Conference turris::cooks

    These quantities are rough but...
    
    Make a sauce of;
    
    1/2 - 1 Cup Chicken stock
    2 - 4 Tbls Soy Sauce (light or dark)
    2 - 3 Tbls Dry Sherry
    1/4(wimp) to 1(BRAVE) tsp Sambal-olek(SP)  
    This is a paste of chili and garlic you can find in most Asian food
    stores.  I think it's Korean not Chinese.  HOT STUFF!!!!!!!! 
    
    Cook the chicken and remove from wok.  Cook the veggies.  Just before
    they are done add the sauce above and heat until simmering.  Add back
    the chicken and heat briefly.  Add a mixture of cornstarch and water
    to thicken the sauce.    

    Note: Quantities are approximate and should be adjusted to your tastes
    and/or capacity for sweating and eating at the same time.
    
    Oscar

For a slightly sweet, mildly spicy version, try adding a heaping tablespoon of 
Hoisin thinned just slightly with a splash of dry sherry (omit if there are 
juices in the dish).  Adding toasted cashews is an interesting twist.

For a spicy variation, add a heaping teaspoon of red chili paste to the oil 
when staring (if you cook by adding the ingredients to the wok).  Or add a bit 
of the amount to the oil for each ingredient if you fry each one separately.

For a switch from chicken, try using shrimp, or scallops, or chunks of 
swordfish, or lobster.

						     
							- JP

    My concoction consists of
      1/3 soy
      1/3 Rice Vinegar
      1/3 Rice wine (or sherry)
      1 slice diced fresh ginger
    
    When all veggies/meat coocked, push to sides of Wok and add the
    above....stir all together and serve...
    
    Now I kind of started with the above proportions but change them
    to taste.....theres a big difference between Rice vinegar and regular
    vinegar so that will change the taste....
    
    Happy eating
    
    Rick

    I use a lot of different things -- rarely the same combination twice.
    Most of the time I mix 'n' match from the following:
    
    Rice Vinegar
    Grated or minced fresh ginger
    Sesame oil
    Chili oil
    soy sauce
    sherry
    minced garlic
    
    Sometimes I add a little sugar, sometimes a little cornstarch.
    Sometimes I put slices of garlic or ginger or whole chili peppers
    in the oil to flavor it, and remove them before I add the main course.
    
    Experiment.  Have fun.  The worst thing that'll happen is you'll
    make something really good and not be able to duplicate it.
    
    Susie

    Try frying some raw peanuts (available in Chinese specialty stores)
    in sesame oil, then adding your chicken, vegetables, sauce, etc.
    It's delicious!
    

    This seems like an appropriate place for this question.  I've been
    stir-frying for a while, but I've found that soy sauce in the
    marinade/sauce seems to make the dish salty.  Is there a way to
    reduce the saltiness, or is it the brand of soy sauce that I am
    using?  I have tried a few brands, and it still seems to be the
    same.  Any help would be appreciated.
         
    Thanks,
    Cathy

re: -.1

Try a "light" soy sauce (less sodium) mixed 50-50 with rice wine...use
in place of soy sauce in recipes.  You can also mix it 50-50 with 
lemon juice and use it.  Reduces the salt, keeps the nice soy flavor.

    I use a stir fry sauce made up of
    
    	1 Tbsp soy sauce (you could use low salt soy)
    	1/4 cup sherry (not cooking sherry, but cheap regular sherry,
    			the cooking type has added salt)
    	1/4 cup broth (the real stuff, not the mix which is mainly salt)
    	a clove of garlic, crushed
    	a small piece of ginger, minced
    	[a tsp sugar or a little honey] and/or
    		[a few drops of chinese hot pepper sauce]
    
    Since I stir-fry without oil, I use this from the beginning of the
    process - often I make twice this amount.  At the end, I add
    	1 teaspoon corn-starch
    to the remaining liquid in my measuring cup, whisk until smooth,
    and pour that into the wok.  Cook until the sauce thickens.  I
    sometimes end up adding more seasonings to this mixture before I
    put it into the wok, if I taste the stir-fry and it needs some
    more.
    
    I vary the sweetness and hotness depending on the dish.  Sometimes
    I use rice wine instead of sherry.  Sometimes I add oyster sauce
    instead of the other seasonings.  Once you make up the original
    and get an idea of what it's like, you can vary the recipe and 
    thus vary your stir-fry quite a bit.

    Another way to reduce the amount of sodium is to use tamari. I
    have compared the amount of sodium in tamari and soy sauce (using
    the labels for comparison), and the tamari has less sodium.

    We try to cut back on sodium, too, so we don't make many stir-fry
    recipes that use soy sauce - it is not an automatic ingredient of
    most orinetal food the way some people think (even my doctor thought
    so).  Tamari doesn't taste very good compared to good Chinese soy
    sauce - but, then, I don't like most kinds of Japanese soy sauce
    anyhow, and most of them really taste salty.