It occurred to me today, as I was making fried rice, that I’ve never shared my special sauce recipe with y’all. Allow me to apologize for being so rude! The following is a basic sauce recipe that I use for all of my stir fries, fried noodles, and fried rice. It doubles as a dipping sauce for dumplings.
The magic of the sauce comes from the fact that it combines all of the major taste sensations: salty (soy sauce, hoisin), sweet (hoisin), spicy (hot garlic sauce), sour (vinegar), and umami/savory (soy, sesame). The great thing about this sauce is its versatility: when you want sweet, amp up the hoisin. If you’re feeling spicy, turn up the chili sauce. For a more saucey-sauce, add some water and a tablespoon or two of corn starch (make sure you dissolve the corn starch in water before putting it into your dish!).
Since it seems weird to show you a picture of sauce, I thought I’d put up a photo of the fried rice I made. I’ll post the recipe for the rice soon!
Fried rice with carrots, broccoli, and eggs. Oh, and magic stir fry sauce, of course!
Jen’s all-purpose stir fry sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Hoisin (aka, plum sauce)
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce (I like chili garlic sauce, but any Asian hot sauce will do)
Note: for dumpling sauce, I like to add some freshly minced garlic.
July 7, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Give me that!
July 8, 2011 at 4:20 am
That’s a lot like mine! The only difference is that I replace the sesame oil with fish sauce.
July 8, 2011 at 9:36 am
YumYum. Thanks for sharing! I always forget vinegar, but sounds like it would kick up my sauces to a whole new level!