Chinese vegetables in ... sauce

[jkim]

Does anyone know the recipes for the sauces for chinese stir-fried? vegetables that are commonly available at chinese restaurants around melbourne?

I'm interested in the "snow pea sprouts in garlic sauce" garlic sauce recipe.

I looked on the internet, but they use sugar, thai sweet chilli sauce and oyster sauce in their garlic sauce... which i think sounds like a different recipe than the flavour I'm referring to.

[Keith_W]

Umm, I usually wing it. The common ingredients used for sauces to go with veggies cooked Chinese style are:

- oyster sauce

- garlic

- Shaoxing rice wine

- chicken stock cubes

- cornflour

For example, to make the sauce for "spinach with century eggs", you make a cup of chicken stock with the chicken stock cubes, then add dried whitebait, goji berries, and fried garlic.

I make my sauce for "stir fried spring vegetables" by adding oyster sauce to a 50/50 mix of rice wine and water, with some chicken stock cubes and cornflour as thickener. The veggies are then fried with ... garlic.

You can alter the proportions of each ingredient to come up with different sauces. Or add other elements such as egg white and so on.

Cooking veggies Chinese style is really simple!

[jkim]

Thanks for the response, but I'm looking for 1 particular recipe which Chinese restaurants around Melbourne commonly use.

It's the one with the bits of garlic visible, and no other sauce apparent... apart from a light film of shiny slightly yellow tinged liquid?

Usually it's done on snow pea sprouts, but sometimes on Chinese broccoli.

Many Melbourne restaurants give the option of the dark oyster sauce OR this sauce when ordering vegetables.

[djyee100]

It's the one with the bits of garlic visible, and no other sauce apparent... apart from a light film of shiny slightly yellow tinged liquid?

If it's the same sauce I'm thinking of, it's sauteed garlic (not browned), a tiny bit of soy sauce, probably some stock, and a cornstarch & water thickener. What does your sauce taste like? Just garlicky?

If you can get your hands on this book, try looking in James Peterson's Sauces. There's a section with a slew of basic Asian sauces, and yours might be in there.

[Shalmanese]

If you can get your hands on this book, try looking in James Peterson's Sauces. There's a section with a slew of basic Asian sauces, and yours might be in there.

Calling it a slew is pushing it. I count a total of 3 recipes and 5 pages devoted to Chinese sauces in a 700 page book!

In Barbara Tropp's Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, there's a recipe for Spinach in Charred Garlic Sauce (pg 305).

It involves first charring the garlic in peanut oil before adding spinach, salt & sugar and that's it.

I suspect, whatever the recipe of your mystery sauce is, the secret ingredient is MSG.

[djyee100]

Calling it a slew is pushing it. I count a total of 3 recipes and 5 pages devoted to Chinese sauces in a 700 page book!

... I suspect, whatever the recipe of your mystery sauce is, the secret ingredient is MSG.

My post did say Asian sauces, not specifically Chinese sauces, and there is a more sizable section of Asian sauce recipes in that book. Asian sauces bear some similarity. I thought looking thru the entire chapter might help Jkim reconstruct this particular garlic sauce.

As far as MSG goes, I couldn't say.

Jkim, if we're thinking about the same sauce, I ate it with green vegs like Asian broccoli and snowpeas when I visited China. It was very good, and popular with our group. I thought it was a simple sauce, and my post gives my best guesstimate about the ingredients. If you are a regular at a restaurant where this dish is served, perhaps simply ask them what's in the sauce?

[RunBe4UFly]

they have a hot wok that gives the ingredients a distinct flavor that can not be created by any chicken cube or sauce. The restaurant wok has been used for all kinds of dishes, and it has its unique flavor without any additional help. Next time, burn your wok to 400F+ and stir fry some simple vegi and you will see how different it comes out comparing to using a non-stick fry pan.