Chinese Sauces
 

Hey all,
New to the group and looking for good healthy asian sauce recipes, garlic
( brown spicy ) type for one. I would like to make my own chicken& brocoli
in garlic sauce type dishes, the sauces off the shefves in grocers are
horrible. Thank you!

Chinese Sauces
 

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 18:14:09 -0600, Steve Wertz
> wrote:

>On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 16:40:27 -0500, "Grip" >
>wrote:
>
>>Hey all,
>>New to the group and looking for good healthy asian sauce recipes, garlic
>>( brown spicy ) type for one. I would like to make my own chicken& brocoli
>>in garlic sauce type dishes, the sauces off the shefves in grocers are
>>horrible. Thank you!
>
>Oyster sauce makes everything better. Buy either the Amoy Brand
>(w/dried scallop, preferably) or Lee Kum Kee's *Premium* brand (it
>has a gondola-type boat on the label - not the red label).
>
>Then pick up some sesame oil, chili flakes in oil/chili paste,
>rice vinegar, rice wine (Shao Hsing), dark and light soy sauces,
>black (Chinkiang) vinegar, make some condensed chicken and seafood
>sauces (or cheat and buy Minor's soup stock bases), cornstarch,
>peanut oil, chili oil, chinese black beans... Garlic, ginger, star
>anise, palm sugar, white pepper... I think that's about it. Did I
>get carried away or forget anything? :-)
>
>From these ingredients you can make 98% of all chinese sauces.
>Most requiring only 4-5 of the above ingredients. Keep a supply
>of various dried noodles and rice on hand and you can make
>practically anything with any vegetables/meat you have at the
>moment.

You forgot hoisin, my personal favorite.
------------
There are no atheists in foxholes
or in Fenway Park in an extra inning
game.
____

Cape Cod Bob

Delete the two "spam"s for email

Chinese Sauces
 

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
...
<snip>
> Then pick up some sesame oil, chili flakes in oil/chili paste,
> rice vinegar, rice wine (Shao Hsing), dark and light soy sauces,
> black (Chinkiang) vinegar, make some condensed chicken and seafood
> sauces (or cheat and buy Minor's soup stock bases), cornstarch,
> peanut oil, chili oil, chinese black beans... Garlic, ginger, star
> anise, palm sugar, white pepper... I think that's about it. Did I
> get carried away or forget anything? :-)

i'd add spring onions, dried scallops, dried shrimps (incl. soaking water)
to that list. For convenience & to save time, i also use LeeKumKee's Chinese
marinade, Chicken marinade, Seafood marinade & CharSiu sauce. Other sauces &
condiments i use include honey or rock sugar, tomato ketchup, fruit sauces
or jams & HK styled XO sauce. These are common enough in a Southern
Chinese/Cantonese kitchen. I also use fermented red & plain tofu,
salted/fermented soya beans, ChouHou sauce, sweet bean paste, chilli bean
paste, sesame paste, various pickled vegs. & dried peels like
orange/tangerine for Sichuan & other regional Chinese foods, these are now
slowly becoming popular in the West. For hotpots, braising, stews, roasts
etc.. a bag of various spices incl. 5 spice or it's individual elements are
used but that's going into a different area of cooking. Oh yes... various
types of homemade flavoured oils/lards too.

DC.

Chinese Sauces
 

The brown garlic sauce I was thinking of is sort of sweet, and hot as well,
guess it's time to start mixin'! Thanks all
"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:26:05 -0500, Cape Cod Bob
> > wrote:
>
> >You forgot hoisin, my personal favorite.
>
> Ahh, but you can *make* hoisin sauce with the ingredients I listed
> :-)
>
> -sw (not a big hoisin sauce fan - usually too sweet)

Pho soup sauces. Was Chinese Sauces
 

Grip wrote on Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:41:45 -0500:

??>>> You forgot hoisin, my personal favorite.
??>>
??>> Ahh, but you can *make* hoisin sauce with the ingredients
??>> I listed :-)
??>>
??>> -sw (not a big hoisin sauce fan - usually too sweet)

It occurred to me to wonder how people use the sauces with
Vietnamese Pho soup? Over the years, I have decided that about a
soup spoon of hoisen sauce stirred in is about right. I also
make a 1:1 mixture of hoisen and chili sauces for dipping the
meat. Quick glances around seem to confirm that people of
possible Vietnamese provenance do very similar things though my
favorite place is popular with all sorts of people and also
supplies fish sauce (nuoc mam?) and even salt and pepper!

