Asian-style Sauce

Professional chefs quickly develop a range of sauces that they use for doing this, and many of them are very good. I created this particular sauce for a 'Thai-style' evening in a local hotel and it worked very well. You can, of course, vary it as much as you like.

Ingredients

1/2 tbs sesame oil
1 tsp minced ginger
1 crushed clove garlic
1 tbs finely chopped lemon grass
1 tsp curry paste
1 level tbs palm sugar (you could use brown)
1 chopped chili, including seeds
juice and zest of 1 lime
125ml (1/2 cup) tomato juice
1 tbs chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)

Method
Heat a wok or heavy pan, add the sesame oil and stir fry the ginger, garlic and lemon grass for 2 minutes.

Stir in the curry paste, sugar and chili. Stir fry until you feel a choking sensation in your throat. Yes, really! This means the chili has released its fragrant oil. It will take less than a minute.

Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the rest of the ingredients. Stir and leave to cool.

The sauce can be used hot or cold, either as a dipping sauce or as an addition to meat dishes.

For fish, add half a tablespoon of fish sauce at the same time as the curry paste. If you prefer a milder sauce, discard the seeds of the chili before adding it.

The sauce will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks and will improve by keeping overnight before using.

First published on Qassia