, sugar and vinegar, which seems simple enough to make yourself, yet my taste buds tell me that there is something special about the lemons used to make it, so I buy the ready-made sauce. In addition to using it in chicken stir-fries, I like to use this sauce as a glaze on baked or grilled chicken by brushing it on during the last 10 minutes. Hot bean sauce comes in two flavors, black bean and chili and soy bean and chili. Either one will be very hot and add complex flavors beyond the chili heat. Try adding a teaspoon or two too your regular stir fry. Hoisin sauce is the wonderful reddish brown sauce smeared on the pancakes for Peking duck and Mu shu pork. It is slightly sweet and very flavorful. As an ingredient it adds both smooth texture and a deep sweet flavor to roast pork and BBQ spareribs. Use it in stir-fried dishes, especially those that include pork and duck. Use it simply by adding a tablespoon to your normal stir-fry mixture. You may also want to try brushing it on a grilled or fried pork medallion or chop at the end of cooking. Thick soy sauce (also known as soy paste) will add a deep color and rich taste to your brown sauces. It is the soy component in soy sauce with a much lower salt level. Where regular soy sauce has about 1,000 mg of sodium in a tablespoon, thick soy has just under 100 mg. Those who are limiting salt in their diet may want to play with thick soy as a substitute. Try diluting it with three parts water and using it as if it were regular soy sauce. (That drops the sodium content to about 33 mg per tablespoon). Chinese barbecue sauce tastes quite different depending on the manufacturer. Some sauces are hot, tomato-based red sauces and others are fruity, sweet and rich. Koon Chun makes a barbecue sauce that is flavored with tomato, garlic, plum, chili and sesame. It is deep, rich and fruity. In addition to adding a tablespoon or so to your chicken stir-fries, you might like using it on grilled meats. Oyster sauce is made with oysters, yet it's best use is with beef. In beef stir-fries the oyster sauce seems to enhance the flavor of the beef and one is not aware of any seafood taste. Using your regular stir-fry techniques on some thin-sliced tender steak, with Many of us are adept at doing a quick stir-fry-hot wok, hot oil, marinated meat, then vegetable, then a dollop of a special sauce. Don
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