Asian sauces - sweet and sour etc

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Thanks much for this!

I also use the traditional velveting techinique, especially when stir-frying tough cuts of beef.    That involves making a thick slurry of corn starch, soy sauce, water, and sesame oil.   It should be thick enough that it's difficult the run your finger through it.    Everybody has their own taste buds, so you have to find your own level.   Then you marinate the beef or chicken in this for at least 1/2 hour.   Longer is often better for tough cuts of meat.    

Let the excess drip off, but don't pat it dry and lay them in the hot oil.   I like avocado oil.    Turn after a bit to brown on both sides.   This makes super tender food out of beef, chicken, pork what have you.  I usually stir-fry the proteins first, set them aside, and do the vegies and then recombine.    My go-to sauce is made of brown sugar, soy sauce, minced garlic and ginger, sesame oil, pepper, a little Cayanne, and some citrus, usually lime juice.

Thank you for teaching us your velveting technique

[putnam6]

Fish sauce is usually just oil and salt i believe but I do sometimes add some rice vinegar and sugar to it, then melt it with butter, and pour it over my sticky rice when I am rolling sushi

I don't know, but it's used in Thai food a lot There's a Thai Beef recipe, and the sauce is fish sauce-based, and it's off the charts a little ginger, garlic, chili oil fish sauce soy, something else. It's salty but addicting as hell, works as a dumpling sauce and I think its used in the dressing used in Nam Tok and other salads

https://clockworklemon.com/fish-sauce-vs-soy-sauce/

[ReturnofBroccoli]

You know what I want to know? What is that orange/pinkish cream sauce they put on takoyaki balls! I want to make that so bad its so sweet

[argentus]

Whenever I get out the microplane and mince fresh ginger it turns out awesome. But peeling it is a hassle! Does anyone know if you can mince a whole root at a time and maybe like freeze the leftover? Or put it in a jar in the fridge? How long does it keep?

I have minced a gob of ginger and once froze it.   It worked out just fine.   Usually I will do a lot of it and either pickle it or store it with olive oil in a jar in the fridge.   I "peel" it with a spoon, and I'm not fussy about missing a few bits;  using a very sharp knife still sacrifices too much of the ginger, imo.   I'm not certain "peeling" is the right term.  What I do is more like vigorous scraping, and it doesn't take long to do a whole root section.

[argentus]

I don't know, but it's used in Thai food a lot There's a Thai Beef recipe, and the sauce is fish sauce-based, and it's off the charts a little ginger, garlic, chili oil fish sauce soy, something else. It's salty but addicting as hell, works as a dumpling sauce and I think its used in the dressing used in Nam Tok and other salads

https://clockworklemon.com/fish-sauce-vs-soy-sauce/

traditional fish sauce is fermented anchovies, salt, water.   Nasty, nasty stuff, unless combined with other things and then it miraculously becomes wonderful.    I consider it to be UWEC:  Use With Extreme Caution.    I have used it successfully in some recipes, but don't have a good enough handle on it to want to keep it in stock.

[argentus]

You know what I want to know? What is that orange/pinkish cream sauce they put on takoyaki balls! I want to make that so bad its so sweet

I have not heard of takoyaki balls until this moment, however I just now came across this recipe.   I used to eat calamari, in fact loved it, and enjoyed octopus, until one day I had an encounter with an octopus in a tidal pool.   I was hunting octopus (called Sea Cat where I live), to use for bait and I saw a small one in a tidal pool.   I approached it with a spear and it backed up, but didn't flee.   I backed up, and it moved toward me.   We did this dance back and forth for a bit;  I was amazed at its ability to measure distance.    I rushed it, and it squirted a jet of water out of the sea that landed near me and startled me.   You can believe the following or not:   I jumped back when it did that, and it moved its tentacles rapidly in what I could only think of as "jazz hands".   I think it was laughing.   I left it alone.   I considered it too intelligent to cut up for bait. 

I have since been in the water at night and had encounters with squid where they moved close to my mask where we were eye-to-eye and have the same impression of them.    I don't eat squid and calamari any more.

[putnam6]

traditional fish sauce is fermented anchovies, salt, water.   Nasty, nasty stuff, unless combined with other things and then it miraculously becomes wonderful.    I consider it to be UWEC:  Use With Extreme Caution.    I have used it successfully in some recipes, but don't have a good enough handle on it to want to keep it in stock.

Im not suggesting to use it liberally like ketchup, just it's used quite a bit in Thai food, which I love, and last time I looked, Thailand was still considered Asian.

https://susiecooksthai.com/thai-beef-jer...an-recipe/

[ReturnofBroccoli]

I have not heard of takoyaki balls until this moment, however I just now came across this recipe.   I used to eat calamari, in fact loved it, and enjoyed octopus, until one day I had an encounter with an octopus in a tidal pool.   I was hunting octopus (called Sea Cat where I live), to use for bait and I saw a small one in a tidal pool.   I approached it with a spear and it backed up, but didn't flee.   I backed up, and it moved toward me.   We did this dance back and forth for a bit;  I was amazed at its ability to measure distance.    I rushed it, and it squirted a jet of water out of the sea that landed near me and startled me.   You can believe the following or not:   I jumped back when it did that, and it moved its tentacles rapidly in what I could only think of as "jazz hands".   I think it was laughing.   I left it alone.   I considered it too intelligent to cut up for bait. 

I have since been in the water at night and had encounters with squid where they moved close to my mask where we were eye-to-eye and have the same impression of them.    I don't eat squid and calamari any more.

That might be the coolest story I've ever heard! Do you have any more like that lol I imagined the jazz hands and the octopus laughing that was great!

Growing up, my parents were scuba divers. *also zoologists* I was too. * scuba diver not zoologist* it was like 20-25 years ago but they use to go to Costa Rica a lot there were islands around there and deep out under the sea there are HUGE creatures. Dinosaur size squids and other sea creatures with eyeballs as big as your living room. The ocean is an amazing place. I miss those days. I once saw a Tuna as big as a cow. I swear we ate for like a month off that tuna.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Oh also, the sauce on the takoyaki balls I'm talking about is not the takoyaki sauce its an orange pink looking cream I've never seen it on anything else ever ill post a picture!

[ReturnofBroccoli]

See the takoyaki sauce is there yes, but the cream almost looks like hollandaise i have no idea what it is but I'm suspecting it might be okonomiyaki sauce or bull dog sauce, but mixed with some kind of cream because its not liquid