Sauce

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)

June 2, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Before making this recipe, I questioned using fish sauce in a way that didn’t involve heating it up before eating. I had never eaten fish sauce “raw” but I thought I would give this recipe a shot. Nuoc Cham is a simple dipping sauce made with chilis, garlic, lime juice and of course fish sauce. When all of those ingredients combine it results in a surprisingly mild sauce (and no food poisoning!). It was perfect for the grilled lemongrass chicken and I bet it would be great with spring rolls too.

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Cashew Butter Dipping Sauce

June 1, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

I came across a recipe for this Vietnamese-style cashew dipping sauce over at Steamy Kitchen. It looked awesome so I knew I had to give it a try. I ended up doing a few things differently from the original recipe but it turned out really well! You could easily change the sauce’s flavor by using peanut butter to use with other recipes. I used chili oil and sriracha to change things up a bit and I thought it tasted great! My favorite part was the combination of the garlic and hoisin sauce with the cashew butter. It was a match made in heaven!

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Gochujang (Korean Red Pepper Paste)

March 31, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Gochujang is a fermented chili paste made from red pepper powder and is used in a lot of Korean dishes. The great thing about this recipe is that it makes a lot and can be stored for up to a year in the refrigerator. It isn’t too hard to make, but it does take some time to acquire the right ingredients. I could not find soybean flour/powder at the local grocery store so I bought it at an asian market instead. Malt powder is the same thing as “malted milk powder” which can be found at the grocery store. Glutinous rice powder is the same as rice flour and I bought the “mochiko” brand which worked nicely. I am letting the jars sit out in the sun for a few days to ferment and age properly. Right away, the gochujang had a nice spicy and sweet flavor so I can only expect it to get better with age.

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Spinach Pesto

October 14, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

I was craving penne pasta the other night but I wanted to do something different than a tomato or cream sauce. I decided to go with a pesto sauce and I was not disappointed with the results! This pesto recipe has a light creaminess with just a hint of mint and walnuts. I threw in a little crumbled feta for extra creaminess. It was great on pasta and I would imagine it would be tasty on panini sandwiches as well. Since I don’t have a food processor I used a standard blender which worked fine.

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Chile Verde Pork Quesadillas

September 11, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

I am lucky to live in an area with such a wide availability of ingredients used in tex-mex recipes. My local grocery store, for example, has a 4 ft deep box full of tomatillos, tomatoes, and every pepper both fresh and dried on display. Ever since I tried salsa verde I have been a huge fan of its sweet and sour flavor and how good it tastes on pork, chicken, fish, etc. Because of its versatility I can enjoy it on a lot of different Mexican dishes. My favorite cut of meat lately has been pork shoulder, which cooks so nicely on low heat over a few hours. I buy a larger weight and double my salsa verde recipe so I can have lots of leftovers too! The quesadillas were super tasty and not too difficult to throw together.

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Korean BBQ Sauce

August 18, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

This all purpose BBQ sauce is great for sandwiches, marinades, and grilling. It has a nice balance between spicy, tangy and sweet with some added nutty flavor from the roasted sesame seeds.

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Penne with Vodka Sauce

July 16, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

This dish required a technique I had never tried before–flambe. Flambeing alcohol involves setting the alcohol on fire in a saute pan until it burns out. What’s leftover is all the aroma and flavor of the vodka, without all of the alcohol. The vodka is the critical component of this dish because it reacts with the sauce and brings out the flavor of the tomatoes. I have tried this dish before without the flambe technique and I like the results of flambeing a lot better. I have also tried this dish with bacon instead of pancetta, but I have come to prefer the pancetta. Lots of vodka sauces are pale pink but I only put 1/2 cup cream in the sauce so mine was a pale brick red instead. I prefer the darker sauce–I think the cream can mask the flavor of the tomatoes. I topped the pasta with a little grated parmesan and basil.

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Crab Cakes with a Creole Brown Butter Sauce

June 19, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

This recipe for making crab cakes is really easy to follow and delicious! The key to making good crab cakes is using as little bread crumbs as possible. I would handle these as delicately as possible when forming them so they don’t break apart. Other recipes recommend chilling them for an hour before cooking to keep them from falling apart. Make sure not to have the pan too hot or too dry because it can burn the outside and create a big mess. For the sauces, I made a basic cocktail sauce and John whipped up a creole butter sauce that was really good too!

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Baby Bok Choy in a Lemongrass and Ginger Soy Sauce

June 6, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

As a side dish to the Char Siu, I created this easy and flavorful bok choy recipe. It’s pretty simple since all you do is steam the bok choy and then stir fry it in garlic and the sauce for a few minutes. There are lots of variations and you can use all sorts of seasonings and sauces for baby bok choy. This dish went nicely with the pork and complimented its flavors. Bok choy tastes like a cross between broccoli and cabbage, and would be a great addition to stir-fries.

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Tzatziki (Greek Cucumber Salad)

March 13, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Tzatziki is a Greek appetizer made from strained yogurt, cucumber and garlic. It’s also used as a condiment on gyros and other Greek foods.Tzatziki has a cooling effect similar to sour cream. To give it some extra flavor, dill, mint, and lemon juice are also added. I didn’t have any mint leaves around but I did have some mint extract so I used a drop of that in the Tzatziki. I was surprised at how nicely that worked out! The mint extract gave it a subtle, minty after taste. I only put in one drop so it would be easy to over do it.

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