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Secrets of Asian Cooking (Part 2-6)
Hoisin Sauce Would be the complement of oyster sauce. It brings a sweet tangy flavor made from fermented soybean paste. Different brands add different elements but I go with the "Lee Kum Kee" brand which adds garlic, vinegar and a little sesame oil. The most popular use these days is in Vietnamese Beef Pho along with Sriracha ands another dimension of flavor the beef pho. The other use is in Peking Duck. It's the sauce used in the steamed bun with duck breast and scallion. Sometimes referred as Asian Barbeque sauce, it's used to marinate all types of kabobs, or even a dipping sauce. But most of all it complements the oyster sauce whenever it is used. You could use sugar but Hoisin sauce offers additional elements. In Vietnamese Summer Spring Rolls, the Hoisin sauce is mixed with penut butter and coconut milk to make an excellent dipping sauce. Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com "Chef Woo Can" on YouTube also Secret of Asian Cooking
Today has never been easier to cook Asian dishes. Asian cooking involves a salty, sweet and spicy sauce. Whatever you cook, if you have a salty flavor, you need to complement it with a sweet flavor. If your have a spicy flavor, you'll need a sweet flavor. This flavor combination is the magic formula to a delicious deal. As for texture, as long as its crunchy, as we love crunchy foods, specifically fried food and with the popularity of an air fryer, the idea of crunchy is now grease and oil free. You may need to spray olive oil for a light coating but nothing compared to deep frying. Now I will introduce the sauces that you'll need to purchase: Oyster Sauce Oyster sauce was invented by accident by Mr. Lee Kum Kee who also has his own brand sauce company by the same name. He was experimenting on different flavors and used oyster extract mixed with soy sauce and sugar with cornstarch to thicken. He tasted it and was amazed by the unique flavor. He started marketing it and selling it locally and the reviews were excellent. He expanded this new sauce all over Asia and Southeast Asia. Now, oyster sauce is considered the "Ketchuo Of the Far East" It's considered a multipurpose sauce used in almost every dish in Asia. It's very salty and sweet but overall a mild flavor so, you just need a little bit to cook with. It's a brown color and one of the components of the famous "Brown Sauce" Now, there are so many brands of oyster sauce but I highly recommend "Lee Kum Kee" brand. What's showing up in the Western market chains is oyster sauce without any oysters in it? The manufacturers are catering to a certain clientele to sell massive quantities of product and they probably feel that 'oyster extract" might be a turnoff to many. Lee Kum Kee brand caters to Asians for highest quality oyster sauce. This is one sauce you'll need to purchase. It must be refrigerated so it will last for a very long time without going bad. Now to the key question, what dishes use this sauce: Beef & chicken w broccoli, pepper steak, kung pao chicken, General Tso's chicken (1 ingredient of a numer of other ingredients), black bean sauce, egg foo young to name a few. Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com Part 1 of 6 Public School Lunches USDA Compliance?
In my opinion, government is there to provide for the general welfare of its people. Plain and simple and we give them the authority to do what's right for us. I can't believe I said that, we actually put trust in our politicians to do the right thing? How silly can I be! As a family, we strive to give the very best to our kids. We want them to be well rounded individuals excelling scholastically or proficient in a vocational position. We do our very best to give them a good environment to thrive. It goes without saying they are our children, of course, why not? Well, it goes without say that being physically healthy, we provide the best meals we can do. We ship them off with a good breakfast every day, before they go to school. Our kids are subject to massive amounts of work, lectures and continuous testing all day. You would think that the 2nd most important meal of the day is lunch and we assume a big assume that they are being taken care of with a well- balanced meal. Whenever we use our brains, we use the vitamins and nutrients that fuel our ability to think correctly and replenish nutrients we lose every day we live. Our kids burn these nutrients faster being so active in school. Ok, unfortunately we assume they `are being fed a good meal and really it is the last item we are concerned about when it comes to school. Unless, your kid knows bad food when they see it and offer that observation during dinner hour. To feed the entire school system across the country and to have some government authority, the USDA is in charge. BUT, what does that exactly mean that the USDA will oversee this aspect of their operation? Well, for one from a nutritional standpoint, the USDA failed to provide a well balance lunch. Second, they outsource the suppliers to the lowest bidder when it comes to government contracts. Well, if you offer cheap, non nutritional food laden with fillers, inexpensive ingredients that are deemed unhealthy, the lowest bidder gets awarded the contract. The supplies make lots of money while providing subpar food to our kids. My daughter says the quality is so poor that she actually skips lunch. So, when she gets home she so hungry and by the time dinner comes, she's practically full. So, for me I can't just complain but I also offer a solution and here it goes. Decentralize the lunch program and allow the individual school jurisdiction take charge of how lunch should be made, thereby allowing more control at the local level. Suppliers will be local and followed with a designated chef that can bring to the table an assortment of various cuisines to our kids. A dietician can monitor calorie count and control what's good and bad for the kids. The local PTA would vote on issues concerning the kids lunches. The bottom line: Your tax dollars will be cheaper for a better and healthier meal during the day. Your children will feel so much better than always being tired. Their bodies will be more nourished with the proper nutrients for better learning. If you have anything to add, please feel free to offer a comment at www.chefwoocan.com By Chef Woo Can Beware of what your ordering when dining out!
The Pandemic has forced business to make some tough decisions to keep them afloat. Staying in business under these conditions is not only difficult and extremely frustrating, With compliance from city mandates to state requirements to common sense on how not to insult potential customers to protecting staff from unvaccinated individual and diners, its alot to follow. With supply chain fiasco, lack of personnel harvesting product to transporting produce to wholesalers then to retailers has been a challenging endeavor. What is a food entrepreneur to do? Customers yearn to go out to eat. Tired of ordering take out is not the same as fine dining. But fine dining establishments providing the best quality ingredients is costing so much more. What we are seeing now at an unbelievable level is seafood being mislabeled. Red Snapper on the menu might not be truly red snapper but a close cousin and being charged the red snapper price which as every knows, red snapper is endangered, therefore the price is very high. If you to order a fresh main lobster tail, it might not exactly be a Maine lobster tail and might not be exactly fresh. In actuality it might be frozen and thawed. but your paying the fresh lobster tail price. In this market at this time, a lot of retail restaurants are buying pre-packaged frozen goods, it's cheaper and for the most part, it taste just as good as fresh. Fresh is now a rare commodity. With supply interruptions, affecting business and inflation the highest in 40 years, going out to eat at a fine dining place if you can find one is challenging. So, for now, we might just have to bite the bullet for a little while until everything blows over. Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com |
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