Top Five Asian Ingredients

I was reading yesterday's 5@5 article on eatocracy (top 5 Asian Ingredients)
And I thought I'd add my own personal ingredients I always keep in stock.

I guess a more accurate term for this list would be 調味料 (choumiryou) - flavoring, seasoning.

1. Must start with the traditional Japanese flavors: soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), and sake.

Adjusting the ratios of these three (with minor additions of some salt or sugar), you can create a wide variety of traditional, home-style Japanese dishes. The nice thing about these three ingredients is, in my opinion, their simplicity. They can really highlight the natural flavors of ingredients - kind of like the salt and pepper of Western cuisine. You can also begin to create layers of flavor with these base ingredients.

For example:
you can try adding some ginger (one of my favorite ingredients to work with).
Butter and soy sauce work surprisingly well
Addition of sesame oil for taste and the aroma
And of course, with the proper use of dashi (Japanese stock... many various kinds that I am not even close to mastering... for the easy way out, just use Hondashi) and right ratios, you can marry these simple seasonings with fresh ingredients and create a dish with flavors of subtlety and depth.

2. Secret ingredient for some delicious Chinese flavors: Wei Pa (味覇 ウェイ・パァー）

Wei Pa : Chinese soup stock (condensed paste form)

This ingredient here is a life-saver. Just stir-fry some garlic, ginger, vegetables, and add a spoonful of this magic (careful! can be salty!) and you'll really get some tasty and light "Chinese" flavor. You can stiir in a a bit of potato starch/hot water to thicken the sauce. Mix things up a bit by adding a little bit of oyster sauce, maybe some XO sauce, or add some chinese five spice - really, just experiment!

You can also put this in hot water for some soup - maybe add some chicken or pork belly. I added some chicken wings and shiitake mushrooms in my last soup.

3. Citrus-vinegar infused soy sauce: Ponzu
It's light, refreshing, and has endless possibilities. Mix with some spicy sesame oil for a dumpling sauce. Use as a light dipping sauce for hot pot or tofu. My mother covers chicken wings with this and maybe some extra salt on top then grills or throws the meat in the oven for a quick and easy dish. I like to boil and cut some okra then top it with bonito flakes and ponzu. You can even buy some yuzu-flavored ponzu. Also delicious

4. Sesame oil
The aroma of garlic and ginger sizzling in some sesame oil - yum. Also, drop some sesame oil on a dish after it's done cooking (any stir-fry, fried rice) for some rich aroma.

5. Cilantro
Japanese surprisingly don't cook with a lot of herbs, but I feel that most other Asian/Southeast Asian dishes go so well with cilantro. Seriously, I love cilantro so much that I can just eat it plain, even. I feel bad for the population of people that have an aversion to this wonderful herb.
But yes, anything with a hint of Chinese flavor, I'll throw in some cilantro if I have any. 



I have a wide variety of other seasonings with which I like to experiments: fish sauce, XOjan (Youki's XO sauce), to ban jan (spicy miso sauce), oyster and mushroom sauce, black and yellow bean sauce, hoisin sauce, kepap manis. Perhaps I'll dedicate another post to these.

My beautiful cats - RIP Kabo