Homemade Bottled Stir Fry Sauce

 

Stir fry is my new fast food.  

Making a stir fry used to seem like an overwhelming task.  I may have spent only 10 minutes stirring and frying but I spent 40+ minutes doing all the prep work.  Hunting and gathering, cutting and marinating, measuring and mixing and making sure everything was ready to go at the right time.  And we won't talk about the time spent cleaning up afterwards!

I don't have time for that!  I'm a busy kid!

 And I'm like Veruca Salt, "I want it now!"

Hmm, sounds like a challenge to me.  How fast can I make a stir fry?

This required research.  I pulled out all of our Asian cookbooks and did Google searches.  I poured over recipes and studied tips and techniques.  Want to know what I learned?    

Following recipes is a huge suckage of time!  

Seriously.  First, you spend minutes perusing the recipe.  Then you waste more time fretting over the lack of specific ingredients and trying to come up with suitable substitutions.  And then you pull out all the ingredients, and start peeling and chopping and measuring and mixing.  And the sauce...  Oh, the sauce.... that requires collecting up a huge assortment of jars and bottles and  tablespoons of this and teaspoons of that and pinches and drizzles and lots of putzing around.  Then you have to put all that stuff away.  Yeah, I can see why it takes 40+ minutes!      

So I abandoned the stir fry recipes.  Yup.  I did.  Except for one.  A recipe for bottled stir fry sauce.  Making a single batch of sauce is time consuming but if you have a ready made sauce on hand, the rest comes together quickly. Sure, you can buy bottled sauce in the store but good luck finding one that's gluten free with a sodium content suitable for human consumption! 

This recipe is a combination of assorted recipes and makes about a pint of brown garlic sauce, enough for a 2-4 stir fries.   I use low sodium San-J GF Tamari and Less Sodium Kitchen Basics Stock.  It has good flavor without a lot of saltiness.

The rest of the stir fry... that's made with whatever we have on hand and it doesn't all have to be new food.  Leftovers, frozen, canned... it's all good!

 Stir Fry Sauce

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 3/4 cup low sodium GF chicken stock, divided  (*Pay attention!*)
• 1/3 cup tamari or GF soy sauce or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 1/3 cup rice wine or white wine or apple, orange or pineapple juice
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce or 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper or hot sauce (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Heat the cooking oil in a small pan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and ginger and saute, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add *1/2 cup of the chicken stock, the tamari, wine, sugar, sesame oil and sriracha.  Heat to a simmer and cook gently for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is simmering, combine the cornstarch with the remaining *1/4 cup chicken stock (were you paying attention?) and add to the sauce, stirring constantly and cook until the sauce thickens.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.  Cool and transfer to a glass jar.  Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Or freeze in smaller containers (1/4-1/2 cup).

Makes a little over 2 cups or enough sauce for 2 - 4 stir fries.