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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, March 12, 2008

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
An easily modified sauce base

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Columnist

 •  The tasteful truth about tomatoes
 •  Microwave ideas for using that vintage stir-fry sauce
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CHECK IT OUT:

To see recipes using the Stir Fry Sauce, go here.

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Readers helping readers helping readers — with The Advertiser as the conduit (and recipe tester) ... that's how this column works.

Some years ago we wrote a column answering a request for stir-fry sauce. Another reader responded not just with a sauce but with several recipes.

Last month Karen Crisler, a working mom, asked about a stir-fry sauce and Eleanor Henderson of Hilo came through with that old article.

And here's the base recipe. It's a little more complicated than some, with an interesting interaction of ingredients, but you can make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three weeks. It makes enough for four meals for four, since you use about a cup in each recipe.

Feel free to consider this a flexible platform on which to dance in a dozen ways: Use dashi, mushroom or even beef broth. Low-sodium soy sauce is OK. Use half-and-half corn syrup and molasses or the new darling of the sweetening world, agave (cactus) syrup (found in health-food stores). In place of sherry, try sweet vermouth, sake, shaoshing (Chinese cooking wine) or sauterne. Instead of cider vinegar, Filipino-style vinegars (made from cane sap, palm sugar or coconut) would be interesting. Add more or less garlic and ginger (and you can get away with simple slicing and smashing it instead of grating it, if you wish). And for ground red pepper (cayenne), you could use a small spoonful of chili sauce (either ginger-garlic sauce or sambal oelek — maybe even ko chu jang) or even, if you have them in your yard, a minced, seeded Hawaiian chili pepper or some chili pepper water. And, finally, you could use arrowroot instead of cornstarch.

STIR FRY SAUCE

  • 2 1/2 cups chicken broth

  • 1/2 cup soy sauce

  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup

  • 1/2 cup dry sherry

  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar

  • 2 garlic cloves, minced

  • 2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

  • 1/2 cup cornstarch whisked together with 6 tablespoons water to make a slurry

    In a 1 1/2 quart jar with a tight-fitting lid or other suitable container, combine all ingredients except cornstarch. Shake well. Whisk in cornstarch slurry. Shake again. Refrigerate.

    Per serving: 50 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 550 mg sodium, 10 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 7 g sugar, 1 g protein

    The original sender used this sauce in three different microwave dishes, but you could use a stovetop wok. In either case, work from the most dense ingredients (such as carrots) to the most delicate.

    Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

    For more information about our 150th anniversary cookbook, call 535-8189 (message phone; your call will be returned). You can order the cookbook online.

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