Tell me how to make some awesome stir fry sauce

Reznik

I have the following ingredients for the main stir fry:

-beef strips
-broccoli
-cauliflower
-green pepper
-carrots
-mini-corn

It will be served with rice.

Usually I just use soy-sauce or some kikkoman stir-fry powder. I've added honey sometimes which is pretty tasty. I'm not much of a cook so it pretty much tastes the same all the time. I'd like to try something a little different with the sauce. Suggestions please!

Chanus

Roughly:

1/2 Cup Soy
1/2 Cup Mirin (sweet Rice Wine)
2 Tbsp Pineapple Juice
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil


You can buy Mirin at any grocery store that has a "Chinese Food" or "International Foods" section.

Chanus

<Can't edit, sorry for double post>

That's a pretty basic teryaki-style sauce. If you want to play around with that, try adding a little ginger or peanut butter. To add the peanut butter, mix everything together and heat it up so you can stir it together before adding to your wok.

If you like spicy, add some Sriracha or Chili Garlic (can be found in the grocery store).

ascannerlightly

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,stir_fry_sauce,FF.html

SeñorAmor

I mix brown sugar with soy sauce for my stir fry sauce. Easy and it tastes amazing.

Niceguy Myeye

Sriracha sauce - It's a hot sauce, so use it if you like spicy things.

Also, sage and cayenne pepper go pretty well with soy sauce. I often just put those in with soy sauce for stir fry. Or just add sage if you don't like spicy.

The Crowing One

I'm no cook, but when my partner makes stirfry, a tablespoon of ginger juice makes all the difference in the world.

Ginger juice, you may ask? Just grate ginger and squeeeze out the juice. Easy.

Mr Blonde

Almost equal parts of Hoisin Sauce and Oyster sauce (slightly more Hoisin sauce). Absolutely delicious.

Don't forget to mince some garlic and waterchest nuts.

Chanus

Ah yes, Hoisin! I knew I forgot something.

EggyToast

For the rich & savory with a hint of sweet, there's this stuff you can get called "thick soy sauce." It's soy sauce and molasses, essentially, which is also how you'd "fake it" at home. I personally would use molasses over, say, brown sugar, because you may not want the sweetness from sugar -- just the savory.

Also, most of these sauces are added at the end. If you want it to be thicker, mix some corn starch & water (v. little water, so it's thick but not chunky) and drop that in.

jeddy lee

Niceguy Myeye wrote: »

Sriracha sauce - It's a hot sauce, so use it if you like spicy things.

Also, sage and cayenne pepper go pretty well with soy sauce. I often just put those in with soy sauce for stir fry. Or just add sage if you don't like spicy.

All hail Sriracha!

Seriously though, mix some of this, some honey, some soy and some sesame oil, add salt, pepper a dash of cumin and you'll be set to go.

i n c u b u s

Careful with the hoisin, I agree that its a great ingredient but I find too much can really ruin a dish because it can overpower the other flavors in your sauce and ingredients. I usually like to experiment until I get something that tastes great. Ingredients to use in your search should be but def not limited to:
-Soy sauce
-Hoisin
-Mirin (another not too much ingredient!)
-sesame oil
-sugar
-corn starch (as a thickening agent if you want the sauce to stick to your food instead of being soupy)
-teriyaki
-ginger (I like it freshly grated)
-Garlic
-green onions (finly chopped as a garnish)

Reznik

tasty sounding suggestions in here. thanks.

I've got enough to make probably two meals, so I'll do a bit of experimenting. Going to have to go out and get some hoisin and oyster sauce. I'm not too big a fan of spicy stuff (I like it on occasion) but I'll show that sriracha to my dad since he loves spicy stuff.

I think most of the rest of the stuff I have on hand. awesome.

ihmmy

and lime juice
ginger, lime and soy sauce (I like kikkoman brand)

shutz

It's probably not as good with beef as it is with chicken, but here's something very different you might like:
- yellow curry powder (the regular kind you can get at the grocery store, anything else might be a little too spicy/hot for your taste)
- garlic
- salt, or something salty like soy sauce, or even better, Tamari sauce (real-brewed soy sauce, instead of the VH stuff... tastier, and usually not quite as salty)
- something sour/acidic, such as lemon or lime juice, or whatever kind of vineagar you have on hand... use only a small amount, this should just serve to underscore the other flavors
- something sweet, either sugar, honey... use only a small amount: again, this is just to balance things out and underscore the other flavors

I know this isn't a proper recipe. I guess the main thing to keep in mind here is not to be afraid to experiment, as long as you only add a little of each spice, herb or other flavoring at a time.

