Tuesday, October 22, 2013

In the Kitchen

I ran out of my favorite Asian-cooking sauce last week!  I love using Sweet Chili Sauce, but it was about $4 for a bottle, which I didn't want to fit into my grocery budget.  What to turn to but Google, right?  I found THIS Sweet Chili Thai Sauce recipe and decided to try it out.  I'm so glad that I did!  It turned out great.  Also, the ingredients were all in my cupboard, and this has to cost, at most, $.25 to make.  Woohoo to not buying expensive little jars!

I like to use it in a Pad Thai recipe that I use.  But I've also used it for Vegetable Stir Fry.  Try making a stir fry with rice and veggies, soy sauce, a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, some ground ginger, and a tablespoon or two of this sauce.  It'll add a great element to your meal.  Also, if I want to make an Asian dish that calls for noodles that I don't have, I use whole wheat angel hair pasta noodles.





I ended up scaling the recipe down to 9 servings (I'd saved the jar from my purchased sauce and wanted it to fit in the same jar), and per other reviewers, I made a few other changes. 

I doubled the cornstarch, left out two tablespoons of sugar, used 1/4 tsp dried crushed red peppers (the kind people usually sprinkle on their pizza), used a heaping 1/4 tsp dried ground ginger as I didn't have fresh, and reserved two tablespoons of water to allow the cornstarch to dissolve while the sauce was simmering for five minutes.  This helped prevent clumping.

Also, the directions only say to stir in the cornstarch.  This isn't very clear!  You need to keep the pan over heat and stir quickly with a whisk as you drizzle the cornstarch/water mixture in.  Continue whisking until the sauce thickens to a pre-set pudding consistency.  THEN remove from heat and allow to cool, then store in the refrigerator.

All of these changes made for an awesome sauce!  Someday I'll make it as the recipe calls for, which is my general rule.  Ha!  

Have you used Sweet Chili Thai Sauce?  What dishes do you use it in?

2 comments:

  1. Well I might just try this. I usually buy Blue Dragon brand but as you say gets expensive. If we're all eating we could easily use a whole bottle. Did you see the recipe for sweet and sour sauce that followed? If you like plum sauce I have used the recipe from Prudent Homemaker and it is delicious. I made a second batch as we used one jar (1/2 pint) with a batch of egg rolls. The recipe is the one in the Ball Blue Book. Also that plum sauce recipe is spicy so could substitute for the Thai chili sauce.

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    1. Thanks for the tips about the plum sauce, as well as the sweet and sour sauce, Athanasia! I hadn't noticed the sweet and sour, and I'd forgotten about the Prudent Homemaker post about the plum sauce. Thanks for the review! I'd love to can a batch to keep in the cupboard. Hmmm. I wonder if I can find some plums on sale. Homemade egg rolls and plum sauce sounds delicious!

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