My Top 10 Favorite Chinese Stir Fry Sauces
My Top 10 Favorite Chinese Stir Fry Sauces
My Top 10 Favorite Chinese Stir Fry Sauces

Ingredients

CLASSIC STIR FRY
2 oyster sauce
1 light soy sauce
1 sugar
0.25 Chinese sesame oil
pinch ground white pepper
MONGOLIAN
2 hoisin sauce
2 ground bean sauce
1 BBQ sauce
1 sweet chilli sauce
2 tomato sauce
1 Chinese sesame oil
CANTONESE
2 HP sauce
1 tomato sauce
0.5 Worchestershire sauce (Pick Me Up)
0.5 oyster sauce
0.5 Shaoxing rice wine
0.25 Chinese sesame oil
SWEET & SOUR
4 white vinegar
2 tomato sauce
0.5 Worchestershire sauce
2 pineapple juice
2 sugar
pinch of sea salt
SINGAPORE CHILLI
1 tomato sauce
1 sweet chilli sauce
0.25 oyster sauce
0.5 Shaoxing rice wine
splash of sesame oil
egg to thicken gravy
aromatics = fresh tomato, onion & ginger
GINGER SAUCE FOR CRAB OR LOBSTER
1 light soy sauce
1 sugar
1 Shaoxing rice wine
1 fish or chicken stock
pinch of ground white pepper
corn slurry to thicken
aromatics = green spring onion & fresh ginger
BLACK PEPPER
0.5 oyster sauce
0.5 light soy sauce
1 dark/mushroom soy
0.5 sugar
touch of sesame oil
aromatics = onion & fresh garlic
BLACK SWEET & SOUR (great with pork ribs)
1 Chinkiang black vinegar
3 sugar
0.5 Worchestershire sauce
0.5 light soy sauce
1 dark/mushroom soy
0.25 Chinese sesame oil
SATAY PEANUT
1 Jimmy brand sate sauce
1 crunchy peanut butter
0.25 sugar
0.25 light soy sauce
0.25 coconut milk
BLACK BEAN & GARLIC
1 LKK brand black bean and garlic sauce
0.25 oyster sauce
0.5 sugar
0.25 Shaoxing rice wine
splash of Chinese sesame oil
Any Chinese chef will tell you that the secret to a good stir fry or chop suey is the sauce. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami make up the five...

Method

1.Ingredient quantities are quoted as a ratio, so you can use a tablespoon or cup, so long as the recipe ratios are the same
2.Combine all sauces together and store in glass jar for later use

Any Chinese chef will tell you that the secret to a good stir fry or chop suey is the sauce. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami make up the five basic gustatory sensations that humans taste when eating. The Chinese have cleverly developed many sauces over the centuries made by fermenting beans and sometimes seafood. The base sauces you buy from Chinese stores are often salty and pungent and need to be combined with other condiments and sauces to find the perfect balance for your regional palate.

MY SECRET RECIPES

My Australian Chinese heritage has influenced my preferred flavours in Chinese stir fry, and include my favorite childhood sauces like tomato, Worchestershire, HP and BBQ sauce. This is a collection of my top 10 stir fry sauces I have been using in my restaurants and at home for the past 20 years. Just mix them together and keep them in a glass jar to use when ready. Most stir fry dishes will start with the aromatics on onion, ginger and/or garlic, followed by spices that may include peppercorns, Sichuan pepper, fermented black beans, cloves or star anise. This is followed by raw or pre-cooked meats and seafood, a good spoonful of sauce, and then finished with fresh vegetables.