James Silverton.
Potomac, Maryland

Chinese Sauces
 

"Grip" > wrote in message
.. .
> The brown garlic sauce I was thinking of is sort of sweet, and hot as
> well,
> guess it's time to start mixin'! Thanks all

sounds like a sauce we call "Lu" used extensively in old school Chinese
restaurants. It's basically a braising sauce/stock used as a base for many
hotpots, stewed & braised dishes. Many Chinese restaurant kitchens don't use
this now, they use stock cubes or ready made sauces etc. as it's too much
trouble to keep it going. Do a google for "Chinese master sauce" or "Lu
sauce". Gernot katzer's website on cassia
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/...?Cinn_cas.html has an
excellent description of the Lu sauce at the bottom of the page.

back to the OP(original post), i don't know the dish chicken& brocoli as it
sounds too vague to me & Chinese chefs are very inventive & always
substituting ingredients & making up new versions of dishes to suit local
tastes. So perhaps a little more info or description & we'll be able to nail
this recipe/sauce for you ; ) but i think it might be a version of the Lu
sauce with garlic added towards the end. If it is the Lu Master sauce, then
what most Chinese restaurants & takeaways do is blend LeeKumKee's Chinese
marinade & Chicken marinade & perhaps add a few final touches of their own
(like garlic) to create a *instant* master sauce. As of 2002, no Chinese
restaurants in the UK & EU are allowed to simmer the Lu Master sauce for
days on end like in the old days. So most have switched to using ready made
sauces like LKK brand. But the odd old mom & pop restaurants might still do
as they don't give a sh*t anyways, those are the ones i go to whenever i eat
out ; )

DC.

Chinese Sauces
 

> "Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
> ...
> <snip>
>> Then pick up some sesame oil, chili flakes in oil/chili paste,
>> rice vinegar, rice wine (Shao Hsing), dark and light soy sauces,
>> black (Chinkiang) vinegar, make some condensed chicken and seafood
>> sauces (or cheat and buy Minor's soup stock bases), cornstarch,
>> peanut oil, chili oil, chinese black beans... Garlic, ginger, star
>> anise, palm sugar, white pepper... I think that's about it. Did I
>> get carried away or forget anything? :-)
>
> i'd add spring onions, dried scallops, dried shrimps (incl. soaking water)
> to that list. For convenience & to save time, i also use LeeKumKee's Chinese
> marinade, Chicken marinade, Seafood marinade & CharSiu sauce. Other sauces &
> condiments i use include honey or rock sugar, tomato ketchup, fruit sauces
> or jams & HK styled XO sauce. These are common enough in a Southern
> Chinese/Cantonese kitchen. I also use fermented red & plain tofu,
> salted/fermented soya beans, ChouHou sauce, sweet bean paste, chilli bean
> paste, sesame paste, various pickled vegs. & dried peels like
> orange/tangerine for Sichuan & other regional Chinese foods, these are now
> slowly becoming popular in the West. For hotpots, braising, stews, roasts
> etc.. a bag of various spices incl. 5 spice or it's individual elements are
> used but that's going into a different area of cooking. Oh yes... various
> types of homemade flavoured oils/lards too.
>
> DC.
>
>
>
I'm new here too. Thanks to you and sw and others for the comprehensive list
of essential ingredients. Might anyone know of a good, inexpensive online
source for Chinese ingredients? There isn't a Chinatown anywhere in the
state where I live in and the supermarkets don't carry much. Fifteen years
ago I moved from New York City, where I had taken midnight access to dim sum
and rich, spicy dishes for granted. I've been aching for some real Chinese
food ever since but can't get my hands on the makings. Any assistance would
be appreciated.
Thanks,
vc