When I was starting out with cooking for myself, I would just go through all the spices and herbs in my mom's spice rack, smell each in turn, and add a little of the ones that I thought would work with what I was doing. That's how I found out that curry powder (or even curry paste!) is good in a tomato-based pasta sauce.

One way to experiment with seasonings without risking too much is to just cook a pack of ramen noodles, straining, and then adding in whatever seasonings you want to try. At worst, it'll be inedible, and you're only out a cheap ramen packet and some seasonings, and at best, you end up with a great new side-dish. I sometimes use the seasoning packet that comes with the ramen noodles as my basis, adding other things. For instance, I found that the Spicy Chicken flavor I get at my supermarket tastes great when I add some vietnamese fish sauce (clear, sweet liquid with some crushed chilies soaking in it) and a little Tamari sauce.

Reznik

Stir fry round 1 was a success. Brown sugar shall now be a fairly regular ingredient. I really like how it thickens up the sauce and makes it stick to everything.

Stir fry round 2 will be with chicken. I'll do a bit more experimenting with this one.

We only have a little shaker of powdered ginger, though. How big of a difference will this make to suggestions involving ginger?

Chanus

Reznik wrote: »

We only have a little shaker of powdered ginger, though. How big of a difference will this make to suggestions involving ginger?

Unless you have a fairly refined palate you wont notice a huge difference in taste.

TaGuelle

powdered ginger is mainly good for aroma, if you want flavor, go for the real deal.

Enc

1 part Rice vinegar
5 parts Soy sauce
3 parts Sake/Mirin (I like to use Genshu style sake over mirin)
1 part Brown sugar

For spice:
1/2 tsp chopped dried red chilli peppers (a little goes a long way with these, expect one dired asian chili pepper to make a cooked sauce quite spicy, and two or three to burn even the most desensitized tongue)

Heat it in a sauce pan until the sugar has completely dissolved. If you want a thicker sauce use corn syrup instead of brown sugar (usually not preferred for stir fry as it overpowers your veggies and meat flavors, though a lot of our fast food Chinese places tend to have thick sauces).

I use parts because I cook by sight, and your mileage may vary on how sour/spicy/sweet you want your sauce.

If you plan on using rice, I have a fun recipe you can try:
While cooking in your rice cooker or kettle, mix in a packet of Oden (a type of bonito flake seasoning available in most asian markets) and a leaf/sheet of nori (finely shredded) into the water, as the rice cooks, prepare a very small amount of rice vinegar, a little salt, and a little white sugar. Once the rice is cooked (it should be slightly tan from the Oden) and no longer wet (but fluffy!), mix in the vinegar until the rice grains look shiny. You shouldn't need more than a table spoon per cub of cooked rice. I's reccomend using this recipe with short grain (glutinous) rice (aka sushi rice).

Zsetrek

Here's one that's great with bitter greens & tofu:

Shaoshin wine to deglaze
Soy
Oyster Sauce
Some kind of chilli sauce - XO sauce is great, if you can get it/be arsed making it, otherwise sweet chilli works fine. You may not need the oyster sauce if you use XO sauce.
Sugar, if it needs it

Also. I normally add my diced ginger/garlic at the sauce stage, too, rather than with the vegetables. It means the garlic doesn't burn, and become bitter.

exmello

Oyster Sauce sounds gross in concept, but it's a magic ingredient that makes everything taste like Chinese takeout.

jeddy lee

Oh, I also can't reccomend bean sprouts enough. That shit be amazing in stir fry.

i n c u b u s

jack eddy wrote: »

Oh, I also can't reccomend bean sprouts enough. That shit be amazing in stir fry.

I second this suggestion 100%, also personally the powdered ginger is nothing like the real deal but thats just me. In fact I found it was easier to over do the ginger if I used the powder.