Taste of Sunshine Stir Fry Sauce

Welcome our newest contributor to the Idea Land blog, Zoe Bevers! Zoe lives in Orlando, Florida where she works at a law firm. During her free time she enjoys the outdoors, going on bike rides, creative cooking and DIY. She has some great ideas to share and we are excited for her to join our blog community!

Upon picking up everything and moving across the country, I made the conscious choice that I would be cooking more meals and being more creative with my ingredient choices. I wanted to substitute anything I could find for red meat and the fattier animal products I was used to eating. A large part of my sustainable transformation is Asian inspired cuisine.

To me, the many facets of Soy Sauce, has been the best discovery in this journey- it’s a tremendous way to add savory flavor to your vegetables and never miss the meat! I experimented with different green vegetables, root vegetables, cabbages, and mushrooms. However, countless visits to the local Chinese food restaurants would put my dishes to shame. I wanted hot and spicy, as well as savory and sweet. I started browsing the many Asian Food Markets in my neighborhood; glancing into shopping carts, listening in on conversations and following around fellow shoppers from a –borderline- comfortable distance. I found that there are a few basic ingredients that I was sorrowfully missing, and would be the basis for any route I wanted to proceed, in Asian cooking. The mixture that I’ve come up with needs only subtle nudges in different directions to render me notably different flavors in what I prepare.

This sauce is meant to be used throughout the cooking of your dish. I add 2-4 tbsps to start cooking my heartier vegetables like onions, carrots, pea-pods and asparagus (or if you choose to add chicken, beef, etc.), then when adding in the lighter variety like cabbage, baby corn and peppers, I’ll use another 2tbsps. Shake the bottle before every dash!

Depending on what sort of bottle you intend to use, the amounts will vary. My measurements are based on a 2:3 ratio sesame oil to soy sauce, and 1:1 ratio garlic to ginger.

Ingredients:
• 2 cups sesame oil
• 3 cups soy sauce
• 1/8 cup Garlic, minced
• 1/8 cup ginger root (Choose between slicing and mincing. Slicing will keep the ginger pieces in the bottle so you won’t bite into chunks, if that’s distasteful- sounds wonderful to me!)
• To taste- dried, then sliced, red peppers. (I like spicy, so I add about 2 inch-long peppers per ½ cup)
• To taste- white sugar (When you aim to achieve a sweeter taste, closer to a teriyaki flavor. Melt the sugar in the soy sauce and cool to room temperature before adding to your sauce.)

* When giving as a gift go heavy on the sesame oil (this is an item not everyone uses, or knows about), and moderate with everything else; unless you know your recipients specific tastes. Match the ginger amount to the garlic amount to raise the intensity of flavor- without lending too much credit to either.
**Keep this sauce refrigerated for up to 3 months.

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Zoe (64 Posts)

Zoe is born and bred in Portland, Oregon and recently moved to Orlando, Florida. She studied sociology and philosophy at University of Oregon, and is currently employed at a law firm. Presently, she devotes her time to being lost in the tropical vegetation of her backyard, sun-scorched bike rides, repurposing everything she can think of, quirky cooking, and promoting the creative lifestyle that she loves.