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Asian Sauces Can Pep Up Your Cooking

Thai peanut sauce

Asian sauces add zip to more than just Chinese dishes; they can pep up barbecue, chili, duck, chicken or broccoli. Chinese chefs use these off-the-shelf sauces in their kitchens, so you can, too.  Oyster sauce, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili paste, black bean sauce with garlic, plum sauce, satay sauce, sriracha: all of them keep well on the shelf or in the fridge. They'll serve as a condiment, a spice, or a marinade. 

Soy sauce can add salt to anything. (Light soy sauce doesn't contain sugar; dark soy sauce does.) Oyster sauce helps chili. Hoisin sauce works well with chicken; it's also good for marinating ribs. Mix hoisin sauce with water or wine, marinate the ribs, barbecue them, then reduce the sauce to transform it into a dipping sauce. Try barbecuing chicken and pork with satay or sriracha sauces.  Chili paste with garlic enhances broccoli; plum sauce goes well with duck and pork.

If you've just sauteed vegetables and stir-fried meat, and you're searching for the perfect way to marry their flavors, combine a tablespoon of chili sauce with garlic black bean sauce, oyster sauce, water, roasted sesame oil, peanut oil and corn starch. At the end of cooking, after you've combined the meat and the vegetables in the wok, toss them in this combo for one minute.

You can combine peanut, soy and black bean sauces, coat chicken thighs, cook them in a 350 degree F. oven for thirty minutes, and voila: it's a main dish.

 

(Broadcast: "The Food Guys," 11/11/18. Listen weekly on the radio at 11:50 a.m. Sundays, or via podcast.)